
Soloing on any drum especially djembe can be daunting at first. Everyone wants to do it but how do we start? First of all, what is a solo or “lead” as we also say in the drumming world?
Traditionally speaking a solo in West African music, specifically music from Guinee and Mali is a phrase or group of phrases chained together that interact and accent the dance choreography or dancers movements. The solo inspires [...]
Space, the final frontier. Soloing concepts
Most young soloists and even experienced players play too many notes. My suggestion is to approach drumming as a musical composition. In music, soloing is more about what you don’t play, then what you do play. I am talking about space. Phrasing and space. Space and phrasing. As Lao Tsu the legendary philosopher once said, ” it is not the walls that are important but the space with [...]
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