{"id":21557,"date":"2025-01-10T19:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T19:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/african-music\/renewing-passport-djembe-rhythms-from-west-africa\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T19:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T19:00:10","slug":"renewing-passport-djembe-rhythms-from-west-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=21557","title":{"rendered":"Renewing Passport &#8211; Djembe Rhythms from West Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>and other class notes\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve resumed teaching djembe in live local classes, and as always, the starting point, especially for beginners, is the \u201cpassport\u201d rhythm, so called because it\u2019s the entry into most 4\/4 territories of West African rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>Easy to play once you get it, but notoriously difficult to learn (or teach) at first. After trying a variety of techniques to break it down for students to learn easily, it finally occurred to me to reduce it to the simplest steps at the outset, or even for review for students who have been exposed to it already.<\/p>\n<p>The basic structure to stress, marks the main four beats with the right-hand slap. This can be modeled as a call and response, followed by introducing the additional notes in the same way.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2081 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post1.png?resize=662%2C167&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"662\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post1.png?w=662&amp;ssl=1 662w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post1.png?resize=300%2C76&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The call and response format is useful also to hone students\u2019 listening skills, with practice in the ability to recognize and repeat patterns. Many rhythms are versatile with mixing and matching of half-bar patterns to form new variations, especially in the space of two bars, with a common structure being aaab, or abbb. For example, here are some half-bar patterns to vary or extend, from Kuku, and another from Kassa.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2082 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post2.png?resize=636%2C228&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post2.png?w=636&amp;ssl=1 636w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post2.png?resize=300%2C108&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>With the 6\/8 building blocks, you can apply the same exercise using the aaab formula, as in Soko, below. Or, with a rhythm like Fula Fare, Soli or Mendiani with a 3\/4 feel, I like to take a more advanced approach to change the emphasis (notes in bold) on the fourth half-bar.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2083 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post3.png?resize=485%2C157&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"485\" height=\"157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post3.png?w=485&amp;ssl=1 485w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/djemberhythms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/post3.png?resize=300%2C97&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The possibilities, as always, are endless! But this is a good start for how to structure your variations and shades of emphasis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-107330788-2085-67816e3a78f11\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/?ver=14.2.1#blog_id=107330788&amp;post_id=2085&amp;origin=djemberhythms.com&amp;obj_id=107330788-2085-67816e3a78f11&amp;n=1\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-107330788-2085-67816e3a78f11\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>and other class notes\u2026 I\u2019ve resumed teaching djembe in live local classes, and as always, the starting point, especially for beginners, is the \u201cpassport\u201d rhythm, so called because it\u2019s the entry into most 4\/4 territories of West African rhythm. Easy to play once you get it, but notoriously difficult to learn (or teach) at first. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12025],"tags":[4373,14241,14240,14147,14242,1762],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-21557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-music","tag-africa","tag-djembe","tag-passport","tag-renewing","tag-rhythms","tag-west"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Renewing Passport - Djembe Rhythms from West Africa - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=21557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Renewing Passport - Djembe Rhythms from West Africa - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"and other class notes\u2026 I\u2019ve resumed teaching djembe in live local classes, and as always, the starting point, especially for beginners, is the \u201cpassport\u201d rhythm, so called because it\u2019s the entry into most 4\/4 territories of West African rhythm. 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