B^b-F-C-F-B^b-C

• OVERVIEW •

‘Haja’ (pronounced ‘Adz’) is an innovative modern-generation guitarist from Madagascar. His exuberant, rhythmic playing style fuses elements from across the island’s wealth of sonic traditions – showcased via breathtaking solo electric performances as well as in his long-running fusion group Solomiral.

 

His preferred layout (equivalent to Orkney -2), adapted from the tuning ideas of his grandfather Ranaivo ‘Bighand’ Betànana, forms a Bbsus2 (or Fsus4/B) voicing, with intervals that ‘narrow’ as you go up (two 5ths > two 4ths > one maj 2nd). Play light with the slackness – and try out Haja’s trick of dampening his string-sustain with a cloth to give tighter grooves…

Pattern: 7>7>5>5>2

Harmony: Bbsus2 | 1-5-2-5-1-2

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

In a 1998 interview with Ian Anderson, Haja (full name Mbolatiana Tovo Rasolomahatratra) details his six-string life – including the origins of his tuning: “We were raised by a guitarists’ family…I was lucky enough to have the quickest fingers. I chose what I do because our grandpa [Ranaivo ‘Bighand’ Betànana] played Malagasy traditional style guitar, from the Merina and Rasaraka tribes. [He] was a mechanic, [but played] for ceremonies, weddings, circumcisions…”

 

“His open tuning can play so many styles of Malagasy music – and this is what I do. I didn’t know anybody else who played to copy from: it was just inside of me. The [6-2str] are tuned in Open C, and [1str] is adapted from the kabosy [Madagascar’s small box lute]. Grandpa did only the first 5 strings of the tuning, and I added the last one”.

 

Elsewhere he adds that, “on electric guitar, [I] dropped it down another full tone [to Bb-F-C-F-Bb-C]”. He uses other transpositions too, particularly in his long-running fusion group Solomiral, which once contained six of his brothers (…all can play guitar, although most switch out for bass, drums, and keys in live settings). In recent years they have pursued the vakojazzana style, described as a “thrilling mixture of vakodrazana [ancestral dance-worship] and jazz“:

 

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• Solomiral – Bako (2008):

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“This is my guitar. I made it, because in the past, the farmers made them this way. They made it a bit like a kabosy, with bizarre things. I like that [his strings are dampened with ‘built-in’ rubber bands]. This way it damps the notes regularly…I can regulate it. If I don’t want it, I leave it aside, like that. (Haja – n.b. I use a hairband by the nut for a similar effect)

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While often described as playing ‘marovany-style’ [i.e. in the manner of Madagascar’s box-zither folk traditions], Haja is clear that “this, really, is a guitar, not a marovany! We are only trying to get close to the marovany sound…I am trying to promote a style…to polish the Malagasy guitar style.”

 

He further elaborates on his approach: “We heard Grandpa, father, and mom play music. Then wherever we went around the island, we heard something similar…The base is the diatonic harmonisation. When I play guitar, I always start from this basis”.

 

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• Fiainana – Haja (1996):

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“I first learned from the Makaka people. They are all dead now, but I met up with them at La Haute Ville [near the old royal palace]…The Makaka people’s songs could be done with only three fingers. From that it developed further…Our parents had all sorts of instruments: guitar, valiha, mandolin, accordion…my father [was] a shoemaker in the army, so he got some instruments. Otherwise, you had to go to the furniture maker and get one made…” (Haja’s grandfather Ranaivo ‘Bighand’ Betànana, interviewed by Ian Anderson)

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• NUMBERS •

	6str	5str	4str	3str	2str	1str
Note	Bb	F	C	F	Bb	C
Alteration	-6	-4	-2	-2	-1	-4
Tension (%)	-50	-37	-21	-21	-11	-37
Freq. (Hz)	58	87	131	175	233	262
Pattern (>)	7	7	5	5	2	–
Semitones	0	7	14	19	24	26
Intervals	1	5	2	5	1	2

• See my Tunings Megatable for further such nerdery: more numbers, intervallic relations, comparative methods, etc. And to any genuine vibratory scientists reading: please critique my DIY analysis!

• RELATED •

—Associated tunings: proximities of shape, concept, context, etc…

• Orkney (this +2): a higher transposition, also Malagasy
• Rakotomavo: another Malagasy tuning, same ‘low half’
• Fuji: another ‘mountain-shaped’ Bb configuration

• MORE INFO •

—Further learnings: sources, readings, lessons, other onward links…

• Haja’s talented family: hear Solomiral’s funky 2001 album Mahatsiaro, and also read the rest of Ian Anderson’s feature, which includes a meeting with Haja’s 87-year-old grandfather Ranaivo ‘Bighand’ Betànana (“He talks animatedly, demonstrating styles and snatches of songs on a completely decrepid steel-strung guitar…[explaining that] ‘People always complained about me borrowing their instruments…they’d say, ‘Your hand is too big!’ So I had to buy one…”)
• More Malagasy guitarists: check out my overview of D’Gary‘s mysterious tuning philosophies, and the tuning pages for Rakotomavo and Kabosy – as well as Danny Carnahan‘s short series, and Henry Kaiser & David Lindley’s amazing Malagasy compilation album A World Out of Time, featuring Haja and many other rarely-heard masters from the island

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Header image: Haja and his double-neck acoustic-electric