Djembe class

I have officially committed myself to taking a djembe drumming class next Wednesday at the World Beat Center. Sounds like it will be fun. I will use this as a chance to get in contact with the instructor and ask some questions about his music. I'm still trying to solidify the direction I want this project to go in, but I think after speaking with him and getting some more information that will help me out. From the World Beat website (http://www.worldbeatcenter.org/), I learned that there are also many others I can talk to about the role of African music in the San Diego community. I think I'd like to see if there are differences in how African music is received in the African community in San Diego versus the general San Diego community. I remember hearing on NPR a while back about San Diego having a large African refugee population and being surprised, and googling it, I found it has the largest East African refugee population in California and second largest East African refugee population in the nation (http://www.hornafrica.org/).

Later, I plan to interview the professor and the drummer for TDMV 143 West African Dance. I think this will be cool because the drummer for the class is African-American, while the drummer for the World Beat Center is from Senegal. I hope to get their perspectives on learning djembe drumming and if how they practice it in San Diego is different. Maybe their backgrounds will have an important role in how they utilize their drumming and communicate with others in San Diego.

Where to go

So I'm pretty set on doing something related to African drumming. I've found several options in San Diego for me to get some exposure. I can go back to my West African dance class and speak with the professor and the drummer. I found there is also the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park. West African drumming is taught there so it would be fun to take a class. I already do drumming for lion dance, but it would be a totally different experience to try African drumming.

What to do

I took West African Dance last quarter, and found it to be a very enjoyable class. It was there I was introduced to African drumming. Every class, a djembe drummer would come in and play some beats for us to dance to. I learned a bit about the background of African music and the djembe's strong role in many of the communal African societies. Expanding on this, I did a quick Wiki search on the djembe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djembe) and found that the name itself basically means "gathering in peace". Although many African instruments are shared throughout the many countries, I still need to decide if I want to focus on a more specific region or a specific style that is promiment throughout Africa.