Miami drums

Tuesday 7:45 – 9:30 p.m.The City of Lauderhill Sadkin Center 1176 NW 42nd Way
Learn authentic Manding style drumming with Master Guinean Percussionist Moussa Soumah.
Contact, Trina 954-687-5789 or e-mail thebridgecae@aol.com

Wednesday & Thursday 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Free African drum class for youths @ Willie Webb, Sr. Park
3601 NW 21 Street Lauderdale Lakes
Instructors: Moussa and Trina Soumare, Contact Rhonda House, 954-535-2835 for more info

Saturday 5:30 to 7:30 African Drum class @ The Goddess Store with Sebon 2017 Harrison Street Hollywood 33020. Call 954-929-2369 for more info

BALAPHON: Classes offered by griot Ibrahima Dioubate. Pre-registration required. Call, 305-978-3866 or 813-326-9922 for more info

Tuesday 7:45 – 9:30 p.m.The City of Lauderhill Sadkin Center – 1176 NW 42nd Way
Learn authentic Manding style drumming with Master Guinean Percussionist Moussa Soumah.

Contact, Trina 954-687-5789 or e-mail thebridgecae@aol.com .

Wednesday & Thursday 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Free African drum class for youths @ Willie Webb, Sr. Park 3601 NW 21 Street Lauderdale Lakes
Instructors: Moussa and Trina Soumare, Contact Rhonda House, 954-535-2835 for more info

BalaphonClasses offered by griot Ibrahima Dioubate. Pre-registration required. Call, 305-978-3866 or 813-326-9922 for more info

Playing your djembe standing up, as you should instead of sitting down, is by all means a much enjoyable experience, and also, an exhausting one.
Looking to purchase a strap for my djembe I looked first on the musical stores online. Remo has a djembe strap for about $28, Sageman Drums has another option for $30, theirs “is available in 3 types of trim: Brown & Yellow, Blue, and Rasta” [Mmmm Rasta straaaap, yes, finally a rasta strap] Ebay had two options, but both didn’t look like anything very special, some nylon strap with green, black, and…yes, rasta themes. There were some more artistic versions such this one but by this point, I was determined to make it myself.
So I went back to Google, and found this two invaluable sources of strapping knowledge:

Rhytm Traders – They also sell Djembe straps
Djembe Straps’s FAQ – All you ever wanted to know about straps and were afraid to ask 🙂

After reading trhough all the posts, I went ahead, and order some nylon webbing from Onrope1.com. I wanted to get the tubular webbing, my idea was to get a wide one and then fill it up with some sort of foam to make it easier on my arms [Imagine holding a big djembe’s weight, plus hitting on it hard while playing! :S]
I finally got the 2 in wide seatbelt nylon webbing, tubular was much expensive, and I imagine that filling it out with foam was not the best solution, it’s better a wider material than narrow one. FAQ refers to the karate belts as one of the best options, problem is, karate belts are not as long as you would hope for this job…

Editor’s side note:I try to get nylon webbing locally. I could only find a store that had something like this down here in Miami. I went to West Marine, both stores on Biscayne Blvd. They weren’t even aware that they did have nylon webbing. They had also tubular webbing, but on an absurd price, so I ended up buying it online.

When I got the strap, I realized that the Rhytm Traders tutorial is as confusing as the ascii drawing on Djembe Straps’s FAQ. Not sure why the pictures are so focused on the character doing the tutorial instead of the djembe/strap itself. So I asked Mark to show me how to create it, an it’s a very simple thing if you know what are you doing 🙂

I’ll promise to post some picture of how it works…

A few weeks back, while reading the Djembe-L Yahoo! Group Lydia asked the group population about how to record a Djembe. I’m not a recording engineer, but I like music and have some equipment to record the instruments that I play. While I replied to her, I realized that my answer was somewhat abstract if you are not directly involved with recording techniques, microphones, preamps, and so forth. So I created a small series of posts, that I’ll publish in the next couple of weeks, about how to record and set-up a recording rig for percussion instruments.

In this first post, I’m including this mp3, that I recorded last night, while trying a CAD that I have purchased on ebay for about $30 dollars. [You can see the mic on the top of my Djembe – by the way, its name is Buda! 🙂 ]
[audio:http://www.oneblueprint.com/miamidrums/wp-content/uploads/djember_recording_mic_test1.mp3]
The Recording was performed with two mics. Both from CAD. One is a Condenser microphone and the other one is a dynamic one, used for toms and kick drums.
On the next post of the series, I’ll explain the setup of the mics, plus the volume settings.

PS: Please have in mind that computer speakers don’t make a lot of justice with the low sounds. More on that later!

Malian Dance Workshop
featuring
Abdulaye Diallo—Malian Dance & Drum Instructor
SUNDAY November 19, 2006
Hosted By: Delou Africa Dance Ensemble
FIU Biscayne Bay Campus Academic II 2nd Floor Dance Studio
3000 N.E. 151st Street North Miami, Florida 33181
DANCE 3:00 Till 4:30 pm
DIRECTIONS: I-95 , exit Ives Dairy Rd., go east to Biscayne Blvd,
south (right) to 151 street, enter campus, bldg is on the (right)
side.
Contact: Dkuturalfoundation@yahoo.com or (305) 807 -0398

Tintinsite has been creating multimedia content for the drumming community for quite some time. On their site you can find links for the DVDs they produced as well as some video references. They’ve produced the famous Jhon Yost DVD that covers West African rhythms. You can purchase the DVD and other resources on their site by Paypal or at Amazon.
Here’s a link for free Djembe instructional videos clips:Tintisite video page

D’Kultural Foundation in Association with Delou Africa Dance Ensemble, Re-Create & Move & Roots & Kulture Dance
PRESENTS
African Sabar Dance & Drum Workshops FEATURING:

Malik Faye—International Sabar Drum & Dance Artist
Fatou—MBaye– Primer Dancer of the National Ballet of Senegal

Bringing the Excitement of SABAR Songs, Rhythms & Dance Directly From Senegal

Cost is $10.00 per class
Sign Up Now!!!!!

FRIDAY September 29, 2006
Hosted By: Rootz & Culture Dance Ensemble
The Sadkin Center
1176 NW 42 Way , Lauderhill, Florida
6:30 Till 7:30 pm DRUM WORKSHOP
7:30 Till 9:00 pm DANCE WORKSHOP

DIRECTIONS: I-95 , exit Broward Blvd, go east to State Road 7 (441), go north on 12th street, go west on 12th street, Center is on t the street.

SATURDAY September 30, 2006
Hosted By: ReCreate & Move
Arts Academy of Hollywood
1955 Harrison Street, Hollywood Florida
3:30 Till 4:30 pm DRUM WORKSHOP
4:30 Till 6:00 pm DANCE WORKSHOP

DIRECTIONS: I-95 , exit Hollywood Blvd, go east to Harrison street, south (right) at the light, bldg is on the east (right) side at the end of the block.

SUNDAY October 1, 2006
Hosted By: Delou Africa Dance Ensemble
FIU North Campus Academic II 2nd Floor Dance Studio
3:00 Till 4:00 pm DRUM WORKSHOP
4:00 Till 5:30 pm DANCE WORKSHOP

DIRECTIONS: I-95 , exit Ives Dairy Rd., go east to Biscayne Blvd, south (right) to 151 street, enter campus, bldg is on the (right) side.

Contact: Dkuturalfoundation@ yahoo.com.
Or call 305-807-0398

Thank you to professorslap for the information!