Nope...

i'm looking for someone in suffolk to re-skin my djembe??

Sangban/ Kenkeni - me
djembe/ Sangban/ Kenkeni - Karim

Warm up w/ Balakulanya (sangban)
Rest of practice was spent working on Kawa. I've had some trouble with the Sg part and have been working at it. while Karim went through the dance with the dancers I spoke the part aloud. Once the dancers were ready for music I played Kenkeni and Karim played sangban and dununba.

at the very end of the session I played kenkeni part for dununba while dancers stepped to the down beats.

I've never blogged. To be totally honest, I'm not sure I'm comfortable writing a diary on the 'net, but thought I'd give it a shot. We'll see where it goes.

I'd never heard of a djembe 6 weeks ago. My journey began with a present for a friend, and in the few hours between when I purchased the drum and gave the present, I got hooked.

I've now got two instructors, a quickly growing MP3, CD, and DVD library of Western African music. Oh, and a beautiful lengke drum that sometimes makes amazing sounds (when my technique allows), and always makes me smile.

Right now I'm struggling with rhythms. My western ears and brain really struggle to make sense of the rhythms. The challenge started, however, with making the right noises.

My first challenge was the slap. Bass and tones were pretty easy, but I just couldn't get my fingertips to sting the way they should. Then I hit one. Then another after many failed attempts. Now I'm slapping with ease, but not liking the sound of my tones....

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Greetings.

Just found this forum and look forward to using it as a resource for the furthering of my study of Mandeng music. Ideally this will involve giving back as well as taking, so... I have decided to keep a journal of sort of what I am playing and studying and in what venues mostly for my own reference but possibly to inspire discussions and for others to play.

Where I am at in my learning.... On a scale of one to ten, I usually feel like I'm at a two or a three. Realistically I should give myself more credit, but I have forgotten quite a bit during the last several years and am also weak to the drum. I have a steep hill to climb for sure. Back in the last century I came across my first Djembe. It was given to me as a gift on my 18th birthday. There were drum circles near my house at the time so I attended those with an intent to play and learn. There were a few guys in the area that had studied a bit of traditional djembe and dunun and I connected with some of them, in...

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