Bezil Makombe: Nyamaropa - Mbira Video Lessons
Learn how to play mbira with Bezil Makombe : Nyamaropa video lessons
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Two video tutorials to help you learn the traditional mbira song, Nyamaropa
In the first video, recorded in Chitungwiza, Bezil plays in his own nyamaropa tuning
The second video was recorded backstage at a ‘Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited’ rehearsal (Ekurhuleni Hotel, Boksburg, South Africa - Oct 24th 2019). This last-minute meet up gave us a chance to record in a Bb Nyamaropa Tuning made by Jona Wazara.
Bezil’s Nyamaropa note choices match best with mbira chord progression 1
🗺 Videos are followed by a ‘travel diaries’ post for extra interest/context
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 0.04 - 0.10, ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 0.54 - 1.11 (2 cycles), ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1.52 - 2.40 (‘6 Consecutive Cycles’ pack).
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Use the ‘⭐️⭐️⭐️’ gradings beneath each video to help you choose variations at your preferred level
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Travel Diaries 🗺
We have two sets of videos from Bezil - of varying qualities.
The first, clearer videos were recorded one afternoon in Chitungwiza - a bustling town/city fondly known as Chi-Town…
This hive of activity was very different from my peaceful time at Beatrice Motel (ignoring the siren that announced break-times at the local school - listen out for it in some of our Beatrice videos).
Bezil was waiting for us at our arranged meeting point - a busy market area thriving with traders and every size of vehicle. And suddenly, Forward was gone - leaving me with loose plans to catch up elsewhere later in that evening.
This was the first time I was without Gwenyambira Forward Kwenda since my arrival at Harare airport. Up until this point, my time with him had been magical. Our sense of purpose, and a string of good fortune had the two of us feeling invincible. Now I was with Bezil, I wondered if my luck would continue?
Bezil and I took a short walk together, turning a few corners, and sharing a few words before arriving at our sanctuary for the day. He had arranged for us to do our work at a friend’s place - a calm, walled garden, safe from the outside world!
Bezil might say very little, but he is a true professional. I was surprised to find him ‘switched on’ and ready to start immediately. We found a place to sit, and began.
Then discontent hit me…
The unfamiliar tuning pumping out of Bezil’s deze was jarring. Here I was, having travelled thousands of miles to record top Zimbabwean mbira masters, and he brings an mbira that’s ‘out of tune’. I had no other instruments at hand, so politely continued as if everything was going perfectly.
When I returned to England and began sorting and coding videos I heard something different in his performances. I’m sure you can relate to my change of perspective. Take a new mbira tuning in your hands for example, and It changes what you think you know - like sitting down to a familiar meal, but the flavour has been changed to something else.
Pea soup becomes liquorice, toffee ice-cream becomes curry. All tasty transformations, but unexpected.
My initial disgust lifted, and the beauty that had been there all along settled into place - reminding me of one of mbira’s greatest messages:
This music, much like our universe, welcomes multiple perspectives. Fix your attention on one thing, and you’ll miss a world of truths elsewhere. Mbira teaches how anything we feel certain about will later be revealed to us a a transient opinion.
Each new tuning, variation, or performance invites us deeper into this ‘slippery’ world. Dive in, suspend your fixed perspective, and allow your awareness to expand and appreciate more. What transforms here isn’t the music, but the earlier ‘you’ that was once so self-assured.
Forward Kwenda reinforces this point in our book, Learn to Play Mbira where he writes “The music is of course already untouchably sweet and wonderfully made - rather it is us humans that need some adjustment”.
In this way mbira can also correct false perceptions of conflict and discord in our outer lives. Fault lies not within the things we perceive, but in the way we perceive them; summarised beautifully in the Alexander Pope quote “All Discord, Harmony not understood”.
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The second set of recordings were a last-minute affair.
I was in Johannesburg staying with a friend - enjoying a welcome break on my return journey.
The final day before my homebound flight Bezil calls to say he’s close, doing a rehearsal with Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited. My host books me an Uber ride, and I’m there within the hour, mingling with the stars.
I grab a selfie with Thomas. Darlington Tanganyika stays with me to chat mbira while the others rehearse. Paradzai Gore nods and waves from the stage before we all take more pictures together.
Getting time with Bezil is difficult, but we manage to find a room backstage and shoot these poorer quality videos. The mbira almost slips out of his hands - I think the day must have been quite a party.