Forward Kwenda: Mbavarira - Mbira Video Lessons
Learn how to play mbira with Forward Kwenda : Mbavarira video lessons
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Seven video tutorials to help you learn the traditional mbira song, Mbavarira
Forward teaches basic Kushaura and Kutsinhira variations, combines them together, and demonstrates his unique style of improvisation
He plays in nemakonde tuning (a low gandanga/mavembe mbira tuning closest to the Western scale, F phrygian)
Forward’s Mbavarira note choices match best with mbira chord progression 2
🗺 Videos are followed by a ‘travel diaries’ post for extra interest/context
⭐️/⭐️⭐️ 2.02 - 2.16 and 4.16 - 4.29
⭐️/⭐️⭐️ 2.13 - 2.26 and 3.07 - 3.20
⭐️⭐️ 1.10 - 1.22, ⭐️⭐️ 6.10 - 6.22
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1.36 - 1.50 and 2.26 - 3.29 (‘Mbavarira Kushaura Improvisation’ pack - 6 cycles)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 0.20 - 0.31, ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 2.06 - 2.16
Learn mbira online with video tutorials and Mbira Chord Tab
Use the ‘⭐️⭐️⭐️’ gradings beneath each video to help you choose variations at your preferred level
Play along with the second-by-second mbira notation in your extensive library of downloadable mbira song packs
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Travel Diaries 🗺
I really wanted to film Forward playing Mbavarira (one of my favourite mbira songs) at Great Zimbabwe - a place that he and many others consider to be the spiritual home of the instrument.
We returned to this song so many times - so you’ll see a few different locations as we take you with us on our journey around Zimbabwe.
The first few recordings are in my room at Beatrice Motel - and the last is right at the top Great Zimbabwe. A beautiful, celebratory moment for both of us.
Here’s some background about the Nemakonde mbira (low F gandanga/mavembe) that Forward plays here, and the other ‘late night reunion’ videos…
The day before we got hold of this amazing instrument from Leonard Chiyanike, a group of tourists bought almost everything he had.
Forward and I arrived to meet him, and without much of a greeting (other than acknowledging they both share the Mhofu totem) they started to play mbira together.
It was a surreal moment for me… All three of us were stood up and I was squeezed between them with my back to the car, without anywhere to move. Here were two mbira masters communicating on another level, handling ancient technology, and bathing me in their musical dialogue. I remember how far removed this moment seemed from my ordinary life back at home in England.
Without much of a word, they stopped and Leonard offered us a choice between two very old looking instruments. We’d gone to him for a new instrument, and really needed this particular tuning for our Great Zimbabwe moment - and we were leaving in the next couple of days -and we didn’t know anyone else nearby who could help us out with a Nemakonde tuned mbira.
I chose the one that felt best - this old and rusty thing, riddled with woodworm holes…
Later that night, back in Forward’s room at Beatrice, we got it tuned up and soon realised this mbira was something special. Even when I play it today, my fingers feel like they’re sliding through butter.
Forward started to re-familiarise himself with Nemakonde tuning (which he tells me was first created by Samson Bvure, and which he hadn’t played for years). When he played Mbavarira (Late Night Reunion video above) the rain came - A powerful symbol for everyone there, and another of the many beautiful coincidences we came to expect during our time together.
This memory filled instrument is now one of my most prized possessions. Sadly, a key broke when I got home, so I sent it to Sebastian Pott (in Germany) to fix - and also to make a duplicate. He said these relatively short keys (for the low tuning) are unusually thick to allow for high, two- and three-octave overtones - and that something about its construction makes him think this instrument is one a maker would craft for their own use.
I feel so lucky to be able to enjoy it today!