On improving your dun dun skills

[James]

I found these while poking round the web...

People putting some serious effort into dun dun may find these resources useful...

http://www.drumlist.org/percussion-instruction/djun-djun2.php

http://tcd.freehosting.net/djembemande/patterns.htm

[kawa]

For improving your dundun skills, I strongly advise focusing on the kenkeni first.

Playing the kenkeni with the right bell, the right sound, on Soliba, Kassa, Dansa (Malian style), Lafe, Soli, Mendiani, Sökö and Dunumba is mandatory. You should come to a point when you don't think about it anymore, although the rhythm is played at a fast pace. It is especially tricky with Sökö for the bell, and Dunumba, at the beginning.

This will give you the cognitive and motor skills to play the other duns.

Then if you want to refine your game, I'd advise working on Dunumba rhythms, for the sangban and the dunumba.
Start "simple" with the Kon, learn to master how the sangban heats up and come back to normal rhythm, learn to follow the sangban with the dunumba, and learn a few variations.
Those are the fundamentals. Spend time on them. Everything you learn at that stage will help you to play all the other rhythms.
Then you can learn and have fun with all the other Dunumbas, practicing their basic patterns and learning variations.

Also spend long sessions to improve your technique.
And ask advices from seasoned dundun players. There is a technique on the dunduns to have the right sound, exactly like on the djembe to have the " sounds, they can help you with that.

Hope that helps.

Kawa
http://kawatvinternational.wordpress.com/
http://kawatv.wordpress.com/

[Afoba]

Hello Kawa, very nice of you to share your practise ideas!
I would like to add my opinion.
Me, too, I use a kensedeni bell in total beginner classes. But please remember that 3 dunduns with a bell on each is a Conakry, Europe and North America style. In the villages where 3 dunduns are played, there is no bell on the kensedeni. So this is no traditional way to learn. We can speculate, why exactly it is that way (music's better, little boys don't manage to play the kensedeni with a bell, no money for a third bell...), but it is the music's reality in the traditional context.

Concerning the first dundunba rhythm to play (this is a more personal point):
I would not start with kon/dundungbè, because this is one of the hardest to play (correctly). You have to be really inside to do this properly (sangban blocages and other signals, echauffements, play together sangban/djembé/dundunba, different parts...). I think Könöwulen, Balansondé (not played often in Hamana), the one that Billy calls Bilakörödundun or even Denmusoni are better to start with. Another rhythm that many people play "to early" is Soli - one of the hardest of the whole bunch IMO (if played more or less correctly). And Soli is a very special, THE special rhythm in the whole maninka-djembé music (at least in Kouroussa/Kankan), for it follows different bell lines than the other rhythms and so you won't learn for other rhythms, too, while working on Soli. But this is very important - as you explained very well concerning dundunbas: the more you do for one rhythm, the less you will have to work on the next one, because most variations happen to be in a way "the same".

I have had a look on your homepage, and after having read your opinion concerning djembé-accompagnements (excuse the french word you others!), I would like to add that this, too, is paid too much attention to in Europe (don't know about the States). In a village you will hardly see more than 2 djembé players (except from Baro sometimes) and the music doesn't need it. 1 djembé is enough, 2 is fine, 3 can be too much - that's my opinion. The less djembés you play, the clearer the solo (and it is the upper guinean reality).

I'm sorry to bring on some more or less critical remarks right after you first postings! But you go straight into it (which is very fine) and (as many of us) I got many ideas concerning the approach to traditional maninka music, too. By the way, I appreciate your activity and your will to share your experiences on the net! Would you tell me, where you live (France, I presume, but where? - I'm quite next to the border). France is the country with most good players world wide outside Africa. But there aren't so many people, who have a closer look on how the music is constructed (my experiences). That's what many Germans are more into (on the other hand side, we're much lazier concerning playing d;-) ).

Have a nice time and porte-toi bien !
Daniel Preissler/Konaté

[kawa]

Hi Afoba,

I think I read your posts on Donaba, you definitely know what you are talking about.

My perspective in general here was that you can learn effectively by working on actual dunun patterns (as opposed to artificial patterns as shown in the OP), and that you could learn more by focusing on less rhythms provided you chose them wisely (ie they each need a few key techniques you need to learn, but those techniques help you play all the other rhythms).

Also I don't view myself as a dununfola, especially lately where I had to stop playing the dununs for a while. Of course as a rule I know the dununs of the rhythms I want to play (I wonder how you can play a Dunumba otherwise).
In that post I was highlighting a general perspective that helped me learn more and faster. Mainly : tackle the technical difficulties one at a time, and do it organically by playing the kenkeni first (so that you are playing music the whole time)

Your reply allow me to precise what I was talking about :

*about traditional learning:
Playing the bell on a kensedeni is not the traditional way to learn it because there is not often a bell on the kensedeni. You are totally right.
I framed it more as a drill. Also I had in mind that people reading the post most definitely play with a bell on the kensedeni, because, as you put it, it is a very common way of playing in Europe and America.
Basically, considering that you'll play with a bell, the most effective way to feel comfortable with the dununs seems to me to start by the most simple patterns, and to work your way up towards more complex patterns.

*about the rhythms I listed
Maybe this will make more sense :

With Soliba you learn to stay on the beat, to keep an accompaniment, and you learn to coordinate the bell and the dunun with the most basic move.

Once you did that, with Kassa (assuming people play Mamady style), we add 1 more stroke with the stick and the other basic bell pattern.

Once this is done and mastered, we learn to play offbeat with Lafe, and we learn to play offbeat with endurance and stamina with Diansa malian style.

When this is done, I think you have all the basic patterns and moves to start playing the sangban and the dunumba in binary mode : you have mastered the 2 basic bell moves, and you can play on the beat and offbeat.
I take it the same way for ternary rhythms.

With Mendiani, you learn the basic bell pattern, the easiest for European / American ears, and the basic move with the stick.

With Sökö you learn another basic bell pattern, which is very difficult to learn and keep for many people.

WIth Soli, you learn the last basic bell pattern, totally offbeat. It can take even more time than Sökö to be mastered.

With Dunumba, you learn the Dunumba vibe on the kenkeni, totally offbeat all the time with the other dunus also offbeat oftentimes.

But once you did this and you mastered those kenkeni patterns, playing the other dunduns will be way easier.

*about the most important step
You make me realize I forgot to state the most important thing: LISTEN TO MUSIC, A LOT.
Some parts are very difficult to European / American ears. We tend to lack the cognitive grasp on them, especially about the offbeat parts. So we don't know how it blends with the other parts. Yet oftentimes we try to play them. It sounds mechanical, and it doesn't fit in.
So one key thing would be to listen to music with dunun to get familiar with it.


*about the Dunumba order
You are right, Kon is difficult, Konowulen or Demusoni way easier.
My point was : everything stems from that rhythm, so once you have it the others are easy to get.

*about Soli
I don't agree completely with you.
You know the tradition probably more than me, so I am pleased to hear your opinion on this.
However, don't you think that learning the dunun part is key ? The fundamental part is one of the easiest there is, so as a basic rhythm to learn it fits well, and you learn to play offbeat too when the rhythm is heated up.
What about the sangban ? If you get it well (with variations, heats, etc), don't you think the techniques you learn can help you for other rhythms ?
My general belief is : you can learn more with less, so I tend to squeeze everything I am doing and see how it can help me play other things.
But maybe there are things I am oblivious too, that more experienced teachers or more seasoned players can notice. Don't hesitate to state your opinion on that point.

*about the accompaniments
I am pleased that you read the article (English translation is coming soon), and even more pleased to hear your feedback. Don't hesitate to post in a comment if you disagree, it helps me with my writing.
When I said accompaniments are the bread and butter of djembe practice, I am NOT saying "the more accompaniment the better", far from it.
What I am saying is : forget about the solos, forget about learning 1 million things, make your practice be about accompanying often and always trying to improve your accompaniments, because it's the best way to learn effectively, to improve your technique, even to become a soloist. I wrote that because MANY people think the other way around, ie learning djembe is learning 20 rhythms with many solos the first year.
I definitely have to improve my writing if it came off as advocating multiplying the djembes. I personally think that 3+ is useless most of the time. "1 djembé is enough, 2 is fine, 3 can be too much" - totally agree.

Thanks for commenting and giving feedback.

I live in Paris, and I think I played with and know most of the good players you know in France (it's a small world!)

Kawa
http://kawatvinternational.wordpress.com/
http://kawatv.wordpress.com/

[Afoba]

Hello again Kawa and sorry for the delay!

I really appriciated your post and I choosed two small parts that really pleased me:

My perspective in general here was that you can learn effectively by working on actual dunun patterns (as opposed to artificial patterns as shown in the OP), and that you could learn more by focusing on less rhythms provided you chose them wisely (ie they each need a few key techniques you need to learn, but those techniques help you play all the other rhythms).

...

do it organically by playing the kenkeni first (so that you are playing music the whole time)

In general, I like your approach: less rhythms, less solos, but deeper!
And I see you thought a lot about how people can be thrown into it. I only have to say that I would never play the same kensedeni as you do on Lafè (Denabendundun, Wadaba) - probably from Famoudou - and on Sökö - probably from Mamady. I would do simple downbeat on both and never saw it play differently (in Upper Guinea).

Concerning Soli: Yes, the basic dundunba is quite simple, but there aren't many whites who manage to play the Hamana chauffe properly (single strokes offbeat) and sangban variations are quite hard to play, too. The hardest in my opinio is - well, kensedeni. You have to be quite tough to stay in while the others are doing chauffes and variations - for me one of the hardest parts of the whole music - kensedeni on soli! You might not know the extra parts (like different rhythms) that are played in soli at a real soli fête (when men are dancing), and for sure you won't start teaching the kensedeni on this. But I keep saying that the whole bunch of dundunbas is quite easy compared to soli (concerning variations, changing of speed and other quick reactions that won't appear in dundunbas).
Then you got the different bell lines:
/x x x x xx x/x (soli sangban bell line)
/o x c c xx x/o (soli sangban)

(a)/x xx xx x x /x
(b)/x xx x xx x /x
(c)rarely: /x x xx xx x /x (other bell lines of rhythms with a phrazing in the same direction)

So Soli is a very special exception, probably the proof that soli has another history than the other rhythms. The only other "fake" or "special" rhythms (that don't fit in the general rules) are: Sankaranba (known as donaba, which is at least strange, because the donaba song goes on a classical bell line (a) an not on the sankaranba bell line - probably Famoudou just didn't find another song for it in one situation and now the whole world... well...) and some soli derivates (sometimes played for Dya fêtes, too) - don't hang me, if I forgot one!. Even konkoba is "more normal" for Hamana music than soli, IMO.

The hardest ones for us to play are: Konkoba, Soli, Den ("Mendiani" according to people who have already been in Europe or are born in CKY d;-) ). Dundunbas come after that.

OK, the explanation has taken more part than my bigger point which was to say that I am totally convinced by your approach to thinking and teaching the music!! And that the links given by James are (sorry James) helps for drummers or open-to-everything-percussionists, but not for dundun players. You are very right here, Kawa, better start with something, you really want to play afterwards (that makes sense and "exists") and chosse the simplest of it!!!!

Greatings from FR to Paris,
Daniel

[Afoba]

you will already have seen that I forgot the sangban stroke on the 4th sownbeat in my little notation!
this happens to me sometimes (when writing).

and of course I wanted to say "chOOse the simplest of it" (here I'm still trying).

have a nice time all of you
d

[Afoba]

hello Bubudi,
I post the Sankaranba photo here, as I mentioned these rhythms in this thread.