We’re on YouTube!

Big News!

In an effort to grow our programs, and provide the best possible training to our cohorts, we've decided to answer students questions via video when it's most effective, and will be utilizing those questions as an opportunity to create content that can help everyone that is curious about the djembe.

Video 1 is designed for cohorts in the TDI instructor training program - each cohort receives 12 months of training (1 weekend per month) and leaves equipped with the training pedagogy to teach these concepts to their students. This video is a tutorial on Sound Refinement! Please enjoy it, and tell us what you think.

Video Transcript:

I've had a request to go over how to work on sounds. 

Well, to get that request, y'all must be practicing. I love that. So let's talk about working on sound. 

You remember, I call this a stroke meditation. 

So we're gonna start with our tones on our dominant hand. So we wanna make sure our fingers are closed and then our wrist is turned in a little bit and our fingers are closed and we're gonna do that. And as we go through here, we're trying to get our best sound from our dominant hand. And you wanna do it slowly enough that you can consider each hit.

 And so, once you've done a minute or two on your dominant hand. You feel like you're getting as consistent a sound as you can get. Then move to your non-dominant hand. Same thing, but now we're gonna try to match our right hand. And so, every once in a while, we wanna go back to the right hand to get that in our ear. And then... So then again, after a minute or two on the non-dominant side, we're gonna do the same thing with the slap. So now, we're gonna relax our fingers. We're gonna anchor right here. And we're gonna focus on getting our fingertips to hit the drum and then bounce back up. So... That's a slap. And again, we're gonna try to get... As clean a sound as we can. Considering each note.

 Left or non-dominant. Same thing. My left hand doesn't sound good today. There it is. Now, once we've gotten right and left with the tone and the slap, then we wanna do a pattern that we'll use both. So, I'm gonna use the one-hand technique first. So, we're just gonna go... And now, we're listening for a different... Sound and a different feel. You wanna do that for a bit. Until you feel like you're getting your best... Distinction between the sounds. And then go to your non-dominant. 

So, that's one hand at a time. If you wanna do both hands, then we're just gonna go tone, tone, slap, slap. Right? And... Since we're starting from our dominant hand... After about eight of those... Then we're gonna reverse direction and go left, right, left, right. Just for balance. And that's it. If you do between five and ten minutes of that... Four or five days a week, your hand will start to clarify. Your sound will get better.

• Tom Harris