Djembe Hand Code

[Djembe-nerd]

I have been hearing this djembe hand code from some people, where any playing is always a L-R combination, for example :

Macru :
Djembe 1

1...2...3...4...
b..s.tt.b.s..tt.
r..l.lr.r.r..lr.
rlrlrlrlrlrlrlrl (djembe Handing code followed)

Djembe 2
1...2...3...4...
bt.tb.s.b.t.b.s.
rl.lr.l.r.l.r.l. (we learnt and play like this, not following djembe code)
rl.lr.r.r.r.r.r. (In WAP pages, follows djembe code)

light me up !!

[bubudi]

the 'code' you mention is hand-over-hand, meaning if you were to move your hands on all the notes, including rests, you'd have a constant left-right movement. the resulting pattern then follows whatever hand happens to correspond to each hit during that constant movement. that's the way mamady keita shows it in the majority of the material he teaches. it's by no means the only way. it's a way he found to help westerners to stay in time when playing almost everything. when you look at other accomplished west african djembe players, they often don't use this handing, even some of mamady's petits like babara.

macrou is meant to be played really fast. hand over hand is not ideal in the upper tempos. also patterns that contain flam(s) are not really able to be played that way. so there is a place for alternative handing even among strict advocates of hand-over-hand technique.

in mali patterns tend to be played with alternate handing, that is, that if you hit with the right hand, the next hit will be with the left, and so on. it can take westerners longer to get the timing this way, but it makes it easier to maintain the pattern in the upper tempos.

hand-over-hand also tends to work better for the 'straighter' sounding stuff. mali music has more pronounced swing and alternate handing lends itself better to the microtiming. it is easy to sound too straight when playing that sort of material with hand-over-hand.

[Djembe-nerd]

Thanks Bubs,

Thats what I wanted to know, that is not a rule. I didn't knew about this till recently and I wanted to know if this is a mandatory thing to follow when you start going faster and faster.

get the melody in your head and your hands will follow.

I am of this kind usually, it comes by itself.