Phoneme for bass / tone / slap

[Erny]

Hello,

I used the search-function but I didn´t find what I was looking for.

To my mind for memorizing rhythms it is very usefull not only to recall the rhythm itself but the kind of beat to. Instead of "bass" you could say "Bu", instead of "tone" the "Ba" and instead of "slap" the "Tak" e.g. instead of

bass bass tone tone bass . slap

bu bu ba ba bu . tak

The advantage is that these phonemes are shorter which increases the possible speed of speaking them.

Are there other, maybe better, suggestions for phonemes imitating the drum-beats?

Thanks...
...Erny

[Djembe-nerd]

I use the follwoing, they come out and faster for me. I guess evryone has there own depending on their mother toungue or dialect.

"Tu" for tone, "Ta" for slap , "Dhun" for bass, I say it with "dh" cos thats an alphabet in my mother tounge, but my wife can;t say that, so "dun" is also similar.

[bubudi]

music-and-drumming/singing-the-rhythm-t570.html

[Erny]

Thanks Adam for your suggestions and bubudi for the link, the one I didn´t find!

...Erny

[michi]

A common one I've seen used a lot is "Du", "Gu", or "Bu" for bass, "Gi", "Di", or "Bi" for tone, and "Ka", "Ta", or "Da" for slap.

I wouldn't get too hung up about the specific syllables though. There isn't any one accepted or universal way to voice a rhythm.

The idea is to sing the rhythm such that it sounds more or less like it is being played. The pitch of your voice is probably more important than the specific syllables you use.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Djembe-nerd]

I like the DU, its easier and faster than DUN.

I will change that and stick with tu and ta, I find it reembles more the sound coming out of the djembe and probably my mouth

[Erny]

Thank you, michi, too and greetings to Australia.

I´ll try to find out which phonemes are best for me this means which ones are most close to my feeling.

...Erny

[Waraba]

In Mali we did:

Bee-dee-bee-dee for tones
bah-dah-bah-dah for slaps
boo-doo-boo-doo for basses

If bass preceded tone or slap, don't say "boo" or "doo," but skip over it to the tone or slap as "zee" or "zah" (the "z" is meant to be the sound of the seke-seke buzz when bass is hit). So, btttt = "zee-dee-bee-dee."

Furthermore, tsstsstsstss became, "bee-nah-gah, bee-nah-gah, bee-nah-gah, bee-nah-gah" etc.

And, the vowels get condensed, muffled, altered and schwa'd as they do in regular speech.

As an aside, my friend Super in Bamako (now a master drummer) once amused the ladies present by pretending they could speak to me in "American" by using these phonemes (he got them to start talking to me in djembe before any of us realized what he was up to. So all these pretty dancers were coming up to me saying, "Zee-bee, beh-dee!" "Zah-bah-dah-bah!" and thought they were talking English for a moment. It was hilarious, but unfortunately, I was too stricken with amoebic dysentary at the time to think so, and just buried my head in my arms).

As another aside, one night I woke up to pitch blackness in the drummers' compound at probably about three A.M., the whole troupe orally "playing" some rhythm in all its complexity and velocity, with solos and all, sung from the straw pallets they shared.

[Hilde]

Bum (bass) Ba (tone) Ka (slap). I thought I was the only one with a "drumlanguage". Actually, I never thought about it at all. I just say the words inside my head. It really helps.