Zoumana Diarra Online Guitar Lessons

Zoumana Diarra

Zoumana Diarra was born in Mali in a family of Griots: West African praise singers, musicians, poets and storytellers. He has been making music since the age of four, when he manufactured his own guitar from an empty can and fishing thread.

From early age on, he had to provide for himself and moved around West Africa from the age of twelve. He lived in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, learning to play traditional West African guitar styles from local Griots. He has an astounding knowledge of West African rhythms and melodies and plays several West African instruments.

When he was 17, he won the first prize of the "Biennale Artistique et Culturelle de la Jeunesse", an important contest for young and aspiring musicians from Mali and surrounding countries.

He went on to play with the legendary orchestra Railband du Bamako. In Africa, he further played with Super Biton de Segou, Super Djattta Band (met Zani Diabate), Super Rail Band, Alpha Blondy, and Salif Keita.

When he turned 18, he went on a world tour with Zani Diabate and moved to Paris. A few years later he moved to The Netherlands - where he now resides when he's not touring the globe. He started the band Benkadi and added more and more jazz influences to his guitar playing.

Besides being an extremely gifted guitarist, Zoumana also plays the kora, an African harp. He builds these traditional koras himself, but is a true innovator when it to the instrument, being the only one worldwide to play a 44-string kora. He also plays the ngoni, balafon, electic bass, and the kamele ngoni.

Zoumana has played in many crossover projects with the famous Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Jan Akkerman, Harry Sacksioni, Trijntje Oosterhuis, etc. He is also part of Jan Kuiper's project "The Five Great Guitars".

Zoumana has also been a member of the band of Habib Koite and was the guitar player of Acoustic Africa III, with the African singers Dobet Gnahore, Manou Gallo, and Kareyce Fotso.

Eoullis

08/14/23

West African Guitar Guide

Absolutely the best course I’ve ever bought. Not for the faint of heart. This is tough stuff but so worth the work and study. So many styles and rhythms so unfamiliar to my ears and playing. My playing and practice had become a bit stale and this course just fired my brain right up. Not only have I learned some super neat parts, my left and right hands along with the muscles in my arms get a proper workout. My sense of rhythm has drastically improved along with a heightened understanding of harmonized guitar parts. All of the incredible Truefire tech is included which really comes in handy with this package. Each lesson has multiple harmonized guitar parts. This sounds super cool when you crank up the jam track. Zoumana Diarra is my favorite teacher. He not only looks cool he explains in technical detail each part and throws in history and names of popular players in each style. All Done in his killer African accent. Immersive package with information that expands outside of Truefire. Zoumana Diarra may he Rest In Peace. My teacher for all time. Nothing but gratitude to have access to these lessons. Thanks Zoumana Diarra. Thank you Truefire.

Chris

07/10/21

Singular Sound from Africa-Wonderful

I wondered about the unique sounds of Africa when I heard Ladysmith Black Mambazo years ago. This course opened up that mystery and even led to some songwriting that took musical wings for us. Highly recommended for the musician who wants to expand their horizons.

David

03/20/21

Legendary

Zou Diarra was not just a great guitarist but a multi-instrumentalist and instrument maker. To have his instruction so accessible here is truly priceless. RIP.

Epifan

07/28/19

This is so incredibly „off the track“

Very instructive indeed and a very good teacher. Thank you so much for publishing this joyful authentic music. I have been living on Haiti for a while which is said to be the most African country in the 2 Americas. Yes, the more traditional „rural“ music is not too different from Mr Diarra‘s examples. The drum rhythm of „Soukous“ reminds me very much of what I was forced to listen to when I lived next door to the Haitian cultural institute 😎And the autodidactic guitar technique by the street musicians, quite the same as M. Diarras, too. hey, all you truefire fans, buy this and be happy. „No more blues“ ( brazilian bossa) Again, thank you so much Mr. Diarra and truefire.

Zoumana Diarra

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