“We have created a set of five books called Ngomabooks for five different groups of musical instruments (piano, guitar, violin, b-flat instruments and e-flat instruments). These books contain Kenyan songs by Kenyan artistes. They are ideal for use by both teachers and learners. They can be used during class-time as well as during practice-time,” says Alazetu founder, Makau Yole.
Makau Yole is a Kenyan saxophonist born and brought up in Ongata Rongai. “I love music, particularly playing musical instruments. I play the saxophone and teach how to play it as well. I got interested in playing the keyboard when I was about 6 or 7, and this interest was stirred by listening to music being played in church.”
Alazetu is a company founded by Makau to provide solutions for some issues in our music industry in Africa. The name Alazetu means ‘Our Instruments’ in Kiswahili. One major issue that they aim to solve at Alazetu is the absence of sounds from our own musical instruments in modern-day music-making. They shall solve this by digitizing the sounds of our musical instruments such as the Orutu and the Shiriri and availing them to music producers and letting them get creative in their music-making. Another major issue that Alazetu aims to solve is the absence of a proper standard for teaching and learning our African genres. They aim to solve this issue by providing teaching and learning materials that can be used to teach and learn our genres such as Rhumba and Sebene. This way they can help train world-leading musicians who can play legit African music for us here at home, as well as export this music for people to other continents to enjoy.
Ngomabooks have been written in such a way that the instruments can be played together to make harmonious music, for example, a piano student using the piano Ngomabook and a guitar student using the guitar Ngomabook can pick any song from their books and play together. “If you’d love to learn a musical instrument, it will be of such great value to own a Ngomabook, we have created them specifically for you,” says Makau.
The books will be launched at the Soko Expo, at Nairobi Chapel Ngong Road, this Sunday, 28th of November. We are excited about the launch, you should definitely be there to interact with the team and get yourself a copy!
Follow Alazetu on Instagram: @alazetu Facebook: @alazetu Twitter: @alazetu
Website: www.alazetu.com
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