Hand Drum Lessons & Notation for Djembes, Dununs & Bells

Author Archives:

How to Play Ballet Style Dununs

How to Play Ballet Style Dununs

How to Play Ballet Style Dununs

Playing dununs in the old village style–the traditional setup with bells on top of each drum, one drummer each–is great if you have enough skilled players for each of the three drums: dununba, sangban, and kenkeni. But often only one competent drummer is available to play duns, so the solution is to play all three, upright, as shown in the photo on the left.

This upright, tandem setup is called ballet style, since it reflects the change when West African drumming moved from the village to the stages of Conakry, Europe, and beyond. I have just started releasing a new series of free videos on YouTube to show you how to play some of the most popular dance rhythms on the ballet style duns. A few years of experience playing these rhythms at the Little Beach Maui drum jams on Sundays has served as a testing ground to learn and select the best of these patterns for you to use in your own locale… or at Little Beach!

Here is the playlist at YouTube.
The first three of these free videos are:

IntroductionKakilambeKassa

Hendrix and Jamming

Hendrix and Jamming

It’s a way of life. —Frank Zappa I just finished reading a fascinating biography called Hendrix: Musician, by Keith Shadwick (Backbeat, 2012), which caught my eye in the discount bin at the local music store. I’ve been delving into Hendrix lore since working on the 1968–70 portion of a memoir, My Generation. Hendrix was god… Continue Reading

Roots Super Jam

New Release! Roots Super Jam: Collected West African & Diaspora Drum Rhythms Roots Jam * Volumes 1, 2 & 3 All three volumes of Roots Jam West African and Afro-Latin drumming lessons and notation are now available to you in one book. Learn djembe rhythms, dunun patterns, and other hand drum and percussion parts, along… Continue Reading

Polyrhythms Simplified

Recently I have been emailing a school student working on a music project, answering questions about West African rhythms. His latest query asked for exercises or tips for mastering polyrhythms. Polyrhythms, in a nutshell, are combinations of rhythms using different time signatures, played together. Here are some prototypical polyrhythms: With any 4/4 pattern…the Afro-Latin clave:… Continue Reading

Traditional Drumming in Sri Lanka

Last week I had the pleasure of witnessing up close some ceremonial drumming in front of the Temple of the (Buddha’s) Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Packing my sangban along on this trip for a February drum camp in Thailand, I was eager to see some of the local dundunfolas in action.Not that the rhythms… Continue Reading

Drum Jamming Made Easy (Sometimes)

Two new publications are available for beginning or experienced drummers to learn from. These resources offer accessible rhythms and experiential lessons that helped me in the early phase of my journey as a hand drummer. Friday Night Jam is a kind of anecdotal, instructional how-to (and sometimes painful how-not-to) guide to group improvisation, based on my… Continue Reading