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"The
Creator wants us to drum. He wants us to corrupt the world with
drum, dance and chants. Afterall, we have already corrupted the
world with power and greed....which hasn't gotten us anywhere -
now's the time to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants."
--Babatunde
Olatunji
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Rhythm of the Week...
Drumming Music Notation: Hand Drum Lessons with Easy Rhythm Instruction
for African Drumming Music, Latin Drumming and other Hand Drum Rhythms.
free music education resources and drumming tips for beginning or
advanced drummers...or anyone just wanting to groove with world
beat and alternative music
This Week's Lesson:
Lesson One
Lesson Two: More
variations
Lesson Three: Workshops
Lesson Four: Improvisations
Lesson Five: Advanced
Notation
Lesson Six: Drum
Circles: Beyond the Basics
- A guest article by Shawn Garbett, with rhythm notation
Lesson Seven: 3/4
or 6/8?
Lesson Eight: Tonasket
Road (original composition)
The rhythm
notation . . .
The following notation can be easier for
drummers and percussionists to use, compared to the usual notes
and lines. Because notes aren't sustained but struck once, it makes
sense to show the timing for these beats as single and equal. Rests
are measured by the same, single-beat units.
The Glossary describes the notes, primarily those played on the
west African djembe.
Glossary:
D: Dun ("Doon")=bass beat with left hand
G: Gun ("Goon")=bass beat with right hand
d: do ("doe")=rim beat with left hand (tip half
of fingers)
g: go=rim beat with right hand
T: Ta=slap beat with left hand: sharp glancing stroke
P: Pa=slap beat with right hand
- = space
Though the majority of the rhythms displayed
here will show leading with the left hand, the handing can be reversed.
In fact it makes sense to play both ways equally well, or to alternate
for balance. I'm right-handed but still find it easiest to lead
with the left--maybe because the first few rhythms I learned were
left-leading and I just got used to it. (Or maybe because I had
learned also to plant trees alternating right and left hands, to
save my arms from tendonitis). If you're just starting out and want
to follow my notation with a dominant right hand, you can treat
D's, d's and T's as right-hand beats, and G's, g's and P's as left-hand
beats.
Additional notes...
X=low note on bass drum
or two-tone bell or percussion
x=any note on monotone percussion, or high note on two-tone
percussion.
k=bell note when played with bass drum (jun-jun)
x=underlined note means stressed or accented.
(d)=parenthesis means optional note or way to play a given note
Example:
D - D - d g d g
Dun (rest) Dun
(rest) do go do go
Each word in the above phrase has equal time. To get the feel
of this or any rhythm, say the notes together, leaving pauses for
the rests (each rest can be almost spoken, as if with a silent grunt).
Try speaking it and playing it at the same time, and try it at different
speeds to feel the effects of different tempos. This particular
rhythm is a common phrase in a number of sixteen-beat rhythms; for
example...
D - d g - g d g D - D - d g d g
Anchors
and variations
The anchoring beats of most rhythms tend
to come on the first beat of each measure. So in an eight-beat phrase
like the example above, the anchoring beat is the D at the
beginning. But there are also two four-beat measures in the eight,
so a second main anchor comes on the d of beat number five.
With the anchored beats underlined and perhaps played with a slight
emphasis, the phrase looks like this:
D - D - d g d g
In conventional music terminology, the anchors
mark the beginning of each quarter note, with each quarter note
comprising four sixteenth notes.
Each four-beat phrase could also be divided in half, so that an
anchor can be found on every other beat (all the left-hand beats).
These anchors become especially important when playing with a Latin
feel, which adds a subtle, virtual rest after each anchor beat (playing
[d g] as if were a triplet, [d-g], in
the same time-space). The consistent left-right alternation of hands
is important to help regulate the timing especially when playing
fast.
However, as mentioned above, it's helpful not to overuse the lead
hand, especially in a straight-ahead rhythm like the example. So
to balance the body's energy (and the feel of the phrase in a subtle
way, since we're talking about human music here, not digital)--and
since with the spaces there's time for it--you can substitute the
other hand for that second bass beat:
D - G - d g d g
Note that the anchors are gone now: not necessarily
so, but only to illustrate another subtlety of phrasing. With the
hands more balanced it makes sense to de-emphasize the anchors,
spread the weight around.
Of Four-Four
and other useful constructions
Returning to the sixteen-beat phrase given
above
D - d g - g d g D - D - d g d g
and remembering the concept of quarter notes,
we can recognize it now as that old stand-by, the four-four. With
one crucial difference, which sets world-beat music apart from standard
rock. Where the four-four would give us four anchors, one every
four beats, the phrase above has a rest in the place
of the second would-be anchor. This is the hitch that turns our
hips, and turns us into real dancers, instead of static shakers.
It's the key to the samba (where it occurs at hitching post number
three instead of two as in this example) and to the yelle (where
it occurs at the fourth anchor spot instead). And here, without
changing the regular order of playing hands, the emphasis shifts
from the lead hand to the off-beat or upbeat hand (beat number four
of the sixteen below):
D - d g - g d g D - D - d g d g
End of Lesson One.
Thanks to Babatunde Olatunji,
Mamady Keita, David Thiaw, Fatala, Alpha Yaya Diallo, Joseph (Pepe)
Danza, Bo Conlan and Daystar, Greg Kozak, Zave, Dido Morris, Duncan
Johnston, Michel Coté: all live and wonderful teachers; to
Paulo Mattioli and Doudou Rose on video and to Bob Moses, Sule Greg
Wilson, Mickey Hart and Airto Moreira in written form. Not to mention
all the great drumming and percussion and bass work I've loved all
these years, beginning undoubtedly (and continuing to the present
day with their latest CD, Sacred Fire) Santana.
--Nowick Gray
cougar@alternativeculture.com
- this African Music Webring site owned by Nowick
Gray -
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The
rhythm notation . . .
The following notation can be easier for
drummers and percussionists to use, compared to the usual notes
and lines of conventional sheet music. Because drum notes aren't
sustained but struck once, it makes sense to show the timing for
these beats as single and equal. Rests are measured by the same,
single-beat units.
All the rhythms at this site, and in the
book Roots Jam, use the following
notation for drum beats--primarily those played on the west African
djembe.
D:
Dun ("Doon") = bass
beat with left hand
G: Gun ("Goon") = bass
beat with right hand
d: do ("doe") = rim
beat with left hand (tip half of fingers)
g: go = rim
beat with right hand
T: Ta = slap
beat with left hand: sharp glancing
stroke
P: Pa = slap
beat with right hand
- = space
About left and right hand
notes:
Though the majority of the rhythms displayed
here will show leading with the left hand, the handing can be reversed.
In fact it makes sense to play both ways equally well, or to alternate
for balance.
If you're just starting out and want to
follow my notation with a dominant right hand, you can treat D's,
d's and T's as right-hand beats, and G's, g's and P's as left-hand
beats.
Additional Notes:
X = low note on bass
drum or two-tone bell or percussion
x = any note on monotone percussion,
or high note on two-tone percussion.
[Another way to show hi/lo notes
is hi on first line, lo on second;
or by H and L]
k = bell note when played with bass
drum (jun-jun)
x = underlined (or bold) note means
stressed or accented.
(d) = parenthesis means optional note(s)
or way to play a given note(s)
d__g__d: = triplet, with three notes
played within 2, 4 or 8 beat measure.
d_g: = two notes played as if two ends
of a triplet (d_-_g)
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