Body Mechanics When Playing Djembe Drums

Video Transcript

" Welcome back for rythmpig.com. I am Scott Swearingen. Well I am going to show you how to hold your hands and get the sound out of the drum and then show you another basic rhythm. So you have the middle and you have the song part and you have the slap part of the rhythm… To get the sound that you want, you do not hold your hand flat like that… that will get the sound… but a better way to do is to be able to cup your hands just slightly not… not like this, but just like this. So that when I hit it I have got a little air pocket in between me and this drum… and now you can see that and see how I am holding my hand with a little bit of arch to it. It gives me a better sound than if I just do a straight slap. So when you get out to hear, you are going to be using more this part of your hand because it is nearer to the rim instead you are going to have to be using the basic rhythm knuckle to the fingernail. There is on the middle it is more sort of the palm, then you get out here you end up with this part of your finger. When you get the slap, it is pretty much just that top knuckle, top finger bone actually. I am holding this because I broke… slit my finger… So you can either learn to play it with two fingers or three, three is easier it is up to you, later on you will learn how to do like this… "