These are the rhythms that the Vitae Drummers and my other drum classes play which Justine and I have learned in Senegal and the UK from master drummers including Malo Sonko, Baba Kone, Seckou Keita, Jean-Marie Keita, Nansady Keita, Famoudou Konate and Moctar "Mocolo" Sawane among others.
Yes, folks: how to feel instantly unknowledgeable gazing down that list! ;-) More African rhythms can be found on my Drumming Is Fun website's rhythms page. The hyperlinked rhythms are notated, but this all takes time; if there is one there that's not done but you'd particularly like notation for, you can always incentivise me to get it done quicker :-)
These rhythm pages are currently all just plain text with little formatting. Once I have a better grip of CSS, they'll get a makeover, but for now, they are just the basic rhythms.
Here is a key which explains the symbols used in these notations.
We are honoured to be playing these great new rhythms composed and taught to us by Mamady Keita, as part of his Evolution of The Djembe:
* Some of these were learned later from Seckou Keita and Mamady's CD.
© copyright Malcolm Smith 2007-06-21 - last updated 2014-09-02 - this page will be under construction for some time yet!