(By
Ann Alex)
You too could sound like
Hannabiell and Midnight Blue (at least a bit!) if you took up African
Percussion, which is a course offered by Sage Gateshead in Gateshead Old Town
Hall (GOTH) on Wednesday afternoons, as part of the Silver Programme. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the first 2 weeks of
term 2, when we’ve been playing African hand drums, which are known as
Djembes. These drums are from West Africa and come in various sizes, so every drum is
pitched slightly different. Djembes produces 3 different tones, according to
whether you play with the fingertips on the rim; with all the fingers further
in; or with the whole hand in the middle of the drum.
We've learned a tune
from Bukina Faso, which involves the group being divided into 3 parts, each
part playing a different rhythm. There’s
a regular groove, a tricky counter rhythm and a slower rhythm which imitates a
train, rim rim RIM, in IN in in in.
Perhaps readers can imagine the thrill of playing in rhythm whilst
listening to the other drums. If you
close your eyes you could take yourself to the heart of Africa
but without the heat. There’s also a
song to go with this, but so far we’ve found it impossible to do both drum and
song at the same time. If you think this
sounds easy, just try it at home! Unless,
of course, you’re a jazz drummer and if that’s the case you’ll find it easy,
that is if you can sing.
We’ve also done a piece
called Zimbabwe Zimbabwe
There are also hand
bells in sets of 2 which are larger and louder than the agogo bells used in
Samba drumming. We’ve yet to tackle
those. But I’m sure all this is great
for practising rhythms and teamwork in time for the next jazz jam.
Ann
Alex
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