Following on from the earlier video I did
showing the muffled slaps, which is strictly speaking a technique from drums like this
kpanlogo drum, but I showed you how to do it on the djembe, and I showed you an exercise
to practise it like this… So what that helps you work on is your ‘pitter
patter’. Which sounds like this… It’s all these little tips and taps that
you put in between the hits to change the way the thing feels. And if you’re just starting to learn, sometimes
it’s too hard to put it in there – it’s too many little hits and you need a lot of
control and finesse to incorporate it into your playing, but if you’re practising muffled
slaps, I think it’s a good way to start, focusing on that pitter patter. So, the exercise I showed you before like
this… where you’re doing tap tap slap slap… that’s a good thing to practise,
and if you slow it right down and you’re actually thinking tap tap slap slap, that’s
alright, it’s OK to start there. The feel’s not going to be there but doesn’t
matter, you’re just trying to get the different levels of control in your hands.
If you can get to the level where you’re
a bit faster, you can start feeling the groove coming out… And you can do, like, little things with your
shoulders as well. And your eyebrows. That helps
the groove, like this… So that’s a good exercise to help work on
your pitter patter. There are a few other things you can do if
you want to focus on that explicitly. So, one, you may or may have not heard the
bell rhythm I’m about to show you, but if you haven’t yet, you will soon. You can play it on the drum, it goes like
this: ken-ny ken-ny ka, cha cha. And if you try and put it on the drum, try
and put the pitter patter in between, like this… It can be any pattern, it’s just this is
one that’s a common pattern that we’re going to use a lot. And you probably already know it – if you’ve
done any African drumming before, it’s possible you’ve heard this.
So what I’m doing there is playing the bell
– kenny kenny ka cha cha – but I’m playing on this grid of pitter patter. So my hands aren’t stopping moving the whole
time I’m playing, I’m sort of laying out this grid for myself, and every hit’s going
to be somewhere on this grid… So one way to approach that – there’s
kinda two ends to approach it from – one is just start by playing the rhythm, or start
by playing the pitter patter… 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a…
and then just try and bring the hits in, and see if you can keep your hands, my hands are
just doing this, really. It’s like when you’re walking, you’re
not thinking about walking, you just keep going, but then when you start having to emphasise
one foot over the other that might make it difficult… I’ve never actually tried that, you should
try it.
Let me know if you fall over. So, my hands are just going like this, and
I’m trying to just put the hits in, I’m thinking ‘kenny kenny ka cha cha’… So I’m not really doing the technique correctly,
I’m just showing you how to get the idea. And mucking it up. That doesn’t matter too much. So that’s one way, is just get the pitter
patter and see if you can just jump in with the hits. That might or might not work. The other way is slowing it right down and
thinking about every hit, and then gradually slowing it up from there. So the way that works is I’m doing tone
tap tap tone.
That’s the first bit. Tone tap tap tone… Again, tone tap tap tone. And then, from there, tone tap tap tone tap
tap tone. Like this… Again… That’s the first bit. If you need to stop this, try it a few times,
go back, that’s fine. That’s why it’s on video. So we’re going, after that, ding ta ta ding
ta ta ding ta ta ta – three taps… So you’re trying to get the difference between
your tones and taps – if you have to slow it down more, that’s fine. Ding ta ta ding ta ta ding ta ta ta… And then from there, the last bit, ding ta
ding ta ta ta, like this… So you’re going ding ta ta ding ta ta ding
ta ta ta ding ta ding ta ta ta… So, maybe you have to do it slower than this…
and I’m not really worrying too much about the technique of my taps.
They’re just little taps for now, to fill
the time and to get myself used to filling that gap. So ideally those taps are nearly inaudible
– I’m playing them a little bit more heavily so you can hear them. Ding ta ta ding ta ta ding ta ta ta ding ta
ding ta ta ta… So once you can do that, then try and make
the taps a little bit softer, and make the tones a little bit louder, like this… So that’s using that as a basis for adding
some of those muffled slaps in… and playing it around that bell pattern.
So the pattern doesn’t really matter, you
can work out something that works for you. The bell pattern’s a good one because it
makes you move from your right to your left hand, but, you know, anything will work. As long as it’s consistent and as long as
you’re working on getting those taps happening. And it might be quite frustrating at first
because… it’s hard… Welcome to drumming. So another thing you can practise is just
moving between tones and taps, slaps and taps, tones and slaps and taps, things like this..
tone tone tap tap slap slap tap tap… and because I’m practising this particular type
of technique, remember my slaps are these muffled slaps.
That’s why I’m doing this on a kpanlogo. If you’ve got a djembe, try and do those
different slaps. – Learn how to play djembe and other African
drumming with African Drumming Online.