A STUDY OF THE APPLICATION OF GUITAR IN SELECTED WORKS OF KING SUNNY ADE AND OLIVER DE COQUE

Abstract

Since the early 20th century, the guitar has been an important component of Nigerianpopular music. Nigerian popular musicians have borrowed and adapted playingtechniques from rock, funk, and western classical guitar styles in developing distinct guitar styles. As this study shows, through examples from King Sunny Ade andOliver De Coque’s selected works, these adopted guitar techniques include doublestops, broken chords, sliding technique, palm muting method, Hawaiian guitar, andalternate picking. The Juju and Highlife examples presented in this study are part of the Nigerian popular music that uses the guitar. Selected works of King SunnyAdeand Oliver De Coque have been examined, and the techniques discovered in theseworks were re-applied in the composition of an original song, “Ayo mi ti de”.