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30 Desert Blues Licks You MUST Know

Essential Licks and Rhythms for North African Desert Blues

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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30 Desert Blues Licks You MUST Know
Jan Wouter Oostenrijk

Jan Wouter Oostenrijk

Educator

blues, blues-rock, world music

Genres

About this course

If you dig deep into the origins of the blues, you’ll wind up in Africa. Dig a little deeper and you’ll discover many ‘World Music’ influences from northern Africa. Desert Blues, Gnawa, Rai, Chaabi, Sharqi, and Soufi music are some of the styles that are strongly connected with the North African music culture and the Sahara desert.

Jan Wouter Oostenrijk’s 30 Desert Blues Licks You Must Know celebrates these diverse styles with this very unique collection of licks. ”I've collected 30 of what I consider to be essential licks, rhythms, and concepts in this overview. We'll dig into the beautiful Moroccan Rai music, Sahara Desert Blues, Chaabi rhythms, the Hegaz mode, Saba Zamzam mode, groovy camel rock, and Gnawa. I'll even show you the origin of Surf music and how new wave music was also influenced by these world styles. In the end, you’ll have the building blocks to create a typical Sahara Desert Blues.”


Jan Wouter Oostenrijk is a Dutch guitar player that has spent the better part of his life researching and playing African inspired music. He's traveled and toured extensively throughout North Africa and has integrated the sounds and concepts he collected into the modern Fusion bands he now performs in. We’re very proud to welcome Jan to the family with his first TrueFire course, 30 Desert Blues Licks You Must Know!

Jan will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way.  You’ll get standard notation and tabs for each of the licks. Plus, Jan includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar and let’s explore North Africa with Jan Wouter Oostenrijk!

What you'll learn

  • Execute Dick Dale-style tremolo picking licks
  • Apply the Oriental Hijaz scale in a rock context
  • Apply the same lick pattern in different positions on the fretboard
  • Execute descending sequential patterns
  • Develop free-form expressive playing without strict rhythmic constraints
Release date: 09/10/2018 • 1h 21m runtime
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Sample lessons
Sus Pentatonics
Sus Pentatonics
Lick 4
Sharqi Rhythm Pattern
Sharqi Rhythm Pattern
Lick 11
Bluesin' Hegaz 1
Bluesin' Hegaz 1
Lick 12
Groovy Camel Rock 1
Groovy Camel Rock 1
Lick 15

What's included

34 lessons • 32 charts • 22 Jam Tracks

30 Desert Blues Licks
Hi, I'm Jan Wouter, and welcome to 30 Desert Blues Licks You MUST Know. Many musicians sooner or later start to search for the origin of the blues. Like Ry Cooder, The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and even Dick Dale and Jimi Hendrix, they get inspired by the North African roots and oriental flavored melodies that give the blues it's haunting character. These artists all integrated the magic sounds of traditional bedouin instruments and polyrhythmic patterns into their playing.

I've collected 30 of what I consider to be essential licks, rhythms and concepts in this overview. We'll dig into the beautiful Moroccan and Algerian rai music, Sahara desert blues, chaabi rhythms, the Hegaz mode, saba zamzam mode, groovy camel rock, gnawa, and I'll show you the origin of surf music. You'll even hear what influenced new wave music. And, I'll end up giving you the building blocks to create a typical Sahara desert blues.

All these licks come with original backing tracks, tabs and notation. Desert blues, gnawa, rai, chaabi, sharqi, and soufi music are all styles that are strongly connected with North African music culture and the Sahara desert. Join me in an exploration of these beautiful styles!
Desert Blues Octaves
Lick 1 is a fingerstyle rhythm pattern from Mali in the style made famous by Ali Farka Toure. Basically, it's a 1 bar minor pentatonic baseline played with the thumb, doubled in the higher octave by the index finger at the end of the down stroke on 4.

I play it with a capo on the 3rd fret, because I like the way it sounds in G minor, but it could be played in any position. Let's check it out!
Bass & Melody
Lick 2 is a fingerpicking pattern in the Assouf style, the musical heritage of Tuareg-Berber bedouin tribes. The basic concept here is that the thumb plays the root of the chord on every quarter note or half note and with the index and middle finger we play the melody on top. This melody is often equal to the vocals parts in the verse or chorus with some improvised variations.
Tuareg 12/8 Rhythm
Lick 3 is a strumming pattern you will hear a lot in North African music. If you ever have a chance to go to the Sahara desert, you will see groups of young people strumming this rhythm on the guitar while they sing their favourite songs and clap their hands beside the campfire with a cup of mint tea they call "whiskey berbére".
Sus Pentatonics
Lick 4 is about sus-pentatonics, a scale that is used a lot in music from the western part of the Sahara, like desert blues and gnawa. It really differs from the minor and major pentatonics because it doesn't have a third in the scale, like in sus chords.

The melody in this lick refers to an old gnawa traditional called "Soudani Manayou" usually played on a kind of bedouin bass guitar called guembri or sentir or hezjhouzj.
Rast Pentatonics
In Lick 5, we'll look at Rast pentatonics. It's related to our minor pentatonic scale, but the minor third and the lowered seventh of the scale are raised with a quarterter tone. It gives an authentic sound we can find in bedouin music from the western Sahara all the way to the north of Sudan. Usually we'll hear it in the vocal parts or on traditional Arab instruments. On the guitar, we play the quartertones by bending the strings.
Chaabi Rhythm
Lick 6 is about the chaabi rhythm. The word chaabi in the Arab world means "the people", and in Morocco it also refers to a particular music style played at weddings and parties.

Chaabi is a 12/8 rhythm like the one we did before, but more syncopated. The pattern we play is often played on the bendir, a frame drum with a string inside.

+ 27 more lessons

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Reviews

12 results

Johnathon16

Verified buyer

10/12/23

At last! A way into this exciting and sensual music.

I have been trying to find a way into this music since I heard live belly dance and live Gnawa music in Morocco, and CDs and radio shows which the African immigrant hotel staff and those with African heritage played in Paris. This Parisian music included music called Arabic Electronica and Desert Rock. Have bought books etc but until I bought Jan’s course, I was “only playing the music not the notes.” Thanks to Jan’s easy to understand teaching the music (not just the notes) has come alive!

Yawei

Verified buyer

03/14/23

Great course

The licks taught by Jan are very nice! I am exciting to learn them!

Osokin

Verified buyer

12/29/22

Exotic Blues!

Jan Wouter Oostenrijk does an excellent job of presenting blues licks with a distinctly North African flavour. Some really interesting sounds that will certainly add some exotic flavours to your blues playing, and maybe inspire some new compositions. Great stuff!

Mackenzie B.

06/24/21

Awesome

This is a treasure trove of cool Middle Eastern/African licks. Would love to get Jan back to go more in depth in all these styles. Would also love to see more 'World Music' courses on here as well. It really opens up your playing to new rhythms. Checked out Jan's music too and it's really good. Fantastic course. Thank you so much, True Fire!

bradm4444

Verified buyer

05/19/21

Desert Sounds

Those african/middle eastern sounds you don't know how to make - now you do!

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