Drumming Fun

On Wednesday 28th January, we had a treat of spending a whole day with Julie Wright learning the art of West African drumming. We had the oppotunity of trying out the djembe (a skin-covered hand drum that is played with both hands), the dundun (base drums which we played two at a time, with drumsticks) and a wide range of other percussion instruments. We found that drumming is not only wonderful fun, but also develops a sense of rhythm and beat, coordination, and listening skills. We did exercises that involved us learning different drumming phrases that were repeated and blended with other phrases (this required a lot of concentration!)

Here are some photos and a video from the day:

A circle of djembes with various percussion instruments in the centre. There is also a set of dunduns in the bottom left-hand corner.

Drumming together a traditional West African song from Senegal

This is a session we had where one person kept a steady beat on the dunduns, while the rest of us added different improvised sounds using the djembe and other instruments. This exercise required us to listen to each other to keep the overall sound balanced.