Tag: Listening
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What Is Clave?
Clave is a term used by Afro-Cuban musicians. It refers to a type of underlying timeline pattern in the music. Most rhythms from Cuba have one of these clave patterns. In Afro-Cuban music, the Clave can be very obvious because the entire pattern is often played on a pair of wooden sticks called “Clave”. Clave In Djembe Music […]
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Quickly Improve Your Solo
Broadly speaking, there are two areas of djembe playing that we can always improve on, so that the music just keeps getting better and better all the time: Accompaniment Solo. We discuss accompaniment in another post. Right now, let’s talk about solo. There is a simple mental adjustment you can make to immediately improve your […]
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Signature Phrases
A Signature Phrases is a phrase that’s associated with very few rhythms (or only one rhythm), so when you hear it played, it’s as if the rhythm is “saying it’s own name.” Many Dundun parts are signature phrases. As we all know, listening to the dundun, you can often identify a rhythm even if there […]
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4 Hand Clapping Patterns In Djembe Music
Hand clapping really adds a lot to djembe music. Unlike percussion music from some other parts of the world, I’ve noticed the hand clapping in djembe music is on the beat for the most part. It’s not too complex, but there are actually a few distinct ways to clap. Here’s what I’ve noticed. Common Clapping Patterns
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How To Anchor Yourself To The Beat
Once you understand where the beat is, then you can move on to apply proper swing to your playing. Did you know there are a couple of musical elements you can easily look to when you want to find and anchor yourself to the beat? Doing this will make it possible to play with swing later. […]