Greetings!
Greetings!
Jarabi has been with me since I first heard it in 2001 on the recording "Kaira" by Toumani Diabaté.
I first tried to play it ten years later, making a transcription which "followed the guitar" and which I recorded on the album "One Night on Earth." The transcription used the version from "Kaira," but also drew heavily on his later rendition of it renamed Cantelowes (after the London street that the producer of many of his albums, Lucy Duran, lives in).
Since this time I have returned to the original recording, again ten years later, and made the score we will explore in this course. It pushes the guitar a little more, replicating the intricate kora lines of Toumani's original.
You can hear this version on my recent recording called "Toumani's Jarabi 1987" available on all streaming platforms (and attached here).
Take the lessons lightly. Aim to do them all rather than perfect each one. Look out the window while you play along. DOn't try to make a perfect Jarabi. Don't hurry. This is a piece you will play for many many years.
And if you need to change something to make it easier, do it! I do this all the time too. And don't try to remember the score as it is. I never play it like the score in an actual concert and when I made the recording you can reference I was reading the score.
The beautiful thing about Jarabi is that it is a language, and every time you play it you can say something different, in different combinations of phrases you know and enjoy playing again and again.
If you find this material too challenging the starting point would be https://derek-gripper-guitar.teachable.com/p/simple which introduces a simple version of Jarabi and also Kaira and Tubaka.
Love,
Derek
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