Well it has been awhile since I posted here.

It has been insanely busy with work and school (I finally finished my degree) and to my dismay this sometimes disrupted my drum classes, but not my practicing. Granted, practicing the drum has been sporadic in the past 3 months, but never to the point of no practice whatsoever! I squeezed in 10 minutes here 20, 30 there, so that I kept the licks I learnt fresh.

I've resumed classes this past month and I'm happy to be back! Lots of new challenges but I'm not feeling overwhelmed by any of it. I'm finally getting a groove for this and pushing my comfort levels with it. The other motivation was getting a Sumbati for my birthday back in November! It's a GEF,that I got through Sphinx Shop

www.sphinxshop.com/motherofpearldrum.htm

it sounds as good as it looks! The journey continues, and I'm loving every minute of it!

Yep, consider me bitten by the drum bug!
I can rationalize this though, since my Dumbek comrade "Nevik" recommends getting a backup drum.
To be precise I was looking for a "Knockaround" Dumbek.

I'm going to be at the Society Of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators this August (SCBWI for short) in LA but I figured I'd take along a drum to wind down after the busy day. Either that, or get up early and get stoked for the days events with a little drumming!

But what it comes down to is I DON'T want to take my Gwaheret El Fan with me and risk anything happening to it.
Not at least until I get a Meinl drum bag for it (and they do make nice drum bags BTW)

So the objective was to get a cheaper, sturdy, Dumbek of decent quality.

I'd popped by Steve's Music just down the street from me and they have a good selection of Dumbeks.
Actually, I felt like a kid in candy store! They actually have the REMO Ergo Drum Dumbeks which Issam uses and MAN! they are as good as the hype claims... but that's for the Birthday Wishlist.

Back to my original objective: I tried out a Meinl as they seem to have a good rep and they're about midrange in price.
Well after playing several licks, I decided that they weren't that good to fork out for a midrange. The doums were acceptable but the teks fell a little flat. I admit I'm spoiled, my first drum was/is a GEF!

They had a few Alexandrians from the basic cheapie, to a couple with wood finishes (which were warped actually -no way!) And the cheapie aluminum Alex, was just waaay too tinny sounding!

Later at class that week, I asked a classmate where they scored their drum. It was a Meinl Black Vinyl knock off and sounded pretty good and at a fraction of the Meinl price!

As a result I ended up in a strip mall in an industrial park in deepest, darkest North York in an Indian music store called "The House of Raga."

houseofraga.net/index.html

Well it was worth the trip! They have an excellent selection of world instruments. Including Dumbeks. I settled on the one you see here in the pic. The doums were quite warm and nice sharp teks. It's got a pretty copper paint job and if it gets bumped around on the trip, it can handle it.

And the price? Only a 120 bucks Canadian. SOLD!

And it really does sound decent. Not to mention that the bearing edge feels nice and the gap between the top and the shell is less than half a millimetre. Same for the gap between head and edge.
It feels good, I haven't played for more than an hour at a time but so far, so good.
It's got 8 lugs. More than necessary, but like I said: sounds good, resonates nicely, IS GOOD!

Overall I'm very happy with my new drum!
Mission Accomplished!

When I get into something I tend to explore all aspects of the subject.
And since the Dumbek has become something of a passion, well I 'm going to explore all related venues!

Case in point: Glen Velez.

Glen Velez is perhaps the most accomplished of frame drummers out there, full stop.
He has mastered several traditions and methods of drumming. From Middle-eastern, to European and Celtic drumming.

But it was his proficiency with Middle-eastern rhythms that intrigued me, as he has mastered the Tar, Persian Dof, and Riq! A friend alerted me that he would be in town this pastThursday, conducting a workshop. Well whatya gonna do? When an opportunity like this presents itself?

The fact that I had the effrontery to attend a workshop with no experience in frame drums is evidence of my keeness to just suck up anything and everything about hand drumming. I figured my experience on the Dumbek was enough to get me through this right?

Well... sort of.

Actually I did all right as the workshop was geared to all levels and after a brief instruction on how to hold the drum and demo of basic drum strokes we set off. I did all right, but in someways the experience was similar to learning to walk as if you've never walked before.....backwards!

For one thing, with the Dumbek, you hold your hands at 12 O'clock and 9 O'clock or 3 O'clock if you're left handed like me. With the Tar or Riq it's 6 O'clock and 3 or 9 respectively. Your 6 O'clock hand also cradles the frame in a "U" shape while using the ring finger. You employ for the most part, the ring finger for your strokes. No prob there.
So far...

Velez's instruction is a hybrid of his experience and it incorporates chanting that would appear to be a counter point rhythm to what you are drumming, but in effect, facilitates it. There are Doums and Teks but that's about it.

The main 4/4 rhythm is chanted as "Taki-dimmi, Taki-dimmi." You can actually count off each syllable on your fingers to help you get a feel. But there is no "Doum-Tek-ka, Tek -ka!" happening here per se.

In short, I had to forget my Dumbek and just Zen with it. As the class became more comfortable he improvised complementary rhythms on top of ours including a kick ass jam with the Riq!

So will I take up frame drumming any time soon?
No, I'll stick to mastering the Dumbek right now thank you, but I have entered into a bigger world.
And should the opportunity ever present itself I highly recommend taking a workshop with Glen!

There was some speculation if the Dumbek classes at Arabesque were to continue or move to another day with the fear that some of us would have to adjust our own schedules.
Fortunately, it's "Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!"
It's hard to believe that I've been taking classes for a month now-Tempus Fugit!
Hopefully my comrades from the previous session will make it out.
We had a great time together! I should see if I can get any of them to join the rest of us here in tribe. A shout out to my new tribe members here too!