From African drumming to improvisational rhythms of the drum circle
What would it mean to you to have confidence and drum from your heart, without thinking, just playing? Maybe you might find it challenging to jam with others or even participate in a drum circle?
This post I wanted to share with you one of my personal videos from my collection of my trip to West Africa, where I studied drumming and dancing. This video features the wonderful African Show Boys, who also travel the world performing their act. Pretty good, yes?
Living and studying drum and dance in such a drumming rich environment made a huge impact on my life. Part of going deeper into these beautiful rhythms, learning West African drumming, living breathing, eating and experiencing the culture, gave me such a deeper sense of rhythm and appreciation.
From this old aural traditional of teaching drumming music also gave me another opportunity to improve my listening skills and continue to hone my musical craft.
Truth, essence and expressing through rhythm
Life is a journey not a destination – cliché right? However, it is true when it comes to music-making. Finding our unique voice among many others in this field of drumming takes time, exploration, courage and honesty. A huge mistake that many of us make is comparing to others. Which will in the end throw us of our track, lose confidence and creativity and in turn bring on more self-doubts.
As a drum teacher for over 30 years, and who continues to create drum student learning resources, my approach to teaching and playing has changed a lot. I’ve been fortunate enough to have learned from some amazing drum teachers and although I’ve studied and performed all kinds of musical styles, I really enjoy seeing students’ creativity explore rhythms through improvisational music or jamming with others in the drum circle.
The drum circle or music improvisation gives us an opportunity to find our unique voice. To explore from our heart and not so much from the head. To let loose, have fun.
However, learning any musical instrument we need a good understanding of the fundamentals. Listening and learning from those traditions such as African drumming or Indian drumming music can give us a great foundation and appreciation of these beautifully energising rhythms. Encouraging and inspiring us to discover our own style, our own personality.
While learn and listen to the greats, continue to find what makes you unique. It becomes a journey of discovery not just musically but personally. Remember music is a metaphor for life.
So over to you, what has drumming taught you about you?
A little gift for you as you continue to build your djembe drumming skills
I want to help you out as much as I can so I’ve added some great hand drum beats for beginners and ensemble drums that accompany the djembe, called 7 Easy Steps to Develop Rhythm, Technique, Timing and Feel PDF. It’s filled with lots of tips on technique and how to improve your timing and feel, to really take your playing to the next level.
This is my gift to you and something that can accompany you on your drumming journey.
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Download your FREE Djembe Drumming PDF Now
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