Low tuned djembes

[Carl]

I recently reheaded and wrapped one of my lead drums. We had a gig coming and I did the tuning and wrapping pretty quickly. It sounded great for the gig (high and loud) but then after a week of rain the tuning has dropped dramatically!

The funny thing is... I love the way this drum sounds right now! It helps that I have a Ladji Camara CD in the car right now. Also, I have been listening to a lot of Famoudou's older recordings getting ready for his class a few weeks ago.

It looks like I need to buy a couple more djembes! I like the idea of having different drums for different rhythms/styles. As it is I have two lead drums and an "emergency backup" in case the other two are not available. Saddly, it is a struggle for me to have a drum ready, even with three to choose from!

Thoughts?
C

[e2c]

I *love* lower-tuned djembes! And I think Famoudou's choice of a lower tuning works great for what he wants, in terms of an ensemble sound - and yet, you can always pick him out.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a big fan of super-cranked drums in general. But then, I'm sold on duns and bass djembe, so what else can you expect?

[bops]

Famoudou once said that his problem with the high-tuned jembes is that they're tuned to the kenkeni, when a lead jembe should be tuned to the sangban.

[Carl]

Famoudou once said that his problem with the high-tuned jembes is that they're tuned to the kenkeni, when a lead jembe should be tuned to the sangban.

On one hand, this makes a lot of sense. The sangba is the center of the music and everything should relate to that.

On the other hand, wouldn't having the solo in the same pitch range as the sangba muddy the rhythm? Or was he talking about the accompaniment parts? Both?

Some day I would loved to be involved in a 2 hour "question and answer" session with these guy's (Mamady, Famoudou et al.) instead of the usual 2 hours of djembe playing.

Not that there's anything wrong with the djembe and dunun playing...

On the up side, I am beginning to get that with Mahiri (who will be coming up again in August!)

C

[e2c]

Famoudou once said that his problem with the high-tuned jembes is that they're tuned to the kenkeni, when a lead jembe should be tuned to the sangban.

That makes complete sense - thanks so much for posting, bops!

[bops]

On the other hand, wouldn't having the solo in the same pitch range as the sangba muddy the rhythm? Or was he talking about the accompaniment parts? Both?

Not really, especially not with Famoudou layin' down! The jembe has a different timbre than sangban. The jembe also occupies a much, much broader harmonic range.

Bass, tone and slap are simply different harmonics of the open pitch of the drum head, similar to those created on a string instrument by muting the string in a particular spot while plucking. The harmonic on a string is going to be a third, fifth, or octave. But on a jembe, there are many more possible harmonics, due to the fact that the surface is circular rather than linear, and the body has this incredibly dynamic resonating chamber.

Stay with me here, I'm getting to the point

So if the tone of the jembe is tuned to the sangban, then the bass and slap will be in harmony with the sangban. Famoudou's recordings demonstrate the highest degree of perfection when it comes to the tuning of drums and bells. On top of that, his tone is so pure and slap so rich, that his ensemble comes through sounding like a beautiful sonic tapestry.

[e2c]

I appreciate hearing more about the physics behind this, bops - and as far as tuning (of all instruments) on Famoudou's recordings, yes! I'm thinking that he must know a great deal about miking as well, because the final mixes have an incredible depth and feel to them.

[Carl]

So if the tone of the jembe is tuned to the sangban, then the bass and slap will be in harmony with the sangban. Famoudou's recordings demonstrate the highest degree of perfection when it comes to the tuning of drums and bells. On top of that, his tone is so pure and slap so rich, that his ensemble comes through sounding like a beautiful sonic tapestry.

Ok, is there a way to "bookmark" this post? I don't have time to reply, but I would like to get back to this sometime soon....

Anyway, I've set a notification for the thread, hopefully I'll get back to this soon....

C

[e2c]

Carl - you could always bookmark this page in your browser, right? (Just sayin'... )

[Carl]

Carl - you could always bookmark this page in your browser, right? (Just sayin'... )

Yes that's a good idea... Unfortuntaly I check this forum from at least 4 differnt computers.... 2 at work, my laptop (sometimes from work, sometimes from home) and my wife's computer at home, if mine is not plugged in....



I'd have a 5th computer, but I don't have internet access at the studio...



C

[Carl]

So if the tone of the jembe is tuned to the sangban, then the bass and slap will be in harmony with the sangban. Famoudou's recordings demonstrate the highest degree of perfection when it comes to the tuning of drums and bells. On top of that, his tone is so pure and slap so rich, that his ensemble comes through sounding like a beautiful sonic tapestry.

Ok, is there a way to "bookmark" this post? I don't have time to reply, but I would like to get back to this sometime soon....

Anyway, I've set a notification for the thread, hopefully I'll get back to this soon....

C

Ok, let's get into this!

I see two readings of "tuned to" in this discussion, and how you interpret that can make a big difference in how you tune and what the end result would be.

The first reading would be the "soft" version, meaning "tuned to sound good with". So the fundamentals of the individual drums would all be related in a relatively simple way. (the simplest meaning of "fundamental" is the lowest possible note an instrument can make)

For example, the Dununs could be tuned to a chord, say A : C : E then the djembe could be tuned to a C one octave above the Sangba and be tuned "to" the sangba, but still be "higher". Drums tuned this way would be "in harmony" with each other but not in the same sound space... [Ok, look for a new thread on this in the near future... ]

However, if one reads "tuned to" to mean "tuned to the exact same pitch" then we have the concern that I was wondering about. In "classical composition", one would give serious consideration to how each individual instrument would be heard, and what affect would that have? When you have instruments that sound in the same octave (pitch range) then you would give careful consideration to how they played together.

If they play the same exact thing, then you are producing a specific "tone color" it wouldn't sound the same if either instrument played it by itself. However, if each instrument played something similar, but not the same, it can be confusing to the listener. Now, this could be the goal of the composer, but you would have to be very careful of how you did it to keep the final affect clear on not confusing for the listener.

Now, finally, to my point....

If the accompaniment djembes are tuned so that their tones sound the same pitch as the sangba, then the listener could easily hear the combination of instruments as one rhythm. Since this would be stable, it would not be very confusing (like the example above of two instruments playing the exact same part) However, if the solo djembe was tuned the same way, then the combination of the rhythms would be changing often (at least as often as the dance steps did!) and I think this would be a more challenging "listen" for the audience and possibly even the dancer!

I know that, for myself, with my western background my preference is to have the accompaniment djembes tuned near to or a bit above the kenkeni, and the soloist tuned above the accompaniments. (though in my band, everyone gets to solo at one point or the other, so it is not uncommon for the "accompaniment" to be higher than the "soloist" at any given moment....)

This is a conversation that I would LOVE to have with any of the "greats" particularly those who are versed in both the traditional or village style as well as the ballet and modern styles.

Thoughts?
C

[bubudi]

i like the concept of tuning in harmony with the sangban and kenkeni and come to think of it, i think that's what i've been doing intuitively. but personally i don't think it should be done mathematically like tuning to exact 5ths, etc. other african instruments like kora and bala which are melodic are generally played with tunings that differ from western scales. it's a different aesthetic. climatic changes also come into it.

[Dennis103]

"Tuning" with drums works differently anyway since the overtones are not pure harmonics - this is a result of the physics of drums / membranes. But I get what you mean, I try to tune my douns to a chord, I select the bells to have clearly different pitch (I really like that, hearing 3 bell melody lines interweave!), and sometimes on my off days my djembe can sound out of tune with itself, I get weird harmonics that make it sound flat. It makes sense to tune the sangban to be in harmony with the lead djembe or v.v. so their combined melody will fuse into one whole for the listener. The african players in my dance class often select a lower tuned djembe for certain dances, rather than what they call the 'stage performance pitch' high tuned djembe, because it is too distinct from the other djembe's and the douns. My own djembe is tuned lower too, but the reason is that the extra high overtones that make my slap really high, are still possible. If I tune the djembe higher, those overtones disappear and my slap is lower, funnily enough.

[Carl]

So if the tone of the jembe is tuned to the sangban, then the bass and slap will be in harmony with the sangban. Famoudou's recordings demonstrate the highest degree of perfection when it comes to the tuning of drums and bells. On top of that, his tone is so pure and slap so rich, that his ensemble comes through sounding like a beautiful sonic tapestry.

Ok, is there a way to "bookmark" this post? I don't have time to reply, but I would like to get back to this sometime soon....

Anyway, I've set a notification for the thread, hopefully I'll get back to this soon....

C

Hey... if you look at the bottom of a thread, you see...

Board index Unsubscribe topic Bookmark topic The team • Delete all board cookies • All times are UTC - 5 hours

Heh... who knew?

C

[e2c]

Back to the tuning thing: I''d say you'd want to aim for the general range of whatever it is, keeping in mind that duns will drop a lot in pitch during humid weather.

And I think I'd be more concerned about drums sounding good together than anything else...

But that's just me.

I hear you on the "stage performance pitch" thing, and tend to feel that many super-cranked djembes actually lose a lot of their range and depth. To my ears, many of them sound "flat" (meaning that there's just no real depth to the sound, that they're limited - not that they're tuned to a flat pitch in some scale or other).