Sidi Mansour Part 2 With Advanced Techniques

It’s time to bring out the real North African flavor to this piece. In order to that, check out the video below to learn how to play some trills that use different notes in the scale. This brings out the pentatonic-ish flavor of the scale being used.

What’s this North African Flavor I’m talkin’ bout?

I’m talking about the blues scale. It’s hidden inside the maqam being played.

Sidi Mansour is in a basic minor scale. To be completely honest, I have no frickin’ idea what Maqam this is… It’s just a minor scale to me… It’s not Maqam Kurd… maybe Maqam Nahawand. But I think it’s just C minor… It’s just Nahawand without an ascending use of B natural on the way up.

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

Correct me if I’m wrong… but that’s C minor…

Whatever you want to call it… look at this subset of notes…

C Eb F G Bb C

That’s basically what a lot of African music is all about. And you can bring this out in Sidi Mansour, by playing a trill on G and Bb. Please refer to the video.

Check out the notation too!

Variation 1:

Variation 2:

Variation 3:

Put it all together!

What’s Next?

Next we’ll learn Baba Bahri, a song that goes along with Sidi Mansour. So sign up for our news letter to be the first to hear about it!