Feelings on World Percussion

[folkrockbluesjam]

Hi! I'm new to DrumChat.

I'm primarily a guitar player (forgive me). I picked up a djembe a few years back and have loved it. I'm thinking of building up a hand drum set to jam out on- possibly some congas, bongos, doumbeks, cymbals... I figured it'd be less of a learning curve than an actual kit, and I think it would be fun.

What would you say people generally think about hand percussion? Do you think its an interesting sound to non-musicians or kinda lame? I'm typically a classic rock / blues guy, but I also like Dispatch and Dave Matthews Band. If I tried recording it with guitar and bass do you think that would be potentially a good sound or am I spending money on a musical failure? Basically I'm wondering general thoughts on the idea...

[pastor_bob]

Welcome to Drum Chat folkrockbluesjam!

My opinion would be just listen to Santana to hear some great hand drumming. People sure enjoy that music. One of our members, bongobro, plays hand drums with his church's praise band, and he is well received. I say go for it, and enjoy!

[drummer]

Welcome!

In my opinion some of the greatest music has come from those that ignore cultural boundaries and let their creativity soar. Follow your instincts.

[Jerry Bembe]

Personnaly I prefeer Congas but Djembe works well as a solo drum. The overtone can drown out other tones of other instruments. One way to overcome this is to dampen the head with a little duct tape, sticky tack or even rubber cement on the underside of the head. Experiment until you find the sound you like. You might like it allready but this is just my suggestion.

As for world beat, I was in a leading world Beat group back in the early 90's. Check out this link and let me know what you think.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmwxUIIP-EM"]YouTube - Primal Connection The Origin[/ame]


It says it all (I think)

[frquent flyer]

Think how much fun it would be to lay down a conga track on your loop station.

[bongobro]

I see pastor_bob has already mentioned me!

Welcome aboard, FRBJ! I love playing hand drums in our church's worship ensemble, but I have played them in settings ranging from a country-rock band to a rock trio (keyboard-guitar, guitar and hand drums) and a folk trio (guitar, fiddle, hand drums).

Bongos, congas, djembe, doumbek...any hand drum would fit perfectly in a folk-rock setting. Some of my favorite jam sessions have involved a guitar or two (as above) and me just tearin' up the percussion! Seems we play off each other and the results are awesome.

When I started playing hand drums in church, there were more than a few raised eyebrows, but when the congregation saw and heard me playing in context of our music, I won over most everyone in a short time. The trick here, as with anything else, man, is you try not to overplay your brother musicians. In your case, of course, you don't have that problem!

In fact--I can't think of his name to save my life right now!--but there is a one-man touring band who's been in the St. Louis area who plays guitar but also has loops that include keyboards, set drums, hand drums and other instruments. Do some searching on the Internet and I'm sure you'll find his name.

Go for it!

[Drumbledore]

Bongobro, myself, and quite a number of drummers will tell you.....loooooong before there was the invention of the drumset, you had hand drums in just about every culture from time immemorial. In fact, the idea of a Latin drumset player didn't really come about until a lil more than half a century back (50 years? 60 years?)....see, rhythms like the bossa nova were originally played by three or four separate percussionists. Sure, some non-musical people might think simple percussion instruments seem lame, but would you say after you hear a proper army percussionist demonstrate everything that is required to play...umm..the triangle?

Well folks, here's the video!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60VqclHl7Pg"]YouTube - Triangle Lesson #1[/ame]

[Jerry Bembe]

Personally Triangle is one of my favorite instruments to play! I own 6-8 triangles but I probably play in a style you might not be familiar with. I learned triangle from my involvement with The Chicago Samba School and Brazialian music has an exciting application of triangle unlike "American Music".

Triangle in Brazilian music is played like a high hat with open and closed tones. The dynamics of using open and closed tones is where the magic comes from in my opinion with most percussion instruments. I play almost all of my percussion instruments with this dynamic feel of open and closed tones.

Here is an example of some finer Triangle Samba Style! Enjoy!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx68X8vCeQ&feature=related"]YouTube - Como tocar triângulo[/ame]


Jerry

[oaktree137]

i have been playing drumset for 2 years now and have just started discovering how cool some hand percussion is. With one drum you can get many sounds unlike drumset you need multiple drums to get that many sounds. And they seem really fun to play, each with their own technique, and sound great within many styles of music. classic rock bands and stuff like that sound great with a percussionist as well as the drummer, it adds so much more style to the rhythm section

[Drumbledore]

Personally Triangle is one of my favorite instruments to play! I own 6-8 triangles but I probably play in a style you might not be familiar with. I learned triangle from my involvement with The Chicago Samba School and Brazialian music has an exciting application of triangle unlike "American Music".

Triangle in Brazilian music is played like a high hat with open and closed tones. The dynamics of using open and closed tones is where the magic comes from in my opinion with most percussion instruments. I play almost all of my percussion instruments with this dynamic feel of open and closed tones.
Jerry

Yeah, I've seen Airto Moreira do stuff like this, very cool stuff!

[folkrockbluesjam]

Pretty good amount of positive feedback, thank you all. Guess it's time for me to start looking for my first set of congas! I know I'll have fun which is definitely the most important thing

[bongobro]

There is only one potential problem with world percussion:

To borrow from that famous commercial, "no one can play just one." Those congas will soon be joined by bongos, djembes, doumbeks, claves, guiros...and even triangles!

Enjoy, FRBJ!

[Drumbledore]

There is only one potential problem with world percussion:

To borrow from that famous commercial, "no one can play just one." Those congas will soon be joined by bongos, djembes, doumbeks, claves, guiros...and even triangles!


Enjoy, FRBJ!

Yeah, I guess FRBJ might get to find out the problem us hand-drum types have....G.A.S.!! (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).



* Hey wow, this is my 1,200th posting too! Lol

[Jack Keck]

I started playing a drumset in church. Now I play mostly congas, bongos, djembes (I have two of those), bodrhan, pandeiro, and tambourine. My technique on these may not be the best, but I'm making a joyful noise.

I also volunteer at a local concert venue in Livonia, MI wher eI get to see an dhear lots of different things. That's where I learned about cajons. One player made a "set" out of a cajon, djembe, a pandeiro with a snare drum head so he could use brushes on it, a tamvourine mounted in a bass drum pedal, and a couple of cymbals. There may have been some other stuff, but that's what I remember. So it has been done. This guy sounded great.

Now I need a triangle.