Learning Music: Rhythmic Exercises

The Rhythm Tree

I used to call this section ‘Feeling the Beat/Pulse and off Beat’ and I used to then have another section called threes against twos but they are now important parts of the same section ‘The Rhythm Tree’ which is just about the only part of music which I learnt at school and still teach.

1
1 2
1 2 3
1 2 3 4

In our lessons we will see how this chart above can help us understand the rhythms we are playing. How all the rhythms are related to one another, how to feel and identify the constant pulselbeat underlying the music, how to play one rhythm over another, how to improvise, how to play on the beat, how to play off the beat and how to move freely from one feeling to another.

One of our main objectives is to feel the rhythms we are playing, so often when people are playing music we are trying to work thinks out and then we have got it we want move to the next thing, never taking the rhythms into our bodies and getting to the stage where we don’t have to think about what we are playing but just feel and enjoy it. For some of us it can take a life time but what we need to do is bypass our brains and connect with the feelings and they give us. A good way of doing this is playing rhythms for sometime. When I learn from my teachers in West Africa I may often be left for one hour just playing the same thing so that when I come to play it again I don’t have to think it through, instead the rhythm comes to me from within , I have internalised it.

Feel the Pulse

Inside all the music i play there is a beat, a pulse, a driving regally repeating force. Its what i feel inside when i play, its the dancers feat, the songs phrasing and the poetry’s meter. Its the foundation upon which play, the structure upon which every rhythm you play sits. In Africa its not talked of discussed, but its built in to the culture the childrens stories and games the pounding of the food the speeking of the language.

Learning Music: Body

The rhythm tree

One of our main objectives is to feel the rhythms we are playing, so often
when people are playing music we are trying to work thinks out and then we
have got it we want move to the next thing, never taking the rhythms into our
bodies and getting to the stage where we don’t have to think about what we
are playing but just feel and enjoy it. For some of us it can take a life time but
what we need to do is bypass our brains and connect with the feelings and
they give us. A good way of doing this is playing rhythms for sometime.
When I learn from my teachers in West Africa I may often be left for one
hour just playing the same thing so that when I come to play it again I don’t
have to think it through, instead the rhythm comes to me from within , I have
internalised it.

Improvisation

Improvising can sound quite frightening, like a public humiliation trying to be
free with something you haven’t got a clue about. If we are speaking we
have a language, we can go from word to word, constructing sentences,
however well or badly which people understand and can get meaning or
understanding from. The same is true of improvising we need to feel free in
the language of rhythm, we need to be able to speak through our drums,
understand there own language and communicate with the other musicians
and the audience. All of this takes some time but in a simple way it can be
started straight away. What we are looking towards in improvising are things
like being able to feel the beat in the music and the ability to go freely from
one rhythm to another while still keeping with every one else.

We will work at doing this within different rhythms and practice playing
different rhythms and beats over each other building our confidence and
freedom within rhythms.

Learning Music: Xylophone

Sitting at the xylophone, holding the beaters, the pentatonic scale, knowing your octave, two pairs, two with three.

The basic elements of learning are below. More information is available on CD, DVD and youtube.

Xylo Drum & Xylo Holiday Cornwall September 2016

Surinam

Kpanlogo

Asuadua

Xylo Residential Kent October 2016

Sisala

Fontonfrom

Stone Mountain

Surinam

Xylo Weekend Bristol November 2016

Agbadza

Kpatsa

Sisala

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning Music: Drums

Technique

Sitting comfortable with your drum, Hand Drumming, Tone (Go do), Slap (Pa ta), Bass (Gun), Stick Drumming, Open and Closed tones, The Roll, The Rhythm Tree, Two with Three, Three with Four, Feel of Two, Feel of three, Feel of Four.
The basic elements for learning the drum are below. More info can be found on CD, DVD and youtube

Drum Residential Kent June 2016

Adowa

Assadua

Kpanlogo

Dahomy

Skyi

Fontonfrom

Xylo & Drum Holiday Cornwall September 2016

Surinam

Kpanlogo

Asaadua

Kent Residential November 2016

Kete

Achebekor

Boborbor

Woka

Fontonfrom