One of the most interesting drum lessons that I’ve ever had was when Kwaku Dadey showed me how to transfer African rhythms to the drumset. Kwaku plays traditional African music on his tuned conga drums in much the same manner as a piano player would imitate a full orchestra. The drumset player can play these African pieces by carefully tuning the tom-toms. The open tone of the congas is played on the set as the basic open drum sound. The high-pitched slap is emulated by playing a rim shot on the snare drum. The rim shots are not played loud; they are utilized as another color. The snare drum (with snares off) is the center drum from which the tom-tom melodies are played. Figure 1 is the first movement of a wrestling piece, played by the Ibo people of Africa. The part for hands (Fig. 1 A) should be learned […]

December 1983 Issue