Crossroads

[rachelnguyen]

Hi Adam,

I completely understand your teacher's frustration. Sidy faces the same thing. He has stuck to his guns and has a real challenge getting people to commit to showing up every week. Right now he has about 10 regular students, none of whom are consistent except me. So any give week, we might have 3 people or 7 and they aren't all on the same page because they have missed the last bunch of weeks. It is frustrating for him and for me, sometimes.

My solution has been to start taking private lessons from him. I have been doing that for about 2 years now. We meet 3 or 4 times a month and that is where I get a lot of instruction on the subtleties of technique. Sidy knows I am really serious about the drum and he respects that I work so hard.

I still do the classes because even when I am playing with perpetual beginners, it gives me the opportunity to play in a group, which is important. And also, frankly, I think it is helpful to Sidy to have at least one student that knows the parts. That frees him up to solo while I kind of take charge of the rest of the students.

How long is your class that your teacher can take you through 8 songs?!? That seems incredibly fast.

I agree that you could mention that you are having some trouble retaining all the different parts and ask his advice. Let him know that you are seriously interested in learning the traditional rhythms and maybe ask about setting up a private lesson or two. If you show interest, I am guessing he will respond.

Also, at 8 or 9 months in, maybe you still have a ways to go before you start picking the rhythms up quickly. As I said, for me it was at least a couple of years before it starting to really sink in, and that is with 1 or 2 classes and 1 private lesson every week. (Does that make me an incredibly slow learner? LOL!)

But don't get discouraged. It WILL come!

Love,
Rachel

[bubudi]

As I said, for me it was at least a couple of years before it starting to really sink in, and that is with 1 or 2 classes and 1 private lesson every week. (Does that make me an incredibly slow learner? LOL!)

depends on how much you could retain. but the good news is that slower learners tend to retain things for longer than fast learners.

[Djembe-nerd]

e2c,

you said it right. your situation is similar to ours but in a class we have at least 2 people who can hold the dunun or djembe parts, so a little better I guess.

[honeyintheheart]

Adam, I agree with a lot of the advice. Since this is folk music, and mostly not written down, recording it is critical. The well informed djembe student develops an archive of recordings to draw from as they study. digital recordings are the easiest to archive, organize and recall for use. I have been very happy with using a Belkin voice recorder ($35) attached to my IPOD, and a one point stereo mike ($69) - very good sound quality and easy to organize with ITunes. Most teachers will give you a brief sound sample of each part at the end of class if you ask for it, so you don't end up with long recordings of everyone learning a rhythm.

A practice group is very helpful, and practicing is very helpful. The longer you play the easier it gets to distinguish the rhythms from each other. Teaching it to someone else is the best way I have found to really lock in a rhythm.

For the more common rhythms, Mamady's book, My Life for the Djembe, is a great resource for prompting your memory.

[bubudi]

A practice group is very helpful, and practicing is very helpful. The longer you play the easier it gets to distinguish the rhythms from each other. Teaching it to someone else is the best way I have found to really lock in a rhythm.

just be very careful with that. if something is taught wrongly, it will take even longer to unlearn it and relearn the proper pattern. this problem is far more common than you would think. practice groups can be great, but having a routine/ground rules can go a long way in preventing potential problems. for instance, you can make it a rule that you go over rhythms first from a recording, to ensure you have not only the correct pattern but the correct swing/feel as well.

[Michel]

Hi Adam,

My teacher is not playing the same amount of rhythms yours does, but it even is sometimes difficult to remember everything. I play now for about 7/8 years. I think we have to keep in mind how people in Africa get the rhythms in their heads and bodies: by hearing them over and over again. And then play them over and over again. For me it works the best to record a sample of what was taught in class, performed by the teacher and the best students, and then play it all over and over in my car in traffic jam. But you have to live in a place with lots of traffic, i'm afraid. Sometimes I am 'lucky' that my trip home takes 1,5 hours instead of 20 minutes... I am still looking for a goatskin to pull over my steering wheel!

Michel

[rachelnguyen]

Oh my God, Michel,

I want to wrap my steering wheel in goatskin, LOL. What a great idea! I am sure that next time you head a drum you would be able to make a wheel cover from the scraps. Just stitch them together, soak them up and wrap the wheel with them.

I do the same thing with listening to recordings in the car. I download them all to my iphone and have a hookup to my car stereo. I can listen to the same piece over and over again, or cycle through all my recordings to keep them fresh. That is actually how I am learning bambara too.

Love,
Rachel

[Michel]

Hi Rachel,

I ka kene? Somogow be di?
Exactly what I do! Bluetooth is my solution. And what Bambara course are you doing? I just visited Mali, and boy, would I like to understand every word when they were talking about me (just understanding the word toubabou is enough to know they talk abou you...) My Bambara basics of the peacecorps opened some doors, but not enough.

Good luck,
Michiel

[rachelnguyen]

Tooro si t'u la!

We have a Bambara thread that gives details about the book I am using and some great resources online.

Isn't Mali amazing? I am going back next January (Inshallah) and am already getting excited about it.

Here's the other thread:

social/first-bambara-lesson-t1622.html

Michel, why don't you start a thread about your trip? I would love to hear about it.

Love,
Rachel