New to An Ka Taa - thoughts on song lyrics and learning

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I’m new here but well immersed in the challenges and rewards of learning Maninka songs as part of my drum / bolon / n’goni study and performance…centered around the work of Famoudou Konate. I’ve had great help and encouragement from my West African teachers over time but have finally determined, (at age 75), that it’s necessary to start at the beginning as a student of the language, and combine that study with my study of the songs (so far mostly phonetic syllables plus general understanding of the meaning).

I’ll try to share the journey as I go, but for now here are a couple of things I can pass on which might be of interest to others along the way:

  1. The software tool called “transcribe” from Seventh String is invaluable in extracting song words, (and melodies), from recordings. It allows you to isolate individual phrases, slow them down without changing pitch, change pitch without changing speed, or both. Also included are EQ presets which help to filter out other instruments and isolate the voice, and an on-screen keyboard to use to identify pitches and intervals (plus or minus the obstacles presented by the use of an equi-distant scale.

  2. The Famoudou Konate CD “Hamana Mandenkono” comes with a booklet that has transcriptions in Maninka, plus translations into English, French and German. This is a monster of a resource for learning.

  3. Odd observation: When listening to songs on my own without help I frequently find it impossible to make out the individual words. But after I’m told what they are by a native speaker, then I can go back and hear more deeply into the recording and actually hear the words. Hopefully, as my understanding of the language progresses it will become possible to recognize individual words (already happening to a degree).

  4. After I’ve spent some time on my study of the language, it’s my intent to work one-on-one with Coleman do translate individual songs and use that process as a further inroad into understanding the (frequently idiomatic), grammar and vocabulary as a vehicle for further understanding of the language. I’m happy to share whatever knowledge we gain through this process. More to follow, presumably later into 2025.

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I ni ke, @gce ! Glad that you’ve joined the Forum. Thanks for sharing some of your thoughts and insights regarding the place of song lyrics in Maninka language learning!

  • I wasn’t aware of the software Seventh String since I’m not a musician. I typically use a transcription software for linguists called ELAN when I went to annotate a video/audio recording with the transcription of words or utterances. I have done this successfully with song lyrics before. @OdhranMullan knows a bit about the process!

  • Thanks for flagging the Famoudou Konate album and its booklet for the lyrics and their translation. I had a look at the album’s track list and it doesn’t look like the song names are in standard Maninka orthography. I imagine it’s the same thing for the lyrics themselves? In any case, a rough transcription in ad hoc spelling can be a great starting point especially when there is a translation into another language to use for triangulation purposes!

As for lessons and sharing any potential knowledge from this process, we’ll be in touch :wink: Maybe we can work on some stuff that ends up going into the Lyrics Library.