Can too many djembe rhythms "blur" a rhythm?

[utjonsson]

Let me first express my gratitude for all the helpful advice I have received here. I would greatly appreciate some comments regarding rhythms with many possible djembe rhythms. Having studied the completely wonderful A Life for the Djembé - Traditional Rhythms of the Malinké for quite a while, I have noted that most of its rhythms contain only two or three djembe rhythms, with Kuku being an exception with four. In other sources, I have seen rhythms like Kuku and Kassa contain up to seven different djembe rhythms. I realize that my question might only concern very few rhythms, but I am still interested to hear what you might have to say in this regard. As long as there are enough djembe players, should one use as many rhythms as possible or should one instead focus on "sharing" fewer rhythms between the players?

Thank you in advance.

T

[Waraba]

When I was in Mali the players picked up different accompaniment parts with no doubling up, a discrete part for each player. In contrast, when a rhythm I don't know comes up in a dance class, I double up on whatever I'm capable of playing.

[bubudi]

valkommen t!

firstly to add clarity, a rhythm is what accompanies a song or dance, and may be made up of many parts on various percussion instruments. therefore, what you are referring to as 'up to seven different djembe rhythms', would be more clearly referred to as 'djembe parts' or 'djembe accompaniments'.

i do think that there is such a thing as too many djembe parts, but sometimes having many (4 or 5) can really liven up a rhythm and add texture and interest. it depends on how fast the rhythm is, how busy the dunun, how loudly the djembes are playing and how they are tuned. having two or more djembes that sound very similar will tend to make the accompaniments sound muddy.

[michi]

There are some rhythms with many different possible accompaniments. Yankadi is one that comes to mind: last time I counted, I found eight different accompaniments. It's even more extreme with Konkoba, for which we have 17 parts listed so far.

There is no way that you could play seventeen djembe accompaniments for a rhythm and get anything but throbbing roar...

Most rhythms have two accompaniments, plus maybe a solo accompaniment that serves as the holding pattern for the soloist. Sometimes, you find three distinct accompaniments. I'm only aware of one rhythm, Kuku, with four accompaniments (the ones listed in Mamady's book).

In October 2009 in San Diego, I asked Mamady whether you would actually play all four parts together, because I felt that the rhythm would get rather crowded. He confirmed that, yes, all four parts can be played simultaneously. But Kuku is the exception rather than the rule: it's an exceptionally dense rhythm already, even with only two accompaniments.

Most rhythms are more sparse, and their effect depends on that sparseness. If you add too many accompaniments, you just end up destroying the rhythm. For most rhythms with several accompaniments, I would select two or at most three and leave it at that.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Djembe-nerd]

Macru is another one besides Kuku where IMO you can play 3 accomp and still feel the interaction between them.

[bubudi]

Most rhythms are more sparse, and their effect depends on that sparseness

i'm not sure i agree. balakulandian is a spatious rhythm, but can have several djembe accompaniments going to good effect. i'm certain there are more examples...

i've played many a dance class with 4 accompaniments (or even 5) going, and in various groups with at least 3 accompaniments going for most rhythms. personally, i'd draw the line at 3 accompaniments for most rhythms, 4 or 5 for a few, and 2 accompaniments for the remaining few. if the dununs are spacious and the djembes are tuned at various pitches, the rhythm can handle a couple more accompaniments. for example: 2 basic accompaniments (medium-low and medium-high djembes), one bass djembe accompaniment, and one solo accompaniment on a high tuned djembe.

Kuku is the exception rather than the rule: it's an exceptionally dense rhythm already, even with only two accompaniments.

i'm not sure that being a dense rhythm is the criteria for if more accompaniments will work. if anything, perhaps the opposite - the more space, the better the rhythm will handle an extra accompaniment. although i wouldn't say that spacious rhythms are the only ones that can handle it, either .

the accompaniments that mamady teaches for kuku are not all traditional. two are, although famoudou teaches them differently (in a way that does sound more in line with what both mamady and famoudou say about the way kuku is traditionally played in the forest region... i have covered this in more detail in the kuku thread).

ballet drummers tend to put 3 to 4 or even 5 accompaniments together for many rhythms, including soko, yankadi, makru, djole, tiriba, kassa and dunungbe. it's very common to find people playing both the on-beat and off-beat ternary passport accompaniment, together with pa-tu-tu-pa, and the bass accompaniment. that's 4 accompaniments.

of-course, if you want to lean towards the older style of playing (such as that featured on rainer polack's discs), one djembe accompaniment per rhythm (sometimes 2) is all you need. in the older style of playing, the soloist created the types of feel that are now recreated by the additional accompaniments in response to the evolution of the ballets and the higher number of people who took up drumming. the focus of the solo has shifted somewhat, and we expect more 'wow factor', rather than the subtle feels created by the soloist when only one or two djembe accompaniments (and only one or two dunun) are present. there is of course a middle ground, where there are 2 or 3 accompaniments and 3 dunun, and the soloist is both creating the unique feels that characterize the rhythm, as well as some wow factor, and i think that's where the traditionalists that also played in the ballets are coming from.

but if you want to play all 17 konkoba djembe parts together, by all means... just do it in a soundproof room, ok?