posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elanya at 01:25am on 16/02/2003
elanya at 01:25am on 16/02/2003Reasons an 8 year old girl attended the hand drumming workshop I was at tonight :) She may have been older, actaully. I'm guessing. I'm no good at ageing children. She was a nice kid, anyway. Not annoying, and pretty clever. When she wanted to direct attention to herself, she did it in constructive ways, like 'Here, let me show you this rhythm I know' sort of thing. She is from a middle eastern background, too, so that was actually relevant :)
The workshop itself was really awesome. There were a few reasons I attended: 1- It was a good way to learn a lot of the basic rhythms that are used in middle-eastern music, so that I can understand the music I listen to/danceto; 2- I've been a percussionist for *ever* (Going on, um... 15 years now, just about?), but I've never really learned hand drumming, and I really wanted to try it; 3- I haven't actually done anything percussive in ages, and I was also dying to smack around some skin ^-^; 4- It was also a party, and I thought it would be a good way to become more social.
I accomplished all of those goals, go me :D I was playing my djembe, that I got for Christmas from Jennifer. It is a bit different from the dumbek, which is the traditional sort of drum from the middle east. Well, one of them, anyway. Traditional goblet-shaped drum. The main differences between it and the djembe (the standard kind of African drum you see played in parks, etc) are that its body is either ceramic or metal (aluminum is common), and the head is secured differently.
The techniques were taught by two people, primarily. One of them, a guy named Brock, was physically creepy, but really nice. The fact that he is a hand drummer is really interesting/cool, because he is missing a lot of fingers... I think it is a birth defect, since they didn't looked scarred or anything. But that's not why he was wht I call 'physically creepy'. The guy *never blinks! creeeepy. Really nice, though, and a good drummer :) The other guy was Sheldon. He is Dharlene's (my dance instructor)'s boy. He has Rob hair... straight, brown, just past his shoulders. He also has a beard. Which makes him look a bit like Rob, too. Kinda cute ;) Anyway, he is also a good drummer.
So, they taught us som of the basic rhythms, and the basic drumming techniques, and the relevant jargon. (The basic beats are Dum and Tek, for example...) It help counting and understanding syncopation to say funny things when learning rhythms ;) Trust me. They had some sheets with some of the rhythms written out on them too. They wwere written out in a way I'd never seen before: using a wheel to represent the bar. The 'spokes' of the wheel represented the different beats in the bar. Lets see if I can explain this.... Take a cirle that is bisected by four lines (divided into eight parts). The first beat of the rhythm falls on the first line. Let's call that a 'Dum' beat. The second spoke is also a 'Dum'. The third is blank. The fourth is a 'Tek', the fifth a 'dum'. The sixth is blank, the seventh a 'Tek' and the eight is blank. Visualiing the wheel? Arr. so the rhythm goes 'Dum-Dum-rest-Tek-Dum-rest-Tek-rest'. And you repeat, because that's the whole rhythm, and it's a wheel, see? ^-^. And then you can play around and improvise, as long as the 'Dum' strokes stay the same, because they are what define the rhythm. The above one is called 'Beladi', and it is the most basic, common rhythm used. arr!
So, along with this, after we learned the basic stuff, people just farted around and practiced and improvised and some of the dancers did some zill work, and I danced a bit, and there were snacks and Chai and other good things. We also watched a video of Yasmina Ramsey dancing at a big international dance thingy that was held last year in California.
So, it broke up around 12, and a nice lady named (I think) Sara(h?) drove me to the bus station, just in time to wait half an hour for the last bus of the evening! Then I walked home in the freezing cold, and here I am, woo-hoo!
And that was my night. I'm going to have to practice my drumming, I think. My rhythms are solid, but I think my actual techniques are not so great :/
So, that should probably be interesting to, oh, maybe Shan and Max. Bah! :D
The workshop itself was really awesome. There were a few reasons I attended: 1- It was a good way to learn a lot of the basic rhythms that are used in middle-eastern music, so that I can understand the music I listen to/danceto; 2- I've been a percussionist for *ever* (Going on, um... 15 years now, just about?), but I've never really learned hand drumming, and I really wanted to try it; 3- I haven't actually done anything percussive in ages, and I was also dying to smack around some skin ^-^; 4- It was also a party, and I thought it would be a good way to become more social.
I accomplished all of those goals, go me :D I was playing my djembe, that I got for Christmas from Jennifer. It is a bit different from the dumbek, which is the traditional sort of drum from the middle east. Well, one of them, anyway. Traditional goblet-shaped drum. The main differences between it and the djembe (the standard kind of African drum you see played in parks, etc) are that its body is either ceramic or metal (aluminum is common), and the head is secured differently.
The techniques were taught by two people, primarily. One of them, a guy named Brock, was physically creepy, but really nice. The fact that he is a hand drummer is really interesting/cool, because he is missing a lot of fingers... I think it is a birth defect, since they didn't looked scarred or anything. But that's not why he was wht I call 'physically creepy'. The guy *never blinks! creeeepy. Really nice, though, and a good drummer :) The other guy was Sheldon. He is Dharlene's (my dance instructor)'s boy. He has Rob hair... straight, brown, just past his shoulders. He also has a beard. Which makes him look a bit like Rob, too. Kinda cute ;) Anyway, he is also a good drummer.
So, they taught us som of the basic rhythms, and the basic drumming techniques, and the relevant jargon. (The basic beats are Dum and Tek, for example...) It help counting and understanding syncopation to say funny things when learning rhythms ;) Trust me. They had some sheets with some of the rhythms written out on them too. They wwere written out in a way I'd never seen before: using a wheel to represent the bar. The 'spokes' of the wheel represented the different beats in the bar. Lets see if I can explain this.... Take a cirle that is bisected by four lines (divided into eight parts). The first beat of the rhythm falls on the first line. Let's call that a 'Dum' beat. The second spoke is also a 'Dum'. The third is blank. The fourth is a 'Tek', the fifth a 'dum'. The sixth is blank, the seventh a 'Tek' and the eight is blank. Visualiing the wheel? Arr. so the rhythm goes 'Dum-Dum-rest-Tek-Dum-rest-Tek-rest'. And you repeat, because that's the whole rhythm, and it's a wheel, see? ^-^. And then you can play around and improvise, as long as the 'Dum' strokes stay the same, because they are what define the rhythm. The above one is called 'Beladi', and it is the most basic, common rhythm used. arr!
So, along with this, after we learned the basic stuff, people just farted around and practiced and improvised and some of the dancers did some zill work, and I danced a bit, and there were snacks and Chai and other good things. We also watched a video of Yasmina Ramsey dancing at a big international dance thingy that was held last year in California.
So, it broke up around 12, and a nice lady named (I think) Sara(h?) drove me to the bus station, just in time to wait half an hour for the last bus of the evening! Then I walked home in the freezing cold, and here I am, woo-hoo!
And that was my night. I'm going to have to practice my drumming, I think. My rhythms are solid, but I think my actual techniques are not so great :/
So, that should probably be interesting to, oh, maybe Shan and Max. Bah! :D
sleepy
Zing!
As far as the wheel pattern goes, it reminds me a lot of Ashanti (I think) rythmic patterns. Kind of a variation on the basic syncopated beat. The big difference is in focus; it's more of an ensemble thing (unless you're a really slick set drummer), where you lay straight patterns over syncopated ones, and it gets all cool sounding, and stuff.
Did they teach you any nifty finger techniques, or anything like that?
Re: Zing!
And they only taught us the basic hand stuff, because it was a very mixed learning level. Sheldon tried to show us some other stuff we could try working on at home, but my problem with that sort of thing is that I never know if I'm doing it right :p I guess there are some good websites out there, though, that I'm going to hunt for.