Proper Dumbeck Technique & Form

Video Transcript

" Welcome back on the next lesson playing the dumbek I'm Scott Swearingen rythmpig.com. Well there is different techniques and different people playing differently. The most easiest way to play the dumbek is you and have several friends that play like that and they could do most everything that the rest of us could do when we hold it on our lap. The only hard part about that is to do that is here you tend to be able to get that low tune with no problem but, moving up here it is a little bit tricky because on a jimbeck you have a bigger head and so it is easier to get your hand. This guys are so small there is not much of a difference between this middle zone where you deep tone is, the outside zone, and that pop on the rim. This is my prefer way of doing it and I have actually try to teach people who are just starting dumbek to try it this way. Start actually learning it this way. It is going to pay big benefits in the long run all professional dumbek players that I know plays it in this fashion right here. The reason I like this better is just because your arms are already position in a relax position. See how my arms are right here one of them is resting on the dumbek and one of them is resting on my lap. Where is my hole here I'm playing in a jimbay position but, I Don't think it is really quit appropriate for this drum. Let me just show you the position of playing this way. You have a low tone which is usually your right hand if you are left handed switch it and make it your left hand. Then the upper tone is going to he left hand. See that. And usually your pops are going to come off left hand if you can get it off your right. So you have your three playing areas low, mid, high. The high tone is a pop. So how do you use your fingers to get those tones. When you are playing a low tone your are typically hitting it with this portion of your hand those fingers. Here is that gap that we are talking about as you could see I'm not hitting it like that. I'm letting my hand fall to a natural position with just a little bit. Mid tone I'm just using the tips of my fingers and then for the pop to get that you are going to hurt your hand. When you are learning to play dumbek at first the easy thing to do is stick with that tone and that tone. Then later on when you get a little bit more progress in you could start hitting those rim tap. So here is what it sounds like. "