Respect your drums and your fellow players

Perhaps when some of us hear the drums, we have a spiritual experience. When we touch it for the first time, it feels good and we can (or at least think we can) express ourselves immediately. It really does feel great to play for the first time. Experts from the music field always recommend learninghow to play some basic rhythms and how to hit the drum correctly at the bare minimum.There is just no getting around the fact that no matter what you want to do on the drum be it djembe, dununs (djundjun), congas, bongos, dumbec or whatever, you still have to spend some time learning how to play it correctly.It is amazing when I go to certain places I travel to every year and the same drummers are there and they have not improved at all and they are playing the same rhythms they have been playing for years and years. And maybe it is just the same rhythm. And why do people get so offended when a more experienced drummer tries to give them a pointer at a drum circle? What makes us think we know it all already before we have any clue what is really going on? I have had many experiences and there are countless stories I have heard over the years of this situation. Someone tries to help out or show someone a part and the person being shown the parts gets offended. We all need to be open minded. The givers need to be gentle and the receivers need to be open minded. All I mean to say is that learn and keep learning if you want to play drums like a rock star!

I am a big fan of djembe drumming and talking about djembe drumming, the djembe is about unity and community. That is the actual meaning of, “djembe” or “djembe bara” meaning “unity of the drum” according to the djembe legend AbdulyeDiakate . Djembe is about support. It comes from and out of a system where the drum is interconnected with a dance, a song, a village or place. Studying drumming like this can actually be fun and interesting. You just need to find good resources like drum teachers Swansea, Neath.

The first thing you would learn in any of the good drumming classes is that respect yourself, the drum and others. One of the many great things they teach you in traditional drumming is respect. Respect your teacher, respect your drum, your fellow player and respect the rhythms and then only you can learn and become a pro!