[e2c]

michi... I think he's talking about hairstyles!

shave off the 'rats tail' that went out of style in the late 80s, together with the mullet.

You mean there was a time when the rats tail was in vogue? Late 80s, eh? I didn't start drumming until 2004, so I have no history there. (But you seem to be showing your age Bubudi )

Do you have more info on this? I'm genuinely curious about the rats tail thing. I imagine this would have been popular only in the West. (At least, I've never seen an image of an African professional playing a drum with a rats tail.)

Cheers,

Michi.

[michi]

michi... I think he's talking about hairstyles!

Ah! I'm old enough to remember those... But the rats tail really has been around a lot longer than that, and didn't really go away with the 80s...

Michi.

[e2c]

True dat! (Though I wish it had... )

michi... I think he's talking about hairstyles!

Ah! I'm old enough to remember those... But the rats tail really has been around a lot longer than that, and didn't really go away with the 80s...

Michi.

[bubudi]

Do you have more info on this? I'm genuinely curious about the rats tail thing. I imagine this would have been popular only in the West. (At least, I've never seen an image of an African professional playing a drum with a rats tail.)

in malinke they call it nyinye fenyoo. some pros use it to thread through the loop for their strap, to make things tidier (just kidding...)

sadly, i've seen many djembes with rats tails, and even a few with mullets! (for real!).

as for haircuts, your 'hood might be a lot different to mine

[michi]

Hmmmmm....

This might be a Twin-djembe I have twin boys.

This is actually a traditional instrument from the country of Siam, known as a Siamese Djembe.

Cheers,

Michi.

[Djembe-nerd]

Here are some I found on net browsing

[Djembe-nerd]

Here some more

[Peter Holzmann]

[/attachment]

DACR28.jpg

I've never understood how someone could come with the idea of using a pattern with such strong military connotations for a djembe...

Michi.

The Rasta-themed drum bag, the army of Rastafari I would think.

[Djembe-nerd]

It didn't say professional, but the effort is note worthy !

[rachelnguyen]

I just love the pot leaves (or are they palm trees?) on that last one. Maybe you have to be smoking something to think that drum is going to sound good, LOL.

[michi]

Just saw this on eBay:

Interesting lace-up technique…
$(KGrHqZHJDQE7y9+vCcpBPFQlLrqSg~~60_1.JPG (19.51KiB)Viewed 2985 times

Note the way the verticals are laced up. It took me a moment to realise what's happening here…

Not recommended—by going through loops instead of going over the knots, all the strain is on the weakest part of the lacing on the crown ring and bottom ring, and all the friction when tuning is concentrated on a very small area. Sure-fire way of breaking the rope early…

Michi.

[nkolisnyk]

Here's the latest djembe offering from Pearl. "Available in traditional Oak", and "provides unprecedented tuning accuracy and ease with the incedible low-end response and cutting high-end projection that Pearl Djembes are known for" To be honest, I didn't know...

Good grief. All that work to lace up a drum, and you still only have 6 tuning points?

(by the way: http://pearldrum.com/products/percussio ... s/ez-tune/ )

[tauber]

Hey Guys. Above someone writes that LP, Meinl, Toca and others 'know better', but that's just not true. They don't know better. If they really did, I believe, they would not produce any of the djembe like instruments they make. In the old days 1991, I believe, I talked with Remo a bit and they were not the least bit interested in coming close to caring about what a djembe should sound like or, more importantly what a djembe should NOT sound like.

If I go back into myself in the days before djembe, I was into drum kits or sets as we called them in the States. Since the drum kit is of Euro/Amer origin, we had little interest in history of what came before. And when I tried to find out from teachers at my alma mater, Berklee College of Music, I was plainly told that "you don't want to try to play African drums because the 'beats' are not reproducible. They just play whatever they want and don't really know what they are doing."

Yes, that was the percussion department's stance on African drumming. Really sad and confusing to me. But it did shut me up for a while.

So, the drum companies that do not specialize in djembe, like Remo, Toca, LP and Meinl have a similar mentality. They really just touch the surface when it comes to building great drums. They very often are just riding on their glorious past and making refinements. A new product every once in a while. They are not interested in learning about or listening TO djembe or dunun.

I'm in the business. Playing for over 55 years. I've seen a lot and now a lot of the owners and managers of these companies and their families. Having a conversation with them is like drinking koolaid. They are very detached from the wide world of drums and sounds.

I heard an interview with DW folks on YouTube where they make a drum kit for M. Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) and they were getting all technical and supposedly 'musical' about the 'new' drum model but it was the same OMG boring stuff that I heard back in 1968 to 72. Very little about the music and the sound though they implied they were talking about that.

Learning djembe and dunun, balafon, tambin, is even so different than the conga and 'latin' musics that we hear talked and played in the states. It is worlds apart. If you want to know djembe you need to spend a lifetime in it.

The drum companies don't know and they don't care. And, we shouldn't expect that they do, I don't think we should. Let them do what they want and we know and do what we do.

Thanks.
Alan
DrumConnection

[michi]

Hey Guys. Above someone writes that LP, Meinl, Toca and others 'know better', but that's just not true. They don't know better. If they really did, I believe, they would not produce any of the djembe like instruments they make.

Either they really don't know better, or they just don't care…

In the old days 1991, I believe, I talked with Remo a bit and they were not the least bit interested in coming close to caring about what a djembe should sound like or, more importantly what a djembe should NOT sound like.

Sounds like they really don't care, as long as the bottom line is right.

And when I tried to find out from teachers at my alma mater, Berklee College of Music, I was plainly told that "you don't want to try to play African drums because the 'beats' are not reproducible. They just play whatever they want and don't really know what they are doing."

Wow, that's a truly astonishingly ignorant and arrogant statement, especially considering what a distinguished institution it comes from!

Yes, that was the percussion department's stance on African drumming. Really sad and confusing to me. But it did shut me up for a while.

One would hope that they have learned something in the intervening years…

The drum companies don't know and they don't care. And, we shouldn't expect that they do, I don't think we should. Let them do what they want and we know and do what we do.

Yes, that's pretty much my stance too. And there is an advantage to it: anyone who claims to be a "djembe player" and rocks up with one of those instruments immediately identifies him-/herself as someone who never bothered to learn even the basics about the instrument…

Michi.

[tauber]

Again, well said. And yes, my Berklee College of Music story is totally fact. No they have not got their djembe/dunun together at all. I'm not slammin' Im saying they just didn't do this right. Kids come their to learn music in fantastic programs but when they get out they do NOT now the first thing about djembe. Maybe in the next few years it will change? Who knows. The percussion department heads don't care. It's short sighted and they, again, don't care. Bottom line and keeping the course steady. They are missing so much.

Best,
Alan