Zanzibar academy launches online music courses

Now available on the DCMA YouTube channel, the video courses come after the academy introduced free music lessons for children with Down syndrome and autism early this year.

“The first online lesson on qanun was led by DCMA teacher Samir Ally, a graduate and teacher at the Dhow Countries Music Academy," DCMA managing director Adrian Podgorny told Music In Africa. 

"The next lesson will be available in July. One of DCMA's main goals is to protect and promote the musical heritage of Zanzibar, which is why qanun was chosen as the first instrument for the tutorials.

“This is a new thing for us, we are looking forward to receiving feedback so we can make our next lessons better. Other instruments like oud and tablah or traditional ngoma drums will be introduced later this year. In future, more instruments like guitar or piano will be included.”

Asked what they intend to achieve with the courses, Podgorny said: "We want to fill an existing gap in instrument tutorials in Swahili and we want to promote traditional instruments used in taarab music."

The online courses, he said, were driven by the desire to propagate the region's traditional music instruments by using the Internet.

"Some time ago we had a meeting with our teachers and we were discussing how we could promote taarab heritage using digital media. During the brainstorm we came up with this idea. We realised there were no tutorials for taarab instruments in Swahili, so we introduced these courses to fill this gap."

The tutorials are produced by DCMA assistant academic director Mahsin Basalama and PR manager Abdulrazak Tausir.

“Five lessons will be dedicated for each instrument, each lesson will be between five to 10 minutes to introduce basic techniques,” Podgorny said. “This is the first project of this type prepared in Swahili. The content for the online tutorials will be based on the existing DCMA teaching programmes.”

Podgorny said the academy also offered lessons in Western music. “The DCMA curriculum offers quality education from beginner to highly advanced levels. Certificate and diploma courses include courses in the music theory of the Swahili people and specifically the people of Zanzibar and the Dhow countries.

“Though specialising in the traditional Arabic and African music styles of the region, the DCMA also gives students the opportunity to learn instruments used in Western music traditions.”

Commenting on the production of the first video, Podgorny said: "First we need a scenario or lesson plan. This is not difficult because we have our teaching programmes here. Then it takes two to three hours of shooting and a couple of hours of editing."

The DCMA, which began operations in 2002, has produced more than 1 500 students. The institution places special emphasis on teaching traditional instruments and styles such as taarab, beni, kidumbak, ngoma as well as dances such as msewe, bomu, kiluwa and kyaso.

Below is the first instructional video: