Basic Doumbek African Drum Strikes: The Slap

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Alex Spurkel of Naked Rhythm and Universal Drumming on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip, we're going to talk about how to play the slap on the Doumbek. The slap is a way to create a nice popping sound, an accent. Now, the way to achieve that, is to cup your hand a little bit like this. Done in slow motion, what happens is your hand comes down, the bottom of your hand right here, hits the side of the drum first. It's a two-step motion, one, two. The second step is that your fingertips hit the drum. It's a split-second apart, one, two, but this is indeed what's happening. As you're making an impact, you're going to squeeze your fingers in a little bit. Imagine taking and pulling a table cloth and pulling it towards you just with your fingers like this. That little bit of a squeeze is going to help you get the sound. Like the Ka, this is one of those strikes that's going to take a little bit of practice to master. So, give yourself some time, keep working on it and you'll get it."