Watching the dancers at the end of our seminar was such a thrill I couldn't stop smiling. I'm unbelieveably excited to play for them ...

Too bad we didn't get to play for the kwanza celebration because of logistics, but in any case seeing the Muntu dancers this Friday made me even more excited about this performance, so whether we play for them or separate, it will be awesome. I've noticed people (including myself) tend to use the same drums ever week now, which is cool because you can really get to know one particular drum.

Naomi Klionsky

This Is Anthony On Connors

The performance is almost here and im getting pretty pumped. Were all starting to play rythmicly with eachother. Im very enthused to illustrate to the school what weve been able to accomplish in such a short ammount of time. im also pretty scared...

The performance is nearing and I'm getting pretty estatic. We are all starting to play isync and it sounds awesome. I'm very excited to show what we have apprehended so far!

drumming

The performance is coming up, but we still haven't practiced with the dancers yet. I think we need to do this soon because otherwise the performance will totally fail. I think we finally learned the song last week and we were alright, but we still need more practice. Drum on Drummers!

The performance is getting closer and i am really excited. I think we are finally able to play in harmony and it sounds great. Can't wait to show what we've learned!

Drumming for the performance would have been fun. we are well on our way to be ready for the final performance. i have learned a lot on drumming through this seminar and learned a lot about african culture.

Dancers?

i think we have been improving alot in our drumming. but the question still remains... are we gonna play w dancers? i think were ready but if were gonna play w them i think we should do it b4 break. But this drumming has gotten alot more fun. Since we mostly know how to play the rhythms its mostly fun from there. So Dancers? Were definately ready.

Dancers

Maybe we'll finally be able to play for them tomorrow? I'd really like to do it once before break to get somewhat of a feel for how the rhythms and dancers interact. Anyway, it's been really fun drumming so far, and I know I'll be thinking of it during break!

I just realized that my hands are starting to get calluses, especially on the ridges of my fingers from hitting the drum and carrying my instrument case. I guess that shows i'm really trying to get the beats right... (sort of)

I cant wait to play for the party. This will be our very fisrt time to actally play for someone. Im so excited! I just hope we can pull it off. The beat that we are learning now is kind of hard for me to get down.

This drumming session, I feel like we're finally pulling it together. I think that we need to spend more time individually on each session. As far as the sound, I feel like together it's brilliant! Next session, I think we should play non stop for as long as we can just to really get the beat in our head.

Although I missed the first half of our seminar i could tell that we are improving on our keeping unity but now all we need to do is work on our tempo becasue we keep, or at least I, speed up when we're playing. I feel like we need a bit more practice before we play for the dancers but maybe working with them will allow us as a group to improve ourselves a great deal more.

Last week I found drumming to be a lot harder with several different beats going. It was incredibly easy to just totally lose the beat that you were asked to do because of hearing all the other ones. Hopefully this week Ill be able to focus on the one beat and not everyone elses, and maybe it will sound good this week.

The Log

The only instrument i can play is the hollowed out log. It makes some pretty cool sounds. I wonder what its made out of? The beats we are learning are pretty hard, but I am the master of the log. I hope we merge with the dancers soon.

This is Anthony on Connors

Last week was pretty cool. We learned some cool beats. When we were drumming i felt pretty cool. I thought that it was nice that we were givin the option to solo. Not going to lie i was afraid that i would'nt look cool. The Djembae is pretty sweet but after playing for a while my hands hurt pretty bad. Next time i think ill have the courage to solo, but probably not.

I have been having a really fun time in this Muntu drumming seminar. We've been practicing a lot and i think it has really payed off. We will definitely be ready for the performance!

Sry for the Late Addition

I know its really late but last week i felt that the second beat that the jimbei? had to play was so much more difficult than the original one. hopefully we would use more the the first one, the slap, tone, tone. i feel so much more comfortable with that drumming pattern. Im really exited to drum for the dancers.

I missed last weeks, and i really missed it. I've been really excited for the last several days to be able to go back and play the drums again. i really missed it! I read that some people played solos and was even more sad that i had not been there. Looking forward to playing again.

Last week was alot of fun. I thought we sounded good and better than usual. I wish I had solo'ed, but i thought it was pretty cool that Baba PC let us play solo's. I hope next week will be fun

I'm so glad we're finally playing for multiple weeks in a row. I think the consistency has really helped us to retain the rhythms. Last week I really enjoyed when Baba PC just let anyone solo while we were playing. Sometimes playing the same pattern over and over again can get monotonous and I was happy that he opened the floor so that we could have some more fun. I'm really excited to play with the drummers this week, hopefully we play great!

I found it tough trying to play the rhythms last seminar. It was also difficult to keep the rhythm going and play the break. I tried to focus on saying the rhythm in my head and that helped a little. It also helped when there was more people playing the same rhythm. Hopefully I can get it right away next seminar to better prepare myself for the performance.

*I'd forgotten that the plan is to actually play for the dancers tomorrow. I'm excited for that, though it might be really hard when we actually try, especially if they're expecting us to play faster than we have been or something.

*Previously I blogged that I can never seem to keep the rhythm in my head between seminars. Maybe it's helped now that we're having seminar every week, but it really helped me to remember the WORDS Baba PC says that go along with the beat-- the break for the piece for the dance, i think, pde'ke'te'ke'te'ke'te'ke'te, for example.

*We'll miss you, Claire, you're getting really good practicing that same drum every week.

N.Klionsky

I feel like with each practice we are becoming better and that if we work at it we will be ready to play with the dancers in January. we have come a long way from a few weeks ago and we can only improve.

Just a Note

As of last week, I really thought we came together. I've never heard us sound so good! Baba PC has done a great job in such short notice, and I'm eagerly awaiting our performance.
That new rhythm on the kenkeni has permeated my brain I find myself singing it in my sleep!

Just note, I WON'T be here next week, but I hope all of you have a great time!

HEYY.

Since Muntu drumming, I have gained a respect for drummers. I always thought it was one of the simplest and easiest intrument to play. But since actually learning to drum, I have discovered its a lot more difficult that it looks. I never knew that even something as small as the placement of your hands could make such a difference in sound.

This is Anthony on Connors

Last week we were really good on the drums. I think BaBa PC thinks were starting to come together (I hope so). Janurary is coming up and its crunch time, but I believe that we can do it if we just focus. I would also like to see us drum with the dancers and see if we are in rythm with them. I think we are well on our way to being a very good drumming group.

Anthony

This is Anthony on Connors(Redo of Last Week)

I don't usually hear African Drumming in common day music. I think I've heard african drumming in one Simon and Garfunkel song but I'm not even sure what its called. I would like to hear more drumming in everyday music. I think it would add something new to the boring and diluted pop music that is on today.

Anthony

I was not there

I was not here last week, but I believe the seminar went on without me. I am sure they did a very very good job of drumming their drums in my absence. I banged on a table a couple times to make up for not being there. I really hope i can be good at drumming this week!

I thought the last seminar was the most successful. We were really able to harmonize, and we sounded really good. I listen to music differently now, it makes the song a lot more interesting.

Hopefully Drumming with Dancers

I'm really hoping that we finally get to merge with the dance seminar and play for them. I feel like it would add a cool visual aspect to our rhythms as well as possibly hold us in better time. As a comment on last week's session, I feel like we all latched onto the rhythm immediately and were playing cohesive beats for most of class.

dont have a title... completely forgot about blogging... anyway, really excited to drum w/the dancers. i feel that it will challenge us to be able to play up 2 a different speed. We have to know how to play alot faster for the dancers. Tomorrow will be interesting... but im sure we can do well. Besides the red and sore hands, drumming is so much fun!!

Last seminar, it felt that we were on a roll meaning that we were good in the beginning but towards the end we did even better. We also did little to no mistakes when playing even though the rhythms were so much harder and more complicated than before. I feel like all of us are getting the feel for the drums and i expect a great performance in January.

Learning the new rhythms we would be performing were a little hard to learnat first. As we moved along they started to sound better wich made them easier to play. I think we are all learning at a good pace and we will be ready to play for the dancers soon.

Good

Even though the rhythms were more difficult than usual this week, I felt that everyone did very well and we actually sounded kinda good. Hope we do as good next week when the dancers are going to be there.

-Paul

No official prompt this week, I guess, so I'll just say that legit look forward to drumming seminar every week and am kind of excited to finally have a few consecutive weeks (the 'kind of' because it means we have full weeks of school, too, of course), and also very excited to play for the dancers.

drummmmmmmmmmmmmm

i feel like we are becoming better at drumming.when we play we sound like we know what we are doing. when i listen to music i feel like i haven't payed more attention to drums but this seminar has gotten me to appreciate different types of music.