By Betty Ceesay
Counting one after another, Musa Kebbeh is one of the Gambian gifted instrumentalists, and having passion for playing guitar at his heart, he’s still prominent in his other engagements which includes teaching and video graphics to list a few.
Musa Kebbeh attended New Life Lower Basic School and from there he proceeded to the SDA Education Center then he moved to St. Therese’s Lower Basic and Upper Basic School where he completed middle school. For his senior secondary education, he attended SOS Hermann Gmeiner Technical Senior Secondary School where he studied Science as a field and graduated in 2017 as one of the highly recognized students of the school due to his hard work and dedication.
The guitarist developed his passion for music at an early age growing up around music and people who loved music. His first step to practicalities in music started in Church. According to him he was part of his church choir and that was where he gained an interest in music. What actually motivated him to learn the playing of the guitar was one of his favorite musicians by the name Jonathan McReynolds. The guitarist explained that he used to listen to his music icon a lot and through that, he was motivated to learn how to play the guitar. Having much passion to learn the guitar, his friend Evanlido Da Silva, proposed and volunteered to teach him the act of playing the guitar.
After so much dedication to developing himself in what he had plenty of love for, he started practicing playing the guitar, especially in churches and other gospel events. Ebunjan Theatre and Jama Hall are also a place of reference for the guitarist to name a few.
He is an international artist who had traveled to Dakar and Guinea Bissau to play in different concerts and a few studios to fill in guitar solos.
The well known guitarist officially started playing the guitar in 2015 when he was still in high school. “I was able to focus on my studies as some people thought that it would affect my studies at school but it’s all about how we manage our time and knowing what’s important to us” the guitarist proudly said and added that school should not stop anyone from chasing a dream or passion.
Aside from playing the guitar, Musa is also into photography, graphics, and web designing.
He plays the guitar and hopes to continue playing it and work towards being an example for people who have an interest in music and want to become instrumentalist, a worth and not a waste of time.
Being a guitarist in the Gambia, Musa Kebbeh said it is quite challenging especially if you are an upcoming instrumentalist. One of the major challenges Musa faced was the unavailability of platforms for an instrumentalist to exhibit their Talents. Most instrumentalists in the Gambia depend on the tourism industry which is seasonal because during the off-season also known as green season they don’t have anywhere to play. Some of the instrumentalists will have to find something else to do, which make many people to think it is a waste of time and useless.
What I love most about playing the guitar is the joy it brings to people and how it speaks to them, the guitarist explains. The guitarist said that Music is a language that speaks to different people in a certain way, and language is a part of the culture. He said he’s seen how music transforms people’s moods, and it’s amazing, and having himself contribute to what brings joy to people is a blessing to him.
Currently, however, the guitarist is in Dubai studying graphics design at Applied Skills Training Institute. This is worthy of emulation and educating oneself should always be a process in the lives of young people who want to become someone.
Before leaving for the UAE, the guitarist has been involved in the teaching field helping to establish other young people in their dreams. The gentleman tells that he loves sharing his knowledge with other people and teaching others is one of the ways he could help others.
The gentleman’s final words were that he is encouraging everyone out there who is passionate about music not to look at the setbacks but follow their passion. He further says It may not be easy at the start but he is certain that the end of it will be rewarding. “Am glad that we now have Artists who are getting into live music and acoustic session which is good for instrumentalists to have a platform”. He also said that he also wants to encourage the Artists to keep working with instrumentalists as it is done in other places so that together, every Gambian involved in the music industry can join hands to raise Gambian music to higher rights.
