Park or Pull Out

[ubba]

Drum etiquette, how loud to play and where is it not appropriate to put our hands on the drums we love? Is it ok to play in the local park or should we keep driving until we are far outside of the city and into the countryside? Where do you all play and do you play "safe" hehehehe not letting others catch you in the act and scold you because you are being lewd with your love of the drum while in plain earshot of the locals?

I’m sure this subject has been discussed but it is something that has been on my mind and I was interested in other comments, good ideas and tales. Some time ago I met a woman from Ghana at the local street market that is open every Thursday night through the summer, she sells drums and a few other interesting things picked up when back home and it is from her that I bought my first good sized jembe to practice on. We all must be prepared in life because one never knows when or where the love of our life will make his/her appearance, for me it was a drum with a tight goat skin head. I also met my new best friend in those next few weeks after the purchase of my drum… You Tube, I didn’t know where else to turn for advice on my new relationship and You Tube had lots to say, so we hung out together like the best of buddy’s. Thankfully I found a few good teachers in the last year and while You Tube is still a good friend, my teachers are invaluable as far as relationships go and they have given me some really good friendly advice on how to keep faithful in my new love affair. In the process I took another lover, a big beautiful drum from Senegal and man alive the whole freakin neighborhood can hear us talking while we are under the sheets!

The wonderful woman that I bought my first big drum from likes me to play at her stall at the street market, it makes people curious and brings in customers, not to mention we enjoy much talking together. I come to the market often so whenever my Ghanaian friend sees me I am invited to sit down and play one of her drums. It is fun watching people dance as they go by or have others come up and drum with me but one day the woman in the booth next to hers asked me if I could be quiet because she thought the drum upset her customers, I stopped immediately and talked to my friend about what she had said, I didn’t want to make waves. My Ghanaian friend told me I should continue to play because that other woman was always causing trouble but still it made me uncomfortable and I decided not to drum anymore that night. A couple of weeks went by and after running into my friend at the market, she asked me to play one of her drums again and not worry about the noise because people loved the drums, so I sat down and began to play. To be sure I did have fun playing and interacting with people but I could feel the other vendor’s unhappiness over my drum playing, she finally brought up her displeasure with my playing once more and I have decided never to play there again.

There was another instance when a man was playing a jembe in the same area as the market is held in front of the bank, it is almost park like with trees, grass and many places to sit, guitar players are not uncommon there. I was sitting in earshot of this man while he played the jembe and a guy with a suit coat on, probably a lunch break walked up to the jembe player and in a very loud voice with a look of unhappiness said, “do you have to play that thing here”? I was hoping he would continue playing to be honest but the question was there once again, where do I play?

Some people I have noticed truly dislike the jembe, I was in our local music store recently and saw a jembe that caught my eye, I began playing it and a man walked in, I stopped playing and he began eyeballing the drum sets, at one point he looked over at me and asked, “do you play drum set”, I replied, “no, I only play the djembe and dabble a bit in kpanlogo and bugarabou”, he shot back, “sometimes I hear those in the park and just want to rip somebody’s head off when they play those”. This rather strong statement he made to me only served to make me more curious, here is a man that obviously loves percussion but not the jembe, I wanted more information as he sat at a drum set and began to play. I must admit I loved hearing him play and a few others came into the percussion room to listen as well but shortly another salesman came in and asked him to hold the noise down as they were having music lessons upstairs and were complaining. It was not long until it was just the drum set man and me in the room together and I told him that I loved his playing, I also mentioned that somebody else in my neighborhood played drum set in his garage and a few of my neighbors have complained about the noise…I asked him if it would be appropriate for my neighbors to rip his head off, he replied, “point well made”.

I think to some this may be a strange statement/question but I am going to make it anyhow. Do you think that certain people have a feeling that they own the space they are in? So far I find that many kids are very curious when they hear the jembe and for the most part young adults and teens seem to really come alive when they hear a jembe being played but some people become almost unreasonable in their dislike of it and insistence that it not be played. I do believe in being “in tune” with your environment and courteous, always having an awareness if others are being disturbed is a good thing. Is the beach off limits for the drum, is the local park off limits, I try very hard to play softly almost inaudibly until I get the feeling of the people around me. Now what to do about those four walls at home, do the neighbors next door hear me too often and how and where do you all play the right way, the right place and the right time? I have made a point of trying to communicate with many of my neighbors and see how they feel about my playing, so far it has been a good response but I have not talked to all of them and I wonder if they are just being kind at times, I know that my jembe is loud but to me it is beautiful loud and rich.

One last story, there is a local park near the bay, I often drive over during the week and practice a bit with either the jembe or bugarabou, during the week there are much less people around than the weekend so I often have a lot of space to myself. I was playing my drum on a warm and sunny day while looking out over the bay as a group of kids 20 or more strong walked by with a few adults as supervisors…I got the thumbs up from all the teachers and the students as I was playing so on I continued. Next folks to walk by me were an older couple so out of respect I began to play very softly…one of the older ladies jiggled her booty a bit and smiled at me so I played a bit louder and we both smiled. Low and behold when I’m feeling very good a big SUV drives in with a kayak sitting on top, obviously he was going to enjoy some boating on the bay, he looked over at me playing and I got a very dirty sour look so I stopped playing, he mumbled under his breath that I shouldn’t be playing in the park so I loaded up the drum and drove to the top of the hill, out of his presence. I began to play away at the top of that hill overlooking the bay and the park ranger told me that my drum was beautiful and it was a great spot to play. I must have played for over an hour or more before I packed up my drum to head out. As I got in the car I saw the SUV with the kayak drive up, he got out of his car and looked all irritated, he walked over to where I had been playing and looked left, right and left right again, he then got back in his SUV and drove off…I think he was looking for me because the sound of the drum probably drifted over the bay, wouldn‘t you say.

[Djembe-nerd]

Ok, here is my take

Home : You need to be aware of the neighbours attitude and interestes and adjust, I don't have to, I play normal volume at home, no problems from neighbours yet.

Rented place/Studio : No problem I pay so I drum.

Public Place : Its public, if I am there first, and anyone has a problem, he/she has a choice to go to other place. If I and not first, I usually ask if there is a group or something going on, otherwise I shift to different location. I usually chose a place in the park that is least visited, since when you get together to learn new things, people are usually a distraction, though they enjoy it all the time.

[dununbabe]

remember that the djembe is an instrument that communicates..... It REALLY depends on the situation.... If you are in a marketplace and you start talking loud over everyone else, how can the other vendors do their business?
Most people go to the park to relax and enjoy the sounds of nature. The park is a public place. If everyone is not respectful of everyone else, who can enjoy the park? Finding a place out in nature away from SHARED SPACE is a good thing to do. OR, you can get a bunch of djembe friends together and rent a space. One other thing is that it depends on the SOUND. For example A drum circle with beginners and or folks with no training may not be as pleasing to some as an advanced performance group onstage at an outside festival.