Drumming Class in detail

Okay, so a little more from the djembe class.

This is what I learned from my interview with Abdoul:

He began drumming in his homeland of Senegal around 10 years old, when he heard the djembe and fell in love with it. He took classes every week to learn the djembe from a family that had djembe knowledge passed through it's generations. Abdoul considers learning the language of the drum to be one of the most important things in order to be able to play the djembe.

After learning to play the djembe for many years in Senegal, he moved to Italy for school where he taught the djembe for two years. Next, he moved to Spain for four years and taught there, and then moved to the US where he is now. In San Diego, he has met several djembe players, but found that many of them do not know the language. He teaches them the language at the World Beat Center.

I asked him what kind of community he plays djembe for in San Diego. Abdoul mostly sticks around at the World Beat Center to teach djembe, but he also visits local elementary/middle/high schools and holds workshops where they learn about the djembe and its history. In addition, he plays for African dance performers and interestingly enough, in Tijuana. He said they love the djembe in Mexico and he goes there every weekend.

Overall, it seems like Abdoul's contribution of African music to the San Diego community is localized to the World Beat Center, as well as to educating San Diego youths. He also provides a more traditional structure of djembe education to the djembe drummers of San Diego.

Djembe Drumming Video Example

Just realized I never posted a video of what djembe drumming sounds like, here you go! If you listen, you can hear that there are two distinct sounds for hitting the rim of the drum, and one for the center. Those are the sounds I mentioned I learned in the djembe drumming class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe75DvjOrBc

Djembe Drumming Class

Today, I went to the World Beat Center and took a djembe drumming class. It was loads of fun. I learned a lot about the instrument and had a chance to speak with the instructor, Abdoul. I will write more details about my interview with him the the next blog.

In the class, I learned that the djembe originates from West Africa but is now common throughout the entirety of Africa. Djembe knowledge was traditionally passed down through generations of families but it has become something that can be learned through classes. Abdoul, from Senegal, learned to play the djembe through classes starting at age 10. One of the things he stressed that is important about learning to play the djembe is to learn the language. There are spoken sounds that refer to the three types of drum hits. These hits are called bass, tonic, and clock (or this is what I thought he was saying). Bass is a hit to the center of the drum with your palm, tonic is a hit to the side of the drum with your four fingers held together strongly, and clock is a hit to the side of the drum with your four fingers held apart loosely. This creates three different sounds- a deep one, high pitch, and higher pitch. Different words signify the three hits, and it is important to learn the words for the patterns in order to remember and play them. I remember talking about this in class in reference to other styles of drumming.

After we learned the basic hits, we learned two patterns for dhomba (spelling unknown). Dhomba is music that is played at an annual ceremony/festival in which everyone in the community participates. It was really fun learning this and also tough learning the language.

From the overall look of the World Beat Center, and from reading the website, it seems to be a location that prides itself in sharing African culture with the community. I may have to take a further look into what they offer.