The next bit of technique we’re going to
look at is the slap. So, the slap, a lot of people focus on the
slap and a lot of people who are new to drumming have difficulty with the slap. Personally, I think the tone is actually more
important, I’ll explain why in a minute, but I’ll show you how to get a slap first. So, there are lots of different ways to get
slaps, here’s just one way to get you in the ballpark.
So, as opposed to the tone, where I recommended
you have this bit here on the edge of the drum, for the slap, when you’re first starting,
try just moving in so this paddy bit here is on the edge of the drum. So when you’re hitting the drum, instead
of there for a tone, for a slap it’s about there. Again, when you get really good technique,
you want as little movement as possible. For now, this is just to help you get the
different sounds. So a couple of ways to think about it: up
here is the same as the tone, so you’re starting from up here, your fingers are together,
relaxed but not floppy and not stiff, so kinda together, and your wrist is back. And, what’s happening is you’re coming
down like this, hitting this bit on the edge, so this bit of your hand’s hitting the edge,
and when that hits the edge, there should be a little bit more of an angle to your fingers
so that when this hits the edge there’s space between your fingers and the drum head.
So I’ll show you a couple of exercises to
help build that up. First thing, just practise doing that – no
sound. And I know it’s hard to do no sound, you
want to do sound – no sound. So no sound, starting from up here, and making
sure that when you hit the drum, when this bit your hand makes contact with the edge
of the drum, there’s space beneath your fingers. So I don’t want your fingers curved like
that, I want space under there. So what might be different from the tone is
my wrist is a little bit lower from where it was before. For a tone, my wrist is up here. When you’re starting with the slap, try
just dropping your wrist a little bit to get that angle.
And then, once you’ve got that, try doing
a little bit harder, but kind of stopping your fingers from hitting the drum, so like
this… So I’m hitting it harder, but I’m kinda
holding my fingers back, and they’re stiff. So this is just an exercise, not how you actually
do it. So if you make a little sound, that’s OK. So hands coming back here, and just, you know,
a little bit of sound sometimes. And then once you’re doing that, I want
you to relax your fingers when you hit it, like this… Not so they end up on the drum like that,
I still want them to end up off the drum here when you finish. So like that… And that’s the slap, that’s it. So pretty much, what’s happening, this bit
of your hand’s hitting the edge, and then your fingers are just bouncing on their own
– bouncing down, bouncing back – and just your fingertips are hitting the drum.
But I think a key when you’re starting is
not think about the finger tips, think about this bit hitting the edge, and let your hand
bounce, like that. When you’re letting it bounce, don’t be
too lazy, don’t let it sort of stay floppy, let it come back like this… And once you’ve got that sound happening,
make sure you bring your hand back to where you started, like this… And that’s a slap. So in singing the rhythms, remember a bass
is ‘goong’ or something like that, tone is ‘ding’ or something like that, slaps
are ‘pa’, ‘ta’ – it depends. We’ll see. Try and keep track of what I use – see if
I’m consistent. So, slaps, pa ta. So, tone, slap… You hear the difference there? So the point I wanted to make earlier about
why I think tones are, in a way, more important than slaps, is that slaps can sound a lot
of different ways – all you have to get is that high pitched ringing sound..
Like
that… and you can sometimes get that, if you’re tones aren’t clean what will happen
is you’ll sometimes get a little bit of that high pitched sound creeping into your
tones. If your tones… are sort of like this, like
if your fingers are a bit too apart or floppy or something… you can get that sort of sound… Rather than this… you get this…. So if you’re finding your tones sound like
that, the problem is it doesn’t leave enough difference between your tone and your slap. So the reason the slap sounds good is because
your tone sounds really round and clean. If your tone sounds round… and your slap
sounds sharp… the difference is good. If your slap sounds sharp… and your tone
kinda isn’t clean… you don’t get anywhere near the definition. So, I would recommend, first thing, when you’re
working on slaps, don’t just hit it harder – you’ll hurt your hand.
When you’re working on slaps, start with
the basic thing like I showed you, doing it with no sound, make sure your hand’s doing
the right thing without risking hurting yourself. And then, gradually do it a little bit harder,
and what will happen over time is you’ll start to get a feel for what your hands feel
like when you do a slap, and then you’ll start, kind of, having more control over it
– it’s a kinaesthetic thing, your hands will learn it. So, once you’ve got that, then work on your
tones and make sure your tones are really clean. And careful when you’re working on your
tones, make sure you don’t end up just locking your wrist – the tendency is to kinda get
a good angle for your tones, and then you lock your wrist because you don’t want to
risk compromising that angle, but what that does, is it means you can’t play as fast
or as powerfully, because you’re not getting any of that movement of your wrist.
So, what you want to do is, you know, if you
end up doing it that’s fine, but be careful that you don’t end up playing like this…
for the sake of getting clean tones. You want to always make sure your sound’s
coming back here, and you’re getting your wrist involved. You’ll thank me for it later. So, tones… and slaps… They should all, your hand should be back
here… Another thing to be aware of when you’re
doing slaps: don’t curve your hands up here. The tendency sometimes is to get in the position
for the slap all the way back here. You want your hands to be the same back here
for a tone as for a slap. So pretty much from here, up until about here,
tones and slaps should look pretty much the same. And then it changes in this last little bit. And that will give you more efficiency, which
means you can play faster. Everyone wants to play faster. So that’s slaps. – Learn how to play djembe and other African
drumming with African Drumming Online