Donaba dundun help - notation corrected (whoops)

[djembeweaver]

Hi (I've corrected the score now I hope)

I was recently looking for an easy-ish dounounba to do with my class. I've got people who can play the Soli kenkeni so now I want to introduce them to the dununba kenkeni but without a fiendish dundun part to throw them.

I was leafing through 'A life for the djembe' and came across Donaba. In the book the dundun part is given as follows:

Code: Select all

1..2..3..4..1..2..3..4..
b....bb.bb.bb.......bb.b


But this is the dundun part I've always played for Soko.

Also I've played donaba before and heard it played a lot and I've always heard the dundun playing:

Code: Select all

1..2..3..4..1..2..3..4..
b...bb.b.b.bb.......bb.b


I've also heard Soko played using this variation which would make the two rhtyhms identical but for the kenkeni.

Can anyone explain this discrepency? Is it a misprint in the book?

By the way, I taught it with the Soko bass and it worked nicely (the donaba sangbang weaves in between the bass notes like this rather than playing the same thing). Now two people in my class can hold down the dununba kenkeni so the rhythm worked. I just can't help wondering about its authenticity.

[Daniel Preissler]

Hello weaver (what's your real name again?)!

In general I don't respect the versions of Mamady's book very much. There are no or nearly no original musical pieces in it, but versions that Mamady told Uschi (and others) from what he remembered of mixtures of what several people from different regions in Guinea (and IC) have told him over the years.... So don't worry, if you find versions there that you've never heard anywhere else. The version you know is what I know as the typical (and only) basic line for the dundunba in Hamana. At the same time, the version in MK's book could very well appear as a variation. I don't remember such a situation, but it's in the musical line of that piece.
This leads us to the deeper problem of your class: "Donaba" (it's just the Famoudou disc name, in Hamana and Gberedu: "Sankaranba") is the most untypical dundunba rhythm of all. As you have discovered yourself, it has parts that are quite close to Sökö, that's to say the bell lines are not the bell lines of a rhythm from the dundunba/mendiani... group. I would put it in the Soli group (because of the phrazing that is like for dundunbas), but the bell lines are even closer to the dya group than we see it with soli. You see, it's a very special thing. The Kensedeni is a real dundunba kensedeni. And it's one of the hardest Sangban line to play this Kensedeni along.
So if you want to introduce your pupils to dundunba rhythms, it's reaaly not the best rhythm: first it's quite hard, second it won't help much for the following pieces, because of it's musical singularity.
So I would say: play Sökö (with a downbeat kensedeni) and later play Kudabadon (kurabadon) or denmousonin (denmusoni) or something like that with your pupils to get the real dundunba feeling.

Sorry, I think I say quite often what is NOT easy, or NO good idea, what does NOT exist in my opinion what WON'T work and so on. At least I try to tell you why d;-)

Have a nice time,
Daniel

PS: Dundunba of my own band: http://youtu.be/BTF1NQzrurI

[Daniel Preissler]

here some notation for sankaranba/"donaba" anyway:



kensedeni: ..o.oo..o.oo (without bell)

Have fun!

[djembeweaver]

Thanks for the input Daniel. I've never been sure about that book! (My name's Jon by the way)

I get your point about Donaba being rather different to the other dununbas and therefore not a good one to start with, but actually it worked nicely. I've got one student who's really good on sangbang and she totally nailed the part, allowing a couple of the others to get the kenkeni. The straight soko-like bass kind of glued them together. It's the double off-beats on the dundun that throw my lot at the moment.

Besides, we've done a lot of soko!

Also, in general, I only like to teach pieces that I've actually learned / played in africa or with my teachers.

Still, I'll research kurabadon (is the dundun exclusively double off-beats?)

Nice playing on the vid by the way. Sounds very authentic. Here's a clip of our band practising Kassa (we're not quite up to your standards yet)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PinanQfkns0