Drumming Gig With Students From Belgium

 So I did another drumming gig with a school in George, Outeniqua High School...

There was a foreign exchange program coming to ts end...so the South African learners took their Belgian counterparts on a tour in a "Loxion"(Location - also called a settlement or township)
where the local people invited them into their shack homes, and danced for them when they left each house....what an amazing experience!!!

 The first photo is a picture of the set up that I used...25 Drums in a big circle, with a skinless shell on display....When I start my drum session(it was done as a Team Building Exercise), I always start by introducing the Djembe, telling them how its made(Machine - Lathe - made drums versus hand carved drums)...what type of skins are used, and a little history about the Djembe.

 Then we start our actual drumming by playing the three basic notes on the Djembe to get them used to the hand placement for those three notes...(If you go back to my earlier posts on this blog I describe the three basic notes in quite a bit of detail)

After that we start to play full rhythms from Ta-Ka-Doem-Ta...to...Heartbeat Rhythms, and even some interesting Polyrythms!!!

At a point in the session when I can see that everyone has got the general understanding of how to play the Djembe, I split the group into three smaller groups...give them 5mins to come up with their very own rhythm.  As you can imagine they compete fiercely with each other and I stir the pot a bit by going over to each group and telling them more or less what I want to hear.  Look how hard they are all concentrating...hehehe


This is the entire group once we were done...tired hands but happy faces...

I am so grateful that what I do for a living is, not only my passion, but it brings joyful memories to people that will not be forgotten for a very long time...

I am privileged to become a small part of all my drum students lives!!!!....




Should you want any more info on my Team Building Drum Sessions please feel free to email me on daniel@djembeman.co.za or even phone me on +2782958482!

Thank you for enjoying my blog with me!

Enjoy your day further!

Daniel Nicholson A.K.A "Djembeman"

"Muzo" Party...

So this was a fun jam at one of my drum students homes...she is 70 years old this year...has decided to learn to play 6 musical instruments, and is also going through lessons on her RECORDING STUDIO that she has recently set up for herself...

She offered to use her home as a venue for a "Muzo Party"...

Drumming at the Redberry Festival

 So, I got asked to do a drum circle for 2 days at the Redberry Farm...

They do an annual strawberry festival....

So these are the pics of the 2 days, it was a lot of fun, and I got to market my business like crazy!!!!! As you can see in the pics, I made sure my car's signage was very visible at all times!!!

 Thanks mom for coming round and taking a couple of pics for me.....she also brought me Energade cool drinks to keep me going...I was basically drumming none stop for 6-8hours each day....

 There were times that I got the kids going on a rhythm, then stood back and chatted to their parents about my business and giving the marketing "speech"...lol

 My hands at the end of the day...Zoom in and see just how much pain they were in....

 And so the day went on, people of all ages came and drummed and had fun....This was a school group that rocked up and virtually took over completely....loved having them there...they created such a big "Buzz" for 30mins that it brought a load of people over just because of their happy vibe!!!

And this lovely family took a bunch of their own photos and emailed this kiff pic to me...didn't even know they were taking the photo until I got their mail...

Thanks to the Redberry Farm for the invitation to attend the Fest!!!