Rehearsal: February 3, 2010

Back in the groove as a troupe!

After a long hiatus during the holiday season the drummers all gathered together to shake the rust off and see what we could salvage and then build on from last year’s great run.

Not that we weren’t practicing, we simply weren’t rehearsing.  In fact, I am a bit ashamed to admit that we were so busy with gigs and the holidays that I could not find much time to write.  There will be a series of Gig posts to catch up, but since Rehearsals are where the work gets done I think it is best to get back in the groove with our latest rehearsal.

We were with the dancers on Wednesday, and we have a few new faces.

(Side note:  Last year I was keeping a degree of anonymity by using the drummer’s first initials.  Well, that has grown tiresome, and honestly we have done so many gigs at this point that the shyness and “aw shucks” attitude has worn off.  Trial by fire complete, the drummers are; K for Keith, D for Daniel, N for Nick, C for Chris, and I am Charles.)

Our new faces are Doug and Mark.

Doug is a kit drummer,  is married to Cassandra (one of the fabulous dancers), and has decided to give this hand drumming thing a try.  He comes to us with a finely honed sense of groove, and at this point we are simply teaching him the techniques, and the specific rhythms.   Doug is playing a really neat fiberglass doumbek with a mylar head.   It has a mid-range doum, and a heavy tek.  A very interesting drum for sure with  a distinct sound.

Mark is a bass guitar player, married to Meena (one of the fabulous dancers), and is just about the goofiest and funniest dude I have ever met.   He also has a great sense of timing and groove.  He is playing a Remo 10″ doumbek (same series as Keith’s 9″ Remo) that has a very deep doum and very clear teks.

The great thing about Doug and Mark is the musical background they already have.  Both practice diligently, probably obsessively, and are really good at sitting down and playing with a minimum of fuss.

Both have been playing the doumbek, and learning the grooves we play, for the last couple of months since they took my workshop back in November.

*GLEE*

New drummers!  The plan is working!  Mwahahahahah!

They fit right in.

But, the first time with the dancers is always a interesting thing.   The dancers need us to start and stop, and adjust our tempo or volume according to not only what they are working on, but how they are working on it.  It is challenging, but it is also amazingly good practice to start and stop, drop in and out of a groove, adjust your tempo on the fly as the dancers go from slowly working out a move to performing the move at full speed.

All of the veteran drummers are pretty used to it, but I was watching the rookies carefully to see how they would deal with it.   As always, I worried for no reason at all.   Neither Doug nor Mark even blinked.   Both just paid attention, started and stopped on a dime, fell right into whatever new tempo or beat I set, and even had some nice interplay with Keith on the top end.

Like I said, they fit right in.

Daniel, Keith, and I were also there.  Chris and Nick have been working like madmen and could not make the rehearsal.  We may need to stage an intervention or at least beat them with wet noodles while forcing them to listen to boy band music…

Daniel has made huge progress, and his dohola is a powerful bass tone for the rest of the drummers to follow.  His groove is getting very, very sweet and he has become unflappable.  If the other drummers wander a bit on a solo, or lose the groove somehow, Daniel simple plays a bit starker, and we all find our way back home.   When we were first playing I had to be careful playing counter-beats with my doums for fear that Daniel would follow me and get lost as well.   That is no longer remotely an issue.  Daniel is a solid timekeeper who is playing with confidence and that rock steady pulse that all good ensembles have.

Keith has done so much work that his upper riffs and solos are starting to become seamless within our grooves.   He sounds great.   During rehearsal I could see Doug and Mark watching Keith’s hands like hawks, soaking up his techniques.   I have no doubt at all that the three of them will be doing Call and Answer riffs very soon.

The upside of all of Daniel and Keith’s hard work and great playing on dohola and doumbek is that I am free to play my tar.   I picked up a 24″ Frame Drum, and it is so much fun to play that I have it my hands about two hours a day.   An infinite number of tones, reverb and sustain for days, and the sweetest range I have heard on a drum.   Deep doums, sharp and melodious teks.   I love this thing.

The five us sounded so good together at the rehearsal that the dancers actually stopped dancing for a moment to listen to us.

How awesome is that?

This year is going to be a lot of fun.

Separation of Senses

“Separation of Senses” is essentially the ability to play different rhythm parts with the left and the right hand simultaneously.  When done confidently it gives a very distinctive feel to a rhythm, and really brings out a lot of dynamics in a groove.  Middle eastern doumbek playing is literally filled with this and it is an important part of the overall sound of those rhythms.

It is not as difficult as it seems at first.  Even in the most basic of rhythms drummers are constantly playing different parts with each hand.  Doing it deliberately is the tricky part.

Let me give you a simple example and some exercises using the Beledi.

(Notation Notes: I have the Off Hand on the top of the notation as a way to remind myself (and others) that the off hand tends to play the “top” parts while the main hand tends to hold down the “bottom” of a rhythm.  Nothing is true all of the time, but that is a good rule of thumb.

Count it as, “One E and A Two E and A Three E and A Four E and A”.  And as always, only practice and play to a speed where you are not making mistakes.  Deliberate practice is far more valuable then simply learning something quickly by rote repetition.)

Beledi (4/4)

Basic (Doom and Tek)

Play the Beledi, but substitute Off Hand Kas for the Teks.

Beledi (4/4)

Basic (Doum and Ka)

Obviously what is happening is your dominant hand is playing:

While the off hand is playing:

No biggie, right?  Happens all the time!

Here is a mental exercise for you to try: Play only the Kas with your off hand.  Don’t play the Doums at all.

Now add the Doums back in.   Play the Beledi with Doums three times and then with no Doums once.  Repeat that pattern for a bit to get comfortable with it.

Now add a bit more syncopation.

Playing the Doum and the Ka at the same time on the 1 is surprisingly tough at first.  Not that any one beat within the rhythm is difficult, but combining them all without mistakes is challenging.

What this syncopation, or Separation of Senses, does for the rhythm is give it an extra dynamic.  Adds a bit of texture to it, and freshens it up.

Practice playing the Beledi like this for a while, and see what you think.

I will give you a few variants to work on as well.  Getting these down really adds a lot to your ability to bring dynamics into a performance, or drum circle.  Most of the variants work well within any of the Beledi family (Saiidi, Maqsum, Sombati, etc…)

This is played with a main hand beat on each 8^th note.  This variant of Beledi is by far the most common I have heard.  I am not terribly fond of it, especially for tribal drumming, because it is very busy on the bottom.  Still, you hear it everywhere, so you might as well know what is happening with it.

So that it doesn’t get muddy beyond all recognition you want to make that Tek on the 4 REALLY sharp.

The Tek and Ka on the “& a” off the last pair of 16^th notes is called a “pick up”, and is meant to add some more dynamic and give the whole rhythm a rolling feel from measure to measure.

This variation is very dramatic, but hitting the three Doums at the front takes a good bit of practice.  The feel of this Beledi is stark and when done within the framework of a solid groove and steady power seems almost warlike to me.

The simultaneous Tek and Ka is a sort of two hand flange technique.  If there is just a slight, miniscule, separation of those two tones it produces a sharp echoing sound and adds a tremendous dynamic.  Play those nice and loud.

The triple Doum and stark flanges really get people to lean forward in their seats, and put the dancers into dramatic framing very well.

(Drum geek note: The first time I played this my dancer wife came into the room and said, “Oooh!”.  That is a winner.)

More of a drill than an actual rhythm you would play for any length of time to be honest.   That said I do use this from time to time to help drummers that get a little off tempo during a performance to find their way back into the groove.

And, it is a VERY good practice exercise for the “Separation of Senses”.

Enjoy!

Beginning Workshop: November 22, 2009

On Saturday, November 22, I taught my first ever workshop.

I was very fortunate to be able to use a friend’s amazing backyard as the workshop space, and it could not have been more conducive.   She is a tattoo artist, and just about as earthy and funky as it is possible to be without being naked and covered in paint and mud.   Her backyard is a veritable Shangri-La, with objects de art, pottery, plants, winding paths and tons and tons of flowers and fresh scents.   There was plenty of seats, and she even provided a snack/refreshments/buffet of luncheon goodness.

Needless to say, I think that she is awesome!  Thanks Shannon!

We gathered at noon, and my intent was to teach a two hour class, covering the very basics of tribal drumming.

As this was my first workshop, I thought I would be getting a handful of students.  Maybe five or six.  I had twelve sign-ups, but my experiences in other areas had told me to expect half of the sign-ups to be show-ups…

I had nineteen students!  All the sign-ups made it, and they brought husbands, boyfriends, and friends with them.

(gulp)

Those who know me know that I am, um, retentive by nature.  I am a planner, and so I happened to have made twenty copies of my workshop’s worksheet.   Now you all know why I am the way I am: It sometimes comes in handy!

So, nineteen… I can handle this…

First of all, I was very nervous.   All the doubts.  All the what ifs.  The whole deal, all of it was there.   What if my first Ka sounded horrible?  What if I forgot how to count out loud and play at the same time?  What if my “drummers are sexy!” comment went over like a lead balloon?

What if, what if, WHAT IF?!?

Well, I was here, and so where they and sometimes there is nothing to it but to do it…  I took a deep breath, and started the introductions.

I have always liked the phrase, “If you are going to steal, steal from the very best”, and it was my every intention to do so.   In the workshops that I have taken I have always liked instructors that outlined what we were going to be doing in the class, so after the introductions I went over a basic outline of our goals for the workshop.  I wanted everyone to be familiar with rules of tribal drumming, good posture, how to strike the Doum, the Ka, and the Tek, how to count while playing a rhythm, and three basic rhythms to use for practice and performance.

I decided it was probably best to go over the basic rules of tribal drumming first.

A single page in my handout covered that pretty well.

• The Three Simple Rules of Tribal Drumming

• 1)  Have Fun.
• 2)  Stay Relaxed.
• 3)  Do Not Stop.

• The Three Slightly Complicated Rules of Tribal Drumming

• 1)  Tone Is More Important Than Speed.
• 2)  Less is More.
• 3)  Never Neglect the Groove.

• The Three Very Complicated Rules of Tribal Drumming

• 1)  Keep the Dancers Happy.
• 2)  Keep the Musicians Happy.
• 3)  Keep the Drummers Happy.

I read them all aloud in a mock serious, radio announcer, deep voice, and by the time I was done with that everyone was laughing and pretty loosened up, including me.  Drumming is fun, and it is best not to be too serious.  I think that all of the students got that message loud and clear.

I asked if there were any questions yet?

(And I went back to that all the time.  As a teacher I think it is my job to challenge students and then give them every opportunity to respond with feedback or ask questions to verify or clarify what I am teaching.  In the beginning of the student-teacher interaction it is very important to make sure that the student knows they are expected to have questions, and encouraged to ask them.  Questions are good.)

The students were all brand new, and most had never held a drum before so I knew that I would be going over the basics of posture, hand and arm position in holding the drum, and the drum position itself.  That went pretty smoothly and I was very happy with everyone’s level of attention and focus.

Then came the Doum.  The backbone, and the most important tone in the doumbek player’s arsenal.  Everyone caught on pretty quickly, and then I threw the first curve.

Most workshops I have attended, or been told about by those who did attend, have a technique where the instructor puts everyone on the spot individually to hear how they sound.  Useful, but nerve-wracking for the new students.   I decided to try something new, and at the same time introduce and reinforce a very important aspect of tribal drumming.

I had the students demonstrate their Doums as duos and trios.

I thought that it would help them all to learn to make eye contact with the other drummers, communicate together, and to watch each other’s hand to get on beat together.

It was great.  Instantly the duos and trios began to create a sense of togetherness among the students.   Mistakes were shared, not highlighted.  Do Not Stop made perfect sense to them.   I was able to hear the individuals clearly, take a moment to correct their fingers or hands or the way they were striking, and then let them go right back into the Doums and hear the immediate improvement.   It also allowed the students who were merely listening (while they waited their turns) to hear the tribal ensemble sound, and to start developing the ability to tell one drum from the other.

Not to be too arrogant, but the duos and trios idea was the smartest thing I have done in terms of teaching or leading a drum group.  It is such an elegant technique, and not only does it put nervous students at ease, but it enhances the experience of the workshop by making learning a community effort.

Perfect.

After about thirty minutes all of the students had the posture down, and the Doums were clear in tone, nice and steady.   It was time for the hard part…  The Ka.

Learning to strike a clean and sharp Ka takes monthes, if not years.   It is a very, very, unnatural way to hit the drum.   Loose arm, wrist and hand, and only the ring finger with any tension at all.  The ring finger on the left hand.  Put it this way, there is a pragmatic reason we wear wedding rings on that finger: It sees very little use.

I had no expectation of any student being able to get it down in thirty minutes.

But, with the duos and trios, and a bit of inspired metaphor (Dead Man’s Ka!), most of the students had the technique down quickly.   At the very least I wasn’t worried about anyone hurting themselves, or developing a really bad habit that would lead to injury down the road.

Once the Ka was out of the way Tek was pure cake.   Again, the duos and trios helped the students to play confidently, be relaxed, and have fun.  The students sounded really good.  Certainly good enough to fit right into a public drum circle, contribute,  and not be self conscious at all.

Once all three basic tones were explained, and everyone was fairly comfortable with them, we started on some basic changing drills.   Doum-Ka-Tek-Ka.  Doum-Ka-Ka.  Ka-Tek-Ka.   That sort of thing…  The really important thing in my opinion was that all of the drills were very Ka heavy.  No such thing as too much practicing with the Ka.

And then it was time for a short break.  Refreshments, some stretching, and so on.  About fifteen minutes to work out the kinks and absorb the new knowledge a bit.

Once everyone got back from the break I asked if there were any questions, or feedback?  Was there something I needed to explain more thoroughly?  Anything that didn’t make sense?  Was I going too fast?  Was I making too many bad jokes?  Anything?

And then the big ones: Is everyone having fun so far?  Are you all getting the hang of it?

And then the biggest question: Do you want to learn a rhythm and play the drum?

A resounding yes!  Sweet!  I have drummers!  Love, love, love the drummers.

And so I went over the Maqsum.  Maqsum has a lot to recommend it as a teaching rhythm:

• It is 4/4, and very basic.
• It can be played with Teks and Kas interchangably which is awesome for practice.
• It lends itself well to ornamentation later on.
• It is part of the larger rhythm family that includes Beledi, Saidi, Sombati, etc…

I started everyone off in duos and trios again, always trying to vary the groups.  I wanted as much interconnectedness (I think I made that word up) as possible.

We played Maqsum as a group for about thirty minutes.

I had them play it both with Teks (Doum – Tek – Tek – Doum – Tek), and with Kas (Doum – Ka – Ka – Doum – Ka), and with alternating Teks and Kas (Doum – Ka – Tek – Doum – Ka).

I asked again if there were any questions.  Was everyone feeling pretty confident?

We were past two hours, and getting near two and a half.  It was time to wrap it up, and so I started up the entire group on Maqsum, all nineteen students and I.   Played it groovy and slow, loud and confident.  We sounded great.  Huge smiles.  We ended the Maqsum on a big DOUM DOUM DOUM TEK!  Great.

I thanked everyone and made sure that they all had the handouts.   And all of the students were very kind and complimentary, and interested in the next workshop.   (Holy moly, a “next workshop”…)

Personally I had a great time.  It was a complete blur, but wonderful.  And hearing everyone playing together on the Maqsum after just two and a half hours was thrilling.

And I learned as much as I taught.  About pacing, about listening to technique, and seeing a bad habit from the other side. (Since I went over the Ka in such exhaustive detail my own Ka has improved, really.   I was pleasantly stunned.)

Just like always, the “what ifs” were a bunch of fearful rubbish.

Thanks again to everyone who came, and there will for sure be another one soon!  It was too much fun to not do that again.

A Blast from the Past

I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to post a lot of new stuff lately, but I seem to be getting new readers just the same.  (Thanks!)

So, I thought I would post the links to a few of the older articles here and let newer readers catch up to just what the heck kind of drums we play anyway.

More new content coming up after the holidays and all these recent gigs, including all about my first ever workshop, the big holiday hafla, and the Hip Hop Pow Wow Drum Jam.

Thanks for reading, and happy drumming!

You Play a What? (Part I)

You Play a What? (Part II)

Tribal Drumming

Gig: November 20, 2009

The Troupe took four drummers out to a new student hafla on Friday night.

We had a great time, and simply let it all hang out for about two hours of solid drumming.

Overall there were about twenty five dancers and in that groovy American Tribal Style the dancers all went in and out of groups, mixing and matching as they went.

Watching these amazing women dance never gets old.

At one point the teacher was kind of sort of pushed center stage to do a spontaneous solo and her and I had a very nice connection while I drummed.

There is a lot of discussion as to what is the best style or format for drumming to a dance solo.  What I do is to break rhythmic riffs into groups of four.   I play the basic riff with no ornamentation once.   Then I follow that with the same riff, but adding a bit of ornamentation.   On the third variation I add in a roll, or maybe a rizz, and give a really loud pop at the end.  On the fourth part of the group I roll and pop all the way through it.

I think that this gives the dancer plenty to work with, and after just a few of the riff groupings the soloist can trust me to continue doing that.

With our host dancing a solo for her students I wanted to make sure she could show off a bit, but still look great doing it.

Lots of eye contact helps the comminucation as well, and as a drummer you must be expressive with your face as well as your tone during a solo.  The dancer is looking to you for a clear beat to work with, and also for enthusiastic encouragement.

I really enjoy listening to the audience “Ooooh!”, and “Ah!”, and applaud when a solo goes well, and the big applause at the end of the solo is pure sweetness.