All styles

Africa and the Indian Ocean

Desert blues on guitar: chords and rhythm.

The Tuareg blues of Tinariwen and the Malian blues of Ali Farka Touré stay on one chord, E minor, and leave it only for the one a whole step below, D. The bass drones, the fingers repeat a hypnotic figure in a triplet feel.

i – ♭VIILevel · Intermediate

The progression

Pick a key: the charts change right below. "Listen" plays the progression with its rhythm; a click on a chord plays it alone, the arrow opens its page.

Key

In E minor · 76 BPM
  • Em
    E minor23
  • D
    D major××132

The rhythm

One bar of the strumming hand, beat by beat. While it plays, the stroke being played lights up.

1
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2
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3
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4
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  • the bass, with the thumb
  • the high strings, cut short
  • the high strings
  • the alternating bass

From the same world

Afrobeat's interlocking guitars, the arpeggios of the Congo, desert blues, Algerian raï and the séga of the islands.