A welcome addition to local music literature

| Friday May 3, 2013 00:00

Number of pages: 81Author: Tomeletso SereetsiPublisher: In The LoopYear of publication: 2013Reviewer: Dr Mothusi Phuthego

I have always been very passionate about music and I joined my first band at primary school. However my choice careers were piloting and journalism because I never fancied my chances for a career in the broad field of music. I had no idea whatsoever that I would end up as a music educator. Because of my interest in music in general I have always felt that the folk guitar style of Botswana was worth recording, analysing and documenting. This was after watching itinerant four-string guitarists who performed for a fee in Lobatse, where I grew up. The guitarists came from surrounding villages. I identified several areas of potential research including the folk guitar as played by musicians in several parts of Botswana. I must say that I have come across a book that is in itself a commendable effort in investigating the artform. The book is titled The Solo Four String Guitar of Botswana: A player's manual showing chords, grooves and the style's most seminal guitarists by Tomeletso Sereetsi.

In the book, the author takes the reader through his musical experiences, starting with his encounter with a four-string guitar as a young boy, and also provides an overview of early recordings of mainly four-string guitar music available in the Radio Botswana (RB) Archives, and ultimately the core subject matter of the book is presented. The core of the subject matter is presented under the following subheadings: the gear, the playing technique, tuning, navigating the fret board, reading the chord diagrams and chord progression in the keys of E flat and A flat. Last but not least, four-string virtuosos are profiled under the subheading, the four string all-stars. Finally the author gives valuable tips on further exploration of the four-string guitar with emphasis on trying out various types of scales, developing a good ear for the music, producing good tone, keeping the correct tempo by means of a metronome, and a word of advice to the reader to study music theory.

The guitar is not indigenous to Botswana. In this book the author notes that the guitar is a foreign musical instrument that has been turned into a traditional one by those who play it and have popularised the four-string guitar. This is a fundamental point that provides the backdrop to the subsequent discussions in the book. The arrangement of the four strings of the folk Tswana guitar has been influenced by the four strings of the motontonyane, a homemade tin-can guitar, which some of the guitarists featured in this book used to play before taking up the guitar. On the content of the music that is accompanied on the four-string guitar, Sereetsi observes that the theme of the vocal part of the solo four-stringed guitar deals with contemporary issues that affect the society. To buttress this point, he cites examples from the music of Phika Ditsebe, Phunyaselesele Koolopile, Andries Bok, and Clever Sibanda among others. The performance of an arrangement of hymns such as Simon Ka Jona by Nduna Poifo, and Jeso O A Galalela by Andries Bok demonstrates the adaptability and versatility of a music instrument that may appear to have limitations imposed on it by the fewer strings it has compared to the six-stringed guitar. Few players of the four-string guitar do not accompany their own singing though. Andries Bok is singled out in the book as one guitarist who only does instrumental renditions of his music. The versatility of the instrument is also brought to prominence by the more creative players who do not only strum and finger-pick the vibrating strings but also tap, slap, mute among other effects.

The author raises an all-too-familiar aspect of the four-string guitar, namely the stigma that is associated with it. The stigma stems from the fact that the four-string guitar is played by people who are considered to be 'good for nothing' or dikopa. However, this publication as well as the ongoing commercial recording and marketing of four-string guitar music should give a more respectful perspective to this artform and hopefully ultimately 'destigmatise' it. The accompanying compact disc (CD) provides useful material that would help with developing and/or sharpening the skill of listening.  It presents the identification of the four strings that comprise one bass string and three treble strings.  Also presented in the audio are the tonic, subdominant and dominant chord of E flat major, chords constructed on all degrees of the A flat major scale, the II, IV, V chord progression in the key of E flat major.

The audio ends with a set of grooves for the listener to enjoy and try out.  The chords for the nine passages are clearly illustrated in the book as well as the staff notation version for the benefit of those who are able to sight-read the notation. Tablature notation of the same passages would have been more useful to those who cannot read staff notation since it is easy to interpret.In conclusion, it should be noted that this is a groundbreaking publication that should cause those who have previously taken a cursory and dismissive glance at the folk guitar style as developed and practised by guitarists in Botswana, to take another look because the style is quite unique and captivating.

Performers of this style of guitar music are very entertaining with their creative expression on the instrument. The author has documented a topic of great musical interest. The topic of the four-string folk guitar style of Botswana promises to arouse even greater interest among music educators, students, anthropologists, researchers and enthusiasts as now there is evidence of the emergence of some literature on the topic.

*Dr Mothusi Phuthego is a music educator and an ethnomusicologist.