SUB-SAHARAN FINGERSTYLE – Digitised and Available Again (see sample vid)

Back in 1998—long before social media and the avalanche of online guitar instructors—I recorded Sub-Saharan Fingerstyle, a VHS tutorial featuring four original fingerstyle pieces. At the time, I had no budget for proper distribution, so I sold the tapes by hand at shows. They were bulky, boxed VHS cassettes, but I hauled them around and eventually sold out my stock.

Then came DVDs, and VHS faded into obscurity. Worse still, the master tape I’d been given oxidised and became unusable. Thankfully, modern editing software has allowed me to salvage my own VHS copy—digitising it, cleaning up the image and sound, and giving it a second life. It’s not 4K, of course—it’s a copy of a copy—but it’s clear enough to learn each tune in detail.

The four pieces covered are:

Smudge’s Boogie - Driving thumb groove, syncopated slaps, and cheeky hammer-ons—classic fingerstyle boogie with attitude.

Bluegrass Safari - is a high-energy fingerstyle tune that fuses flatpicking drive with syncopated African rhythms. It’s a playful cross-continental jam, packed with melodic twists and percussive groove.

Tenderoso - Delicate arpeggios and expressive vibrato—melodic fingerstyle ballad with a lyrical, singing top line.

Kierboom - Percussive hits, rhythmic damping, and African-inflected motifs—an explosive showcase of groove and control. I’ve split the digitised version into four separate tutorials.

You can purchase each tune individually for £10, or grab all four for £35.

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Fingerstyle for Africa - Anthill Rag

Fingerstyle for Africa - Dinaledi

Fingerstyle for Africa - Awakening