💫 Year of Mbira Course : First Quarter - Mbira Video Lessons

💫 Year of Mbira is an advanced mbira improvisation course continuing on from the intermediate Mbira Deep-Dive.

Ready to take your playing even deeper?

Check out the videos below, and access the accompanying resources in the Members Area.

Start with the orientation video, then you’ll be all set to choose and work through any video, in any order. Everything here is designed to help you get deeper inside traditional mbira composition and improvisation. Enjoy!

I usually produce and publish the downloads a day or two later. They’re super handy, should answer your questions, and provide extra info. Where possible, I suggest reading through the download before watching a video.

Stay up to date with videos as I release them by subscribing here. Make sure to click the 🔔 bell icon on YouTube to get an email each time a new video goes live.

💫 Year of Mbira

0) Orientation - start here for a recap of Mbira Deep-Dive essentials, and a foundation for the year ahead.

1) Beautiful melody lines - insights to re-create traditional examples and your own new compositions.

2) Fingertip Freedom - right-hand exercises that have loads of applications and permutations. This transformational video will change your mbira game!

3) Offset Pairs - probably my most challenging and rewarding video yet. Get this exercise in your hands for amazing improvisatory freedom.

4) Infinite Cascades - Improvise with roots and fifths in both hands, and pairs in every position - super powerful!

5) Dancing Pairs - Step-by-step method to stretch your right hand and get it dancing.

6) Faithful Foundations - Focus on and bring out one note at a time to get deeper in your playing.

7) Enter the Mbira Matrix - A new perspective of the universe in your hands. Choose and layer paths together for multiple melody lines.

8) Crossing Paths - get deeper into the Mbira Matrix and transpose multiple melody lines.

9) Half and Half - mix together two of our most familiar note patterns and enter new rhythmical worlds!

10) 6/8 Timeline - Widespread across Africa, this special pattern shifts our orientation and opens up improvisation independence.

11) Repeating note patterns and note values across all parts of a song cycle produces coherent and pleasing variations - with 6/8 timeline examples

12) Combining Ideas - Step-by-step combining of simple ideas from earlier videos. Re-creating Forward’s Karimugomba Kushaura.