rhythm signals are not traditional
say with me cappuccino mocha latte drink hello everyone today's video i would like to share
with you on djembe rhythm signal now at different djembe community there's different way to call it
some people call it djembe call some people call it djembe break some people call it djembe signal
in this video i will use the term rhythm signal for us to refer to the rhythm that we're going
to play to start a percussion ensemble or a rhythm groove all right so when we say rhythm signal
the common rhythm signal that we hear every time now some of you will also hear this version okay but that's not the only type of rhythm signal
in a traditional djembe rhythms generally we have three types of rhythm signal binary rhythm
signal ternary 1 rhythm signal ternary 2 rhythm signal so these are the three main type
of rhythm signal that i'm going to be showing you and teaching you as well and also to demonstrate
to you how to apply this rhythm signal you ready so the first type of signal binary rhythm
signal why do we say binary because when we count in every pulse
there's a subdivision of two or four – one two, one two or
one two three four, one two three four one two three four, one two three four okay now
binary rhythm signal commonly will be this or okay now these two rhythm signals are very
similar in fact the background story is that um the grandmaster djembe grandmaster
Famoudou Konate okay commonly use this signal and in the style of grandmaster
Mamady Keïta he will use this signal now at this point i also want to share with
you that rhythm signals are not traditional okay because traditionally in the village they
don't require rhythm signal in the village music the whole idea is the singer will start
singing and then the rest of the musician uh that has a music part on the instrument or drum
instrument that plays along with the singer would just join in naturally okay and rhythm
signal uh only came about much later when there are performing troops that are created
because you need rhythm signal to signal to the dancer to change their steps or to when there's a
performance arrangement you need a rhythm signal to kind of navigate the whole percussion zone
to a different part of the music okay so bear in mind rhythm signals are not traditional but
it has uh became commonly used for djembe classes djembe dance classes and also djembe performances
binary signal okay i will use this rhythm now there are no specific
handling all right you can choose whichever handling that is that is comfortable for
you but definitely we don't want to play like this okay now for me i prefer uh alternating my
hands all throughout the rhythm so like this one two three four there's one option another
common option that you can use there's a small part that I double my hand
there another third option that you can use okay all these three options are possible
to use and they are practical now for binary signal essentially it's a four count rhythm to
uh signal to the rest of the position to start so it doesn't have to be tru-tutu-tu-tutu takata
okay you can explore and be creative with your own rhythm signal but the criteria is it
has to be four count and the rhythm signal has to stop on the fourth count so that the rest
of the players in your class or on your ensemble have this little one count time space
to react and play for example this following uh demonstration can also
be binary rhythm signal one two three four or one two three four or one two three four okay now i'm going to show you how to apply our binary rhythm signal we're going to use our
common rhythm signal tru-tutu-tu-tutu takata are you ready so what you heard just now uh is a sangban
rhythm from the song Kuku so Kuku is a common rhythm we play in djembe classes and djembe
communities this is a signal to apply for Kuku now in this case the sangban is
playing a two count rhythm cycle now our rhythm signal is a four count cycle so
from the moment the sangban rhythm starts okay we have to be aware that it's going on a four count
cycle all right and then we apply our signal on one on count number one okay
i'll demonstrate for you again so do take note we should never place
our rhythm signal on count number three alright or else it will screw
up the whole rhythm phrase next demonstration is a four count rhythm cycle on
a sangban okay and with the name is called Sofa i'll show that again and i'll count for you
where count number one to four are.
Ready next is a 8-count rhythm cycle on the sangban
that i want to show you so previously when it's four count it's pretty straightforward because
our rhythm signal is also a four count phrase as well but now we're going to play along to the
song called Dallah this is a pattern for Dallah so earlier on i've showed you a binary rhythm
signal applied to different types of traditional rhythms the key things that we need to note
are the rhythm cycle of each traditional rhythm and therefore we'll be able to apply the rhythm
signal accordingly but there are some traditional rhythms that has their own unique rhythm signal
which means they don't use tru-tutu-tu-tutu takata one example is one of my favorite rhythms Kuku des Maoka all
right i'll show you one two three four, one two another rhythm that has its own unique signal is
a popular dance class rhythm called Sinte alright i'll show you
one two three four, one two three four next type of signal i'm going to show you we call
ternary 1 signal now basically ternary rhythms are rhythms that in every pulse we have
a subdivision of three.
One two three one two three, one two three, one two three
in our western musical notation we usually call that 6/8 timing or 12/8 timing but in
uh traditional djembe rhythms we have two types of ternary rhythms we call them ternary 1
and ternary 2 now i'm going to show you ternary 1 rhythm signal now we call it
ternary 1 rhythm because the emphasis is on the first and third subdivision in
every pulse if you say one two three one two three, one two three, one two three
one-three one-three one-three one if i clap on a faster tempo usually we call that a swing
rhythm so the rhythm signal is literally a swing rhythm one two three four i'll show you again one two three four now in terms of handling you
can do it alternate hands or you can also do this now the starting flam this technique
in percussion term we call it flam you can do it left-right or right-left it doesn't
matter if you're left-handed or right-handed drummer all right next i'm going to show you
how do we apply this rhythm signal so what you just heard is a rhythm called Konden
Konden is a mask rhythm from the north east region of guinea in fact there are many different
versions of Konden what you just heard just now it's a Konden version from the region of
wassolon where Mamady Keïta comes from now the pattern is a four count phrase one two three four
our signal is also a four count phrase so it fits perfectly nice so just make sure when
we apply the signal it's on count number one of the phrase i will show you again next is also a four count
sangban rhythm of the song Garangedon the next uh rhythm i want to show you on how
we apply our ternary 1 signal is the song Mendiani and this is a tricky
one i'll show you first so uh it's a little bit tricky in trying to feel the four count pulse in that sangban
pattern okay i'm gonna show you again because most important you must know the sangban
phrase well then you can apply your signal okay for ternary 1 rhythm there is also
a rhythm that has its own unique signal that rhythm is called
Sorsornet i will show you first now for this signal i'll say it slowly for you tukutu tukutu tuku tata one two three four okay now this also fulfils one of the requirements
in fact the basic requirement of rhythm signal is that the rhythm signal rhythm has to
end on count number four all right i will show that again but at a speed that usually
uh it is supposed to be played at ready earlier on you have seen the different types
of ternary 1 rhythm signal and the different songs that you can use to apply now i'm going
to explore into ternary 2 rhythm signal ternary 2 rhythm basically uh focus on
the first two subdivisions in every pulse so in ternary 2 rhythm we have
three subdivision in every pulse one two three, one two three
but we focus on the first two one-two, one-two, one-two, one-two
one-two, one-two a typical ternary 2
rhythm signal goes like this one two three four you got that i'll show you again
one two three four now from my teaching experience a lot
of people always have problem with this rhythm signal but i have a little cheat sheet
here you can use say with me
cappuccino mocha latte drink okay each word is one pulse cappuccino latte
drink and be natural about it when we say mocha or latte we don't say mo-ka la-tte because
if we we don't want to end up uh playing because that will be a binary rhythm feel all
right naturally when we say mocha or latte we say mocha latte tata, tata
that's the ternary 2 feeling cappuccino mocha latte drink cappuccino mocha latte drink now on the drum you can start with left you can start with
right it doesn't matter if you're left-handed or right-handed but you have to do it uh in the
alternate hand setting okay one two three four this handling is strongly recommended
all right do not play like this okay because uh this the second option
will kind of uh screw your feeling up or kind of mess you up when you want to apply in your performance or in your class okay i
do it slowly again one two three four faster one two three four even faster one two three four one more time
three go one last time
three go now i'm gonna explore how to apply ternary rhythm 2
signal on different types of traditional rhythms first we go with a two-count rhythm cycle
on the sangban written name Tiriba ready now our ternary 2 rhythm
signal is also a four count phrase in this case the sangban
pattern is a two count phrase but still we need to be aware and
see in a four count phrase so we can apply our rhythm signal
correctly okay i'll show you next i will be showing you how to
apply a ternary 2 rhythm signal on a four count sangban
rhythm cycle rhythm name Djaa and finally we want to explore applying ternary 2
rhythm signal on an eight count rhythm cycle on the sangban okay a very common eight count
rhythm cycle on the sangban would be the rhythm Soko all right let's listen
to the sangban pattern first now the thing with applying rhythm
signal on the eight count cycle now again in the village remember i mentioned
earlier in the video there is no concept of rhythm signal they start naturally they stop naturally
but when we have signal it's because we want to apply signal for dance class or for a performance
arrangement now especially for dance class dance class students and teachers always count in
eight counts so it is important that we apply our rhythm signal at a count or at a time or in the
moment where the dance feels complete all right so it has to be on the count number five
one two three four five six seven eight signal has to come on count number five in this case i will count for
you uh with the Soko pattern on the sangban now in ternary 2 rhythms there are
also rhythms with its own unique signal one such rhythm is Djabara
i will show you one two three four so the rhythm Djabara
is a four count cycle on the sangban our rhythm signal, well
is a three count rhythm signal but if you combine with the break
it's a full eight count i'll sing for you one two three four five six seven eight we start rhythm
to put it simply to apply our rhythm signal for Djabara uh it has to be on count number
one of the sangban cycle okay and it starts with a roll four okay and two tones likewise doesn't
matter if you start with left or right hand or okay and then the whole ensemble will respond
to then break then we go into rhythm i will show you now on the application ready one two three four five six seven eight so now you have seen binary rhythm signal
ternary 1 rhythm signal and ternary 2 rhythm signal before we end the video i want to
show another two types of rhythm with its own unique rhythm signals
one such rhythm is the rhythm Koredjuga now Koredjuga is a six count cycle not four count or eight count but six count
i will show you one two three four five six
one two three another type of rhythm that has
its own unique rhythm signal is the style of rhythm we call dununba rhythm
here is one example one two three four wow okay so there was a lot of information okay
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