How to Play Djembe (Book/CD set) by Alan L. Dworsky & Betsy Sansby, Alan Dworsky, Betsy Sansby
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Book Reviews of How to Play Djembe (Book/CD set)
Book Review: I love this book
Summary: 5 Stars
It just works for me and my students! Congratulations to the author for getting it right. It is right up there with Syncopantion and Stick Control.
Michael Hinton
Book Review: Great Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is great! Very well written and easy to read. The text and charts are large enough to see over the drum as you practice.Book Review: Simple, Understandable
Summary: 5 Stars
Great intro book. Easy to understand. Great practice drills that you can start playing in very little time.
Book Review: Great start, but could be better.
Summary: 4 Stars
In general, this book/CD combination is great. The text of the book is clear, the authors' approach in starting with simple patterns and then adding to / subtracting from the simple pattern to arrive at the traditional pattern is very effective. The authors' present the material clearly and succinctly, and is paced very well. This book is a good resource for getting started on the djembe.There is only one thing that keeps me from giving this book/CD five stars.
A previous reviewer says the CD allows you to hear what the "whole rhythm" is like, which isn't entirely true. The book doesn't address bell and djun-djun (bass drum) parts at all, and these parts are not present on the CD. These rhythms are incomplete with just the djembe parts. The book/CD never gives the student a complete view of what the African rhythms, as played by a proper ensemble, should sound like. I don't fault them for not teaching these parts, as this is a book about playing djembe, but much of the rhythm context is missing.
With the excess space on the CD, the removal of the sample tracks from the "Jaguar..." album, and a bit of creative work, the authors should have been able to give the listener a taste of what the full rhythms sound like, even if only for a couple minutes each.
I still recommend this book to the beginner, but recommend that the beginner seek another source as well that better emphasizes the whole of the rhythms.
Book Review: Book is great, CD is pretty good
Summary: 4 Stars
As a beginner I find the book to be very good, it breaks everything down and gives you steps to learn the patterns. I would give the book a 5 star rating.
The CD is pretty good. The first song, Kuku, is easy to play along with as are some of the others. But on some of the songs, the patterns are played too fast, and I could not keep up, I even had trouble hearing all the drum beats. It would have been very helpful to me if the patterns were played more slowly at first.
The final 5 tracks, Jaguar at Half Moon Lake (parts 1-5), are nice, there is music, singing and drumming. But, I would have preferred something in the style of what was taught in the book, maybe even the same songs that were taught with a full drum circle.