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D'Jembe Rhythm: Albongo

07/24/2013 03:50

There are many traditional rhythms for the D'Jembe drum. Today, I will show you how to play the Albongo. First you need to know some D'Jembe basics like bass, tone, and slap. 

There are 3 parts to the song.

  1. Call
  2. Rhythm
  3. Ending

Each part is based on 8 notes. An easy way to keep track of the notes is to count "One and Two and Three and Four and..." The first row with the orange bar illustrates this. The second row is the type of note to play. A black circle is the tone, a outlined circle is the bass, and the star is the slap. On the third row show which had you use. The black hand is the dominant hand (i.e. right hand for right-handed people) and the orange hand is the other hand. 

Call (also called break) is a short rhythmic phrase and the starting signal of the song and sets the tempo.

Rhythm - This is the main rhythm of the Albongo. Play it as many times as you want.

End - It has an extra note at the end with a slap which ends the song.

Have fun with this rhythm and keep practicing.