Mamady Keita is an undisputed master of the djembe who has dedicated his life to furthering the art of West African music, dance, and culture throughout the world. I like to call him “the Michael Jordan of the djembe.” His performances epitomize the art form. Mamady is known to play special improvised and unaccompanied djembe solos (called “Djembe Kan,” or “the sound of the djembe”) for his classes on rare occasions. It is indeed a treat to witness these electrifying performances. This transcription comes from the earliest recorded performance of which I am aware, issued on the double CD recording Mögöbalu (Fonti Musicali fmd 205) in 1995. You will most certainly want to hear this amazing performance as you study the transcription. You can purchase Mögöbalu online at Rhythm Traders.
While you are there, I also highly recommend Mamady Keita’s other CDs Nankama and Wassolon, and the DVD Djembe Kan, featuring four American performances of this amazing improvisation. Each one is a unique creation. If you want to follow along with this particular transcription, however, you’ll need to get Mögöbalu.
Djembe Kan is a study in the ambiguity of African rhythm. When I first listened to it, I couldn’t tell if it was in four or in six! The effortless flow of rhythm seemed to weave between 12/8 and 4/4 time, now in one feel and now in the other. In his wonderful book, The Conga Drummer’s Guidebook, Michael Spiro gives the following description this rhythmic phenomenon: “Instead of being evenly spaced, certain subdivisions are pushed closer together, which makes the time feel blurry. Half the time you can’t tell is you’re in a duple feel or a triple feel. And we’re just not used to that ambiguity. Sometimes it even upsets us! I call the ‘averaging’ of rhythm between a four and a six feel ‘fix,’ (Four and Six)….” (Spiro 38). As you will see, Spiro hit the proverbial nail on the head with that assessment.
The notation key at the end of the transcription gives the most basic strokes commonly employed in djembe drumming (bass, tone, slap) plus some common embellished strokes (ghost strokes, muffled slaps, and high-pitched rim tones played with fingers). In order to keep the transcription clear and to avoid confusion and visual clutter, I intentionally left out two frequently-employed techniques Keita uses on this solo: muffled tones (“muffs”) and a secondary slap (sounds slightly lower in pitch and a bit more rounded in tone quality than a normal slap). When you listen to the recording, it should be apparent when these sounds appear.
The performance opens with a free introduction; unmetered and spontaneous. Tempo is firmly established at measure 1 (fifth line in the score) with the basic djembe accompaniment rhythm to Tiriba, a festive rhythm from coastal Guinea, near Boke. Most performances of Djembe Kan include some reference to Tiriba. In this transcription, the reference is comparatively brief, but it does establish a strong 12/8 feel. Things get a little fuzzy in measure 10, which I believe serves as a bridge to what I call the “A” section. The “A” section is characterized by a lilting feel of eighth notes on either side of a pair of sixteenths. This section (measures 11 – 34) is firmly in “fix.” The pair of sixteenths (as I notate them) show clearly what Michael Spiro referred to as “certain subdivisions…pushed closer together, which makes the time feel blurry.” In fact, the figures are nearly identical to Spiro’s description of Mark Lamson’s conception of “fix” as triplets with an “inside flam” (Spiro “Example 9” 41). The two middle notes are “squeezed together” ever so slightly, just enough to blur the distinction between “four” and “six.”
The “A” section comes to a close in measure 34, where an unusual phenomenon occurs. A quintuplet appears just before the “B” section commences in a straight 4/4 feel. Later on, septuplets also appear in both the 12/8 and 4/4 sections. These types of “grupetti” (as John Cage and Henry Cowell used to call them) are not commonly found in African drumming, but my guess is that Mamady employed these figures simply to allow his dominant hand to land on the “downbeat” without doubling. This could be viewed as similar to the “squeezing” of the sixteenth notes in the “A” section. The quintuplets and septuplets are simply and effortlessly “squeezed” into the flow of time. The “B” section, firmly in 4/4 with a rock-like feel recalling the dundunba part to Tiriba (although Tiriba is a 12/8 rhythm, the lowest dundun part lays down a straight four feel), runs from measure 35 to measure 76, where another grupetto leads back into a new section in 12/8.
At measure 77, Keita slips back into “fix,” in 12/8 time, a return of the “A” section running to measure 128. At measure 129, a five-bar “bridge” section in 4/4 sets up the final return of the “B” section in a much faster tempo marked “Vif” at measure 131. From there to the end of the solo, Mamady pulls out all the stops with a dazzling display of drumming.
I view the form of this Djembe Kan as essentially a four-part form, with the unmeasured introduction and brief “Tiriba” section preceding the opening:
Intro “Tiriba” (bridge) A B A (bridge) B
While some may argue against transcribing African music, I have found the practice invaluable for developing an understanding of a musician’s creative process and expressive vocabulary. I hope others will try transcription practice as an effective means of honing their improvisational skills. For students interested in improving their djembe strokes, take note of Keita’s clarity of sound, especially regarding the volume and presence of his tones and the melodic variation he achieves by way of ingenious employment of muffs and secondary slaps interwoven among the primary strokes in the flow of rhythm.
Do you play Djembe? Are there any specific questions you have for B. Michael? Leave you thoughts and comments below.
Yesterday, we interviewed Rob Slack, principal percussionist of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In today’s post, I wanted to spotlight his “Introduction to Cymbals” video from YouTube. This is from a DVD entitled “Introduction to Concert Percussion.” For more information on Rob or to purchase his DVD, please visit his website.
How do you get a good sound on cymbals? What techniques can you share with the DrumChattr community? Leave your feedback in the comments.
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on December 14, 2010.
How important is it to work on how you move/how you look behind the marimba? Today we discuss two things you can do to deal with the almost 8 feet of rosewood in front of you!
How important is this issue? How do you deal with the difficulty of moving around such a large instrument? Is this area of our pedagogy underdeveloped? Leave your comments below.
I was recently reading Christopher Wilson’s blog post about developing marimba technique, and it got me thinking (as reading blog posts usually does). I’m not really going to spend much time talking about the content of Chris’ post, aside from saying that I wholeheartedly agree with the necessity of developing good technique through exercises and method books. However, what my mind quickly drifted to was the simple fact that we all talk about how important developing technique on a daily basis is, and I think that most students understand this as well, but how many of us/them actually have the time to make this a reality? I know, I know… priorities. But seriously, we are constantly being asked or required to do more and more things as percussionists. Can we justify putting all of those things aside to practice exercises from MoM for an hour or more each day?
Like I said, I’m certainly not suggesting that we ignore our technical development. Instead, I’m suggesting that we are over-burdened with other tasks which inhibit our ability to dedicate the appropriate time to our fundamentals. Let’s think about it for a minute… How many things should we be doing every single day as “classical” percussionists? Sight-reading on keyboards, doing basic technical exercises on snare drum, keyboard, and timpani, learning solo repertoire, learning repertoire for school or professional ensembles, practicing orchestral excerpts, developing our technique on accessory instruments such as cymbals and tambourine, etc. That doesn’t even count the time that we have to invest in studying scores and listening to the music that we are preparing. On its own, that is a daunting list, and it’s not a stretch to imagine needing 8 or more hours to complete all of those tasks in a given day. Now what happens when we don’t have enough time to accomplish all of those tasks? Certain things have to give. What’s first? Well, the things that aren’t absolutely necessary to our survival (or grades if you’re a student). You’ve got a nasty xylophone part to shed before band rehearsal tomorrow, half a marimba solo to learn for your lesson in two days, and two snare drum excerpts to brush up before an upcoming sub audition with your local orchestra… Or you can take an hour to do Stick Control and MoM exercises. Well, since you aren’t going to get graded or hired based on those exercises, they’re the first to go. It’s not that they aren’t valuable, you just don’t have time for them.
OK, so we’ve established that being a “classical” percussionist requires a lot of time and juggling of tasks, but here’s the REAL problem… What the heck does “classical” percussionist entail anymore? For a number of reasons (which I’ll try to avoid going into), we are being asked to do more and more things that are outside of our specialization. Actually, before I go any further, I’ll have to make a disclaimer… I love all of the different things that percussion has to offer. I try to diversify myself and take as many types of gigs as I can. I try to get to PASIC presentations and clinics that are out of my specialty. I love reading about and listening to jazz, world music, and all the other things that are out there. That said… Somewhere along the line, we lost track of what it means to be a “classical” percussionist. At PASIC this year the CPC held a mentoring day for aspiring college teachers. One of the biggest points of the day was to set yourself apart from other applicants you have to have peripheral interests/specialties. That means that when you are interviewing for a college teaching job for “classical” percussion, the committee is evaluating you on all that that entails… plus whether or not you have experience with marching percussion, jazz drum set and vibraphone, steel band, African drumming, Indian music, gamelan orchestra, Latin music, frame drumming, electronic music/technology, composing/arranging, and anything else that is remotely related to hitting stuff. It’s not just search committees that are expecting this stuff either. There are teachers and studios out there that are spread so thin because they’ve got 6 different percussion ensembles and all the students are trying to learn Velocities while they’re transcribing Elvin Jones solos, memorizing samba patterns on congas, learning all 9 Beethoven symphonies on timpani, and working on marching band music for the football game in a week. It was hard enough to practice technique on the “classical” instruments before all this other stuff, but this is just getting ridiculous.
Like I said before, I’m all for learning about and experiencing as many forms of music/percussion as possible. Jazz and world music have been slowly making their way into “classical” compositions for a long time, and knowing about those things can only lead to a more informed performance. However, I don’t think that it should be the goal of undergraduate percussion students to try to learn about every form of percussion in their 8 semesters. It’s just not practical. It’s also not fair to current or aspiring teachers to expect them to be able to do everything. However, I think there are some places that have this figured out, and those places happen to be some of the most successful programs out there. What’s their secret?
If you want your students to be exposed to multiple things, then you need to have multiple teachers. For example, if you feel like it’s important for students to learn conga technique, then designate a semester for them to study with an expert. Same for jazz vibes, drum set, or anything else. Give them a chance to really dedicate themselves to a limited number of tasks with an expert teacher, and they will get a beneficial experience. When you’re building a house you don’t just hire one “handyman” who knows a little about a lot of things. You hire specialists who know a lot about little things, like an electrician, plumber, carpet installer, roofer, HVAC guy, etc. Why? Because their expertise is worth it and you know it’s going to get done right. Honestly, this “one-size-fits-all” hiring mentality of schools is costing many percussionists jobs. Imagine if every school hired 3 or 4 percussionists? How many more jobs would there be? A lot. Think it’s ridiculous? What about the English faculty? They all have the same basic knowledge, but they get hired because they’re scholars in specific areas. One knows Shakespeare, the other knows 20th Century America authors, another is an expert on ancient Greek writings. Cumulatively they provide a balanced and rich resource for their students. Even music faculties have specialties. Most classical saxophone teachers aren’t asked to teach jazz improvisation. The musicology teachers teach classes in their area of emphasis. The Bach scholar doesn’t teach the 20th century music class. If a school wants to have a steel band, and a percussion ensemble, and an African drum and dance ensemble, and drummers for their jazz bands, and excellent solo performers, and students that are competitive for orchestral jobs, then they need to hire the faculty to provide that type of training and the curriculum needs to be adapted to fit those goals. Students shouldn’t be forced to sacrifice their basic technical advancement because of unreasonable goals that have been set for them. Otherwise we are going to spread ourselves so thin that our talents will be diluted and the integrity of our art will be compromised. When that happens we’ll all be in trouble.
“And that’s all I got to say about that.”
How do you balance your workload, or your students? How do we avoid overload but remain well-balanced players? How long should we wait before developing a “specialty?” Share your thoughts in the comments.
Originally posted on DrummChattr.com on December 8, 2010 by Adam Groh.
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The photo in this post is used under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – NonCommercial – No Derivs 2.0 by Francis Claria on Flickr.com.
Earlier this week, I was visiting with a younger percussionist here at Indiana who is diving into the world of multi-percussion solos, and beginning to deal with some of the unique issues that this music presents. When I was a Sophomore or Junior I heard Steven Schick discussing how he learns music at PASIC during a panel discussion. He touched on many, many useful techniques, but there was one in particular that has saved me a great deal of heartache. I must warn you in advance, that it has been sometime since I saw the presentation so I cannot remember his exact process, but I have a process that I find very helpful when beginning a new multi-percussion piece. (more…)
Having a passion for pedagogy has taught me a lot over the years. One important idea that I’ve developed along the way has to do with perspective. I’ve found that a student can learn more quickly by focusing on general perspectives or guiding principles. These general ideas work to enable the student to apply and connect specific techniques to the aesthetics of musicality (phrasing/interpretation). Each post in this series will focus on a different “guiding principle”, a general concept or idea that can point artists in the right direction.
Guiding Principle #1 focused on identifying and acknowledging the war going on inside of you between your “true self” and your “ego”. Spending time only with your “ego” results ultimately in misery while spending time with your “true self” produces personal fulfillment and artistic inspiration. Guiding Principle #2 outlined the importance of connecting daily to our “true self”, selfishly spending regular creative time that encourages inspiration to pervade our musical expressiveness on a regular basis.
With the big picture laid out, we can now re-think how and why we practice and perform our crafts. Why not start with the million dollar question? What is the purpose of technique?
Guiding Principle #3: Technique is only a tool that transmits inspiration.
Why is technique important? Technique is ONLY important to communicate and transmit what is in that “quiet dark corner, deep deep inside you” (remember this from Guiding Principle #2?). In other words, we learn technique so we can clearly communicate what it is our “true self” directs us to say.
While I think many of us learn technique for the right reasons, I, for one, often struggle with how to apply it and can easily forget why it is important. That said, our guiding principles, if internalized, should keep us focused!
Have you mastered guiding principle #1? If you haven’t then your “ego” is still in charge. Your “ego” encourages you to practice technique for the wrong reasons, thereby distracting you from successfully applying it to a meaningful musical situation. What are the wrong reasons you say? Here are only a few that I have fallen victim to over the years.
Wrong reasons to learn and master technique:
A mechanism of self evaluation.
If you evaluate yourself on technical prowess only you will burn out.
To flaunt it.
Flaunt means to “provoke envy”. This desire is entirely “ego” based.
So you can play a specific kind of repertoire.
There is nothing wrong with working on specific technical challenges certain pieces present, but also work more generally to build technique for any and all situations you could find yourself in at any given moment.
Instead, do your technique work everyday, no matter what repertoire you are playing. Don’t evaluate yourself only on how your technique is developing. Instead, evaluate your ability that day to shape a musical phrase using that technique. Or, more concretely, what were you able to communicate as you played a certain passage? Inspiration often comes as a spontaneous musical thought as you are playing. Did inspiration allow that to happen in your practice session or concert? If so, then you succeeded! Application is the key. The good news is, your “true self” is really good at that! If you build technique for the right reasons your “true self” will communicate unique musical thoughts, and your technique will transmit those to you and your audience. Isn’t this the whole point of being an artist?
This can be a really “hot topic”. What are your thoughts on these ideas? Leave your comments below.
I must acknowledge Stephen Pressfield’s “The War of Art” in the refining of these ideas. This book is truly epic and you can purchase it here.
Originally posted on DrumChattr on November 28, 2010 by Thomas Burritt.
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The photo in this post is used under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – NonCommercial – No Derivs 2.0 by Thomas Hawk on Flickr.com.
