Tag: Drumming
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Activating Your Weak Side Drumming
In hand drumming it is important to balance your playing and make your weak side stronger and equivalent. You will be able to play longer and not get tired as fast and it also opens up a world of creativity. Think of it s adding another 50% to your playing style. It’s a lot! Playing… Read More »
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The Djembe Solo And The Accompaniment Parts
In my circles of friends and in the drum scenes I partake or I am involved with I have always noticed a rush for beginners and students, people with out developed skill sets to have an “over infatuation” with soloing. I see it at every level of playing and in every style of drumming I… Read More »
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We Are All Branches Of The Drumming Tree
There are many styles and ways to play hand drums originating from West Africa. Be it traditional drumming, Afro Cuban, Haitian, Brazilian, South American, Trinidadian, (or others) it does not matter as it all comes or originates from the same tree. Even rock music and drum circles have their links, fundamental rhyhtms or branches from… Read More »
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The Best Djembes Made
I am now offering the best djembes made on the planet. I source the shell from either Ivory Coast, Guinea or Mali. We then construct and make the drum from scratch, from a log… to your specifications. Everything can be chosen by you from the size to the decoration. The shell is gone over with… Read More »
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Hand Drumming In The Modern Age
In the Afro Cuban conga drum world and in the traditional based West African hand drumming and performance world there is a huge obsession with speed, rolls and “impressive” licks. This is what I call performance oriented drumming. It is created to impress and to entertain others. It has a certain and strong “wow factor”.… Read More »
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Understanding West African Jenbe (Djembe) and Dunun Music.
When we concentrate only on soloing on the jenbe, and not learning or playing the dunun we are only experiencing the rhythm arrangement or composition from one small perspective. You are relating to it from a small and stuck position. Its like driving down the highway and only seeing the back of the car in… Read More »
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The learning Process and Drumming
The learning process and drumming, transcending the illusion of ” I can’t”. I am constantly hearing people say, “I can’t do that, I can’t do this” when I am trying to teach them or share something new, “odd” or very different. I always get a lot of excuses. And they are often very convincing, because… Read More »
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Playing at speed, how to play faster or slower with out freaking out.
I have noticed that most of the time even those of us who practice djembe or dunu regularly are practicing at a normal comfortable speeds or moreover, the same speed with out knowing it. We may be learning new phrases or rhythms, but generally we default to our own comfortable natural speed. The problem is… Read More »
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One Style Or Different Drumming Styles? It’s All Music.
There are several different ways for serious students to learn and to study traditional and folkloric drumming from other countries. Today I am going to talk about two different approaches, completely different and both are valid in my book. We can try to be universal, find commonality and study the underlying principles and basic structures… Read More »
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What is the best conga drum skin to use?
In my experience over the years with conga drums and conga skins I have found that there is no best skin. It is what skin best suits your needs. Do you have an old conga drum, bongos or other hand drums lying around because they don’t sound good? Putting on a new head is relatively… Read More »
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Need skin? Heads up to a good deal on the best skins!
Ryan ‘Manito’ Wendel has been in deep research mode and now has in stock some amazing skins including cow, steer mule and even camel for your congas and bongos in a variety of thickness and sizes that are just as nice. For a limited time he is offering them at a discount for all my readers… Read More »
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Breaking Physical Habits
Most of us are unaware of our physical habits from our daily life that carry over when play drums.We all have ways we physically respond to everything that happens in our daily life. It’s unconscious for the most part and habitual as well. When we sit down (or stand ) to play drums we are… Read More »