Djembe lesson : Slap / Tone with open fingers
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- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2011
- htttp://www.djembeweaver.com
This is a little tutorial / explanation of my djembe technique and how I achieve slap / tone without closing my fingers.
Update 21/3/12: When I watched Nansady's hands up close his fingers only vibrated a tiny bit on the slap (I really had to look hard to see it) After watching the slo-mo back I realised that my middle finger was bouncing way too much and this explains why I often have a callous problem on that finger. I have since tried to minimise the vibration whilst keeping the same sound (with some success). Slightly bending (or cupping) my fingers on the slap has also helped with this. 
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You are a genius!!! Thank you so much for explaining this in one of the clearest most forensic ways I've ever had anything taught to me musically.
Thank you so much for this tutorial, i really appreciate the effort you went to to explain and show in close up detail the slap and tone. I've been listening to my teacher, think i'll get down to drum level and scope out his fingers.
As a side note, the side ways shot of how your hand hits the drum and the tension of your fingers is a fantastic observation! I greatly appreciate your insight and willingness to share such detail! :) Thanks again!
Thanks for the tip! I've attended two workshops with Nansady Keita and have always been amazed by his technique.
That's great news. Knowing that it has been of use to people is very satisfying so thank you for the nice comment and for posting the video of your progress. Onwards and upwards eh?
This is the best explanation of the difference between slap and tone I have seen on You Tube Thank You very much -it realy makes sense!!!
great lesson thankyou...and now i will drive my neibours insane
Great video! I recently started to play the Djembe and i'm really enjoying it. I was having trouble with the slap but i practiced a lot after watching this video and now I understand it. Thanks :)
Great. Detailed. Humble yet knowledgeable..
Good work Vaperdise! Glad you found the exercise useful. Good use of your wrists too. Keep up with the practice and good luck :)
Great to see only positive comments so far on this. It is very clear. I've subscribed to your channel! Zoe
I'd never tried this (or even thought about it) until seeing your video. It takes some concentration to do when playing fast, but in time I think it'll be a better technique! I like it!
Thanks for this really, realy useful lesson. It is hard to find someone who can explain this what I'v often wondered and tried myself. Hope you will post more on technique of playing.
Very good video and explanation!!!
thanks!
@GrandRunemaster So glad you found it useful. Now it's all about how much practice you can put in!
thanks and another great lesson!
@notwhatucallanatural Don't be surprised if you loose consistency at first. It takes complete focus but results in much nicer open sounds with less effort and less tension in the arm. That focus, by the way, is what djembe folas acheive instantly every time they hit a drum. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes before I remember how to play!
Thanks, and thanks for clearing up tone-tone etc. P
thanks for the tutorial.
@nigsadler Actually the side-on bit is running at 50% slow-mo already! If you download the new version of VLC media player you can slow stuff down whilst maintaining the pitch of the sound. Very useful for working out complicated stuff.
Thanks for the comment. By the way, over the last year I've been working on reducing the vibration on the slap whilst retaining the sound. The vibration I talk about was tiny (but noticable on close inspection) in Nansady's fingers. I think my fingers were a little too relaxed on the slap in this video.
@KungFuJunky Glad you found it useful. Sounds like now it's time to really start drilling that practice routine!
For some reason, I've always found it easier to get a slap tone than a tone-tone, which has a denser sound to me. So even when I used the closed fingers technique, my finger tips would hit the drum and give a bit of slap high sound to it, instead of the dense sound I've been looking for. Thanks for the video.
That's because you're not controlling them fully...like I said in the video you can get either slaps or tones with either open or closed fingers so it's not that per se that makes the difference in sound. You have to stop your finger tips bouncing and keep all your fingers together as a unit...
By the way Peter a slap is just called a slap and a tone is called a tone. The terms 'slap tone' and 'tone tone' would cause much confusion and hilarity in West Africa ;)
very usefull, thanks a lot :-)
Thanks for that, I was wondering how can I play fast and clean.
You have revealed very important and unfamiliar aspect of playing technique on djembe. For a number of years, I have played this classical "closed finger" tone technique and not so long time ago tried the "open and relaxed" one. New technique worked out just great in terms of sound and movement ergonomics. Basicaly with this technique, there is just a small change needed in hand and finger positioning when shifting from tone to slap. In terms of playing it makes all the difference, when it comes to playing comfort, ease, speed and accentation of strokes. I don't like to use this term, but this technique is much more "natural", than the one with stiff fingers. But it needs a lot of practice also. :-)
In my opinnion this closed fingers tone technique teaching often derives from the western percussionists and percussion schools which are more familiar with playing latin percussion congas and bongos rather than djembes. In fact the closed finger tone technique can be seen many times with cuban percussionists playing congas and bongos, while the west african djembe folas rarely play tones in this way.
Yes it definitely feels more 'natural', produces a deeper, popping tone and requires just a slight change in the fingers allowing you to play faster and stay relaxed. I'm pretty sure that the closed finger technique is not a Westernism though, since even folas teach closed finger technique to begin with. Mamady himself teaches you to close your fingers and I am of the opinion that closing the fingers helps you to develop the muscles you need later on. I always teach closed finger technique to beginners...
djembeweaver I guess there are also some practical reasons, when it comes to learning beginners in this way; it is more easy for them to differentiate the tone and slap with the closed method than with the one in which both strokes are played seemengly almost the same way...
76boromir
True...but whether open or closed you're still aiming for the same sound: that dry popping sound that characterizes a good tone. Your fingers need to be as relaxed as possible whilst keeping them together as one unit. That's the secret to a really good tone: finding that exact point where there is just enough tension to keep your fingers working as one unit whilst still being relaxed...
One of my important discoveries when learning to play good tones was something that is obvious also from your video. The point is that the main force of stroke isn't applied and centered on the tips or ends of the fingers but much lower on the region of first joints just above the palm. In that way much bigger pressure and force is build during the stroke whithout muffling the sound- fingers also bounce a little becaouse of that.
Bang on! Relaxation brings out the true tone...the proper sound that folas get...
There's so much stuff out there already, and to a certain extent it's a personal journey anyway...when I think I can add something useful I will.
Thank you Jon! I misspelled your name in the Last comment sorry for that. ;) My progress has doubled with this exercise! :)
That's not cloth, it's the skin itself. When you mount the skin you can either cut it right down or (as I tend to do) fold it back over the rings when it is still wet and wrap rope around it. If you do it well it comes out as if it's shrink wrapped over the rings. Some people say it protects your hands but I don't think so. If you are hurting your hands don't blame the drum! Hope your djembe plays well.
ALWAYS! :)
Yes Nansady has excellent technique. Classic Guinea style. When he plays a tone it's like being punched in the solar plexus!
Thanks for your response. With just a little attention, I was able to the higher slap tones when I was aiming for an open tone. Not consistently, mind you, but better. But I also find that my open tones ring the deeper bass notes of the drum. Not like dedicated bass tones, but definitely there. Any thoughts on that?
I'm wondering, too, whether my head is tuned high enough and whether these distinctions are aided by a more tightly tuned drum. Any thoughts on how tight is tight enough? Thanks for your open and thoughtful sharing.
Hi Peter. You mean that drums with better bass notes are easier for you to get good tones? In theory there shouldn't be any relationship because the bass is created by helmholtz resonance inside the shell whereas tones are produced by the properties of a circular membrane (the skin). Thus as you pull a drum tighter the tones (and slaps) increase in frequency but the bass stays at the same pitch. Mind you...a drum that has a good bass is probably carved well so maybe it has better tones too...??
In general tighter is better. Most players cannot believe how tight djembe folas have their drums. However tight your drum is I bet it is nowhere near as tight as djembe folas have their drums. Most drums tuned to solo pitch have a fundamental (i.e. tone) of about 400Hz. This creates a nice crisp sound with a sharp attack and decay (Ka...Kou). If you have an audio file of you playing just dump it into a free version of audacity and go to 'analyse', then 'plot scectrum'. Make sure under 'axis' you check the option 'log frequency' and set the size to '1024' or '2048'. You will see a graph with various peaks. These are the harmonics (technically the 'partials') coming off the skin. First you will see a round hump that is the bass. The next big spike should be the fundamental of the skin if you have played a proper tone. Even if you bang it randomly it will still propuce the fundamental so you should be able to tell roughly where your drum is at. I bet your tone is not even 300Hz and if that is the case then crank it my friend...
Hello, thanks for sharing your tips in playing :) I have question about instrument itself. What do you call the cloth covering the rope? Also , what is the purpose of it? To protect your hands from hitting it accidently? I have a djembe on order and will be arriving in the mail in the next few days , so i just wanted to see if that cloth is sometihng i will end up wanting to pick up :) Thanks for the help :)
I guess I was making two points, Jon. Maybe they're distinct. One is that, just as I get some slap overtone mixed in when I try to make a tone, I also get some bass undertone mixed in when I try to make my tones.
My second point had to do with whether it was easier to make three distinct tones when a drum is tuned tighter and then, how to judge how tight it should be tune.
Right...you will always get a little bit of sympathetic bass. I can show this on a graph even for Mamady and Famoudou. Without that it would sound thin and hollow. However, if you can actually hear the bass ringing then that's not good. Either the drum is not good or you are playing too close to the centre. If the drum is very small or you have very big hands then this can cause the bass to sound on a tone. Also if your drum has no ledge at the bass of the bowl inside then the bass and tone will always sound together...drums like this are horrible. Another cause is simply a drum that is not tuned high enough so the bass sounds too easily. Those are the main reasons for bass in the tone.
In terms of tightness I answered that before I think and the answer is: Yes. though you still have to have good technique to get nice sounds...
For slaps make sure it is just your finger tips hitting the skin and whipping off and on very fast. Make your hand hit at an angle so your fingers are a few centimeters above the skin when your hands contacts the edge...then momentum whips your fingers down and off the skin very quickly...watch my other video on technique for a demonstration of this...
saw the guitar,..