I started getting interested in hand drumming after stumbling on Kalani Das and World Drum Club on Youtube. In particular, I really liked how the bongos and the djembe sound. This performance by the famous Mamady Keita and Eitetsu Hayashi was mind blowing:
So I thought it would be something to explore as a breakaway from my strings practice and also something to do with my son.
Taking an introductory class on the djembe
As luck would have it, there's a djembe club here - Djembe Singapore Club, and an introductory class was just round the corner so I signed up to attend with my son in tow. The class was conducted by Kelvin Kew, who studied under grandmaster Mamady. We started the class with an introduction to the drum and how rhythms are used not just for music but everyday living in Africa. I really like how Kelvin intersperses cultural background information as he starts to teach the drum.
We started with the first of three sounds one would make on the djembe - the bass. Then the open tone, and finally the slap. In between, we learnt to respond to the call, and to be aware of the background drums that were playing to keep in the rhythm and time.
My hands were all red (great blood circulation!) by the end of the hour long session, and my son was starting to whine a bit about how his thumb was a bit sore (wrong technique my boy!). I am already looking forward to learning another djembe rhythm!
Lesson 2 update
We were taught how to do a call and response today, with a pattern that would sound like "tu--tu-tu--tu--tu-tu--tak-kak-tak". I liked how Kevin injected humor into the learning by making us call out the name of a local drink instead. My son, young as he is, giggled non-stop during the exercise.
We were also introduced to playing alongside a real sangban, one of the three types of dunun drums. It was much more immersive compared to playing alongside a backing dunun track.
Lesson 3 update
We went through revision, which was really helpful in cementing many of the techniques and rhythm taught in the previous classes. This lesson, we were introduced also to the passport rhythm, which is a mix of slaps and tone. My son and I struggled together as we have problems coordinating left and right to right and left. A lot more practice is needed to build up the muscle memory to coordinate this.