Have Fun Playing Hand Drums - A Fun, Musical, Hands-on Book and CD for Beginning Hand Drummers of Al


by Lillian Brummet - Date: 2007-01-27 - Word Count: 522 Share This!

Have Fun Playing Hand Drums - A Fun, Musical, Hands-on Book and CD for Beginning Hand Drummers of All Ages would be an ideal book for elementary classes, groups of children, autistic or similarly challenged adults and for the reader who had never played a hand drum before.

The CD does not have recordings for all of the lessons and examples in the book, though there are 37 tracks on the CD. Tracks 1, 35, 36 and 37 are ensembles of hand percussion instruments that last for several minutes. All of these ensembles are great for playing along to or apply soloing techniques. They also serve as a wonderful example of what can be done with percussion. Most other tracks seem to last from 45 seconds or 1.22 minutes long.

I was slightly disappointed to learn that though the CD did indeed have an audio track available for computer use, it was only a QuickTime recording - rather than audio/videos, which is what I was hoping for. Another important note to keep in mind is that only initial samples of each section are recorded on the CD. The readers are expected to be able to apply the information they have learned to the other lessons and examples in each section.

Have Fun Playing Hand Drums begins with instruction on tone, base and slap impacts and how they sound on conga, djembe and bongos. Readers are then shown how to attain those impacts on those drums along with small tuning tips to help players to maintain their instruments.

Have Fun Playing Hand Drums provides historic overview of all three drums followed by details about each drum, the dynamics and different sounds a player can use and how to achieve each sound.

There are 6 simple Drum games for groups to enjoy. I particularly enjoyed "Drum Train", a good rudiment exercise that even experienced players will benefit from. It improves hand dexterity and use of dynamics.

Ways to evolve a simple rhythm into something more complicated and busy is discussed. There are also 6 samples of layering 2-part rhythms, with players assigned simple songs. Followed by 3-part rhythms and traditional rhythms for some of the more common hand drums. Kakilambe (Nigerian) for Djembe and Djun Djun drums; Tumbao (Cuban), one of the most universally known rhythms for Congas; Clave, a time keeping rhythm that is commonly used to aide the members of a band; and finally, Martillo - a standard rhythm for bongos.

Rhythm lessons on page 52 will challenge timing and hand dexterity of intermediate players and can be considered rudiment exercises. I also enjoyed the Heel-Toe exercises, which are excellent for building hand movement.

The considerate authors placed an extensive 2-page listing of hand drum resources including audio recordings, videos and books. Following this is a 2-page glossary for terms used in the book. One of the more unique aspects that set this book apart from others in this genre is the 1-page track list for the CD. All of these will ease the reader's use of the manual, making access to all topics available at a glance.

Publisher: Alfred Publishing
Author: Ben James
Illustrations: Wim Van Loon
ISBN 10: 0-7692-8058-7
ISBN 13: 978-0-7692-8058-5


Related Tags: education, music, teacher, drum, drumming, non-fiction, hand drum, bongo, conga, djembe, djun djun

~ Book Reviewer: Lillian Brummet - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment - Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry. (http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit) *Special thanks to Dave Brummet for his valuable input as a drum instructor.

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