Soloing "secrets" (1)

Beginners on djembe sometimes have a hard time breaking into the
soloing mode. They are more comfortable playing the familiar patterns
that accompany many Malinke rhythms, and aren't sure where to go
from there. Fine. The world needs more accompanists than soloists,
when you look at the composition of West African ensembles. But who
among us confines our playing to West African ensembles? How about
the drum circle? The free-form jamming? Still content to stick with the
familiar "ponk--du-ponk" all night long? This series is going to let you
in on some methods that will help you cross the bridge into confident
soloing.

Definitely one way I began to work on soloing skills has been to play
"songs" against a steady beat. I remember once jamming with a group
of 5 or 6 drummers and we were taking turns soloing. When my turn
came up, I got into a state where I was having my hands "vocalize" how
I imagined a blues interpreter would be singing the St. Louis Blues.
Nobody knew what I was up to, but afterwards they commented on what
a neat solo it was, unlike any of the more "standard" or "predictable"
kinds of soloing that came up during that session. You never know what
may inspire you, but I do encourage students to sometimes just play a
tune they're familiar with against the class backdrop of a standard 4/4
or 6/8 accompaniment pattern, and they are usually pleased with the
results. Works with nursery rhymes, too, but I find that few students
under forty know many (or any--more's the pity!--) of these.

What can happen here, if you really get into the vocal interpretation
mode, is that you fall "off" the beat in interesting ways. Of course we
expect a certain rigidity of timing in the percussion world, but it's those
quirky "off-time" surprises that can lend a solo (vocalists do it all the
time) its freshness and personality. Also the suspense, because when
you wander off the beat, the listener is always happy when you manage
to get back on it again at a particularly satisfying point in the song
(usually the end of a phrase).

I suspect that is also at least part of the secret of what gives us
drummers the thing that has been called "microtiming" in earlier
'djembe-l' discussions (check the archive),--a trait of the great West
African drummers. Sometimes they get so far "out there," you wonder
if they even know any more where the beat is, or you begin to question
your ability to hear correctly. There were attempts at analyzing these
techniques using sophisticated recording and timing devices.
They weren't all that convincing, and certainly not especially useful
to me. Just listen to a few Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong recordings
and lose yourself in their vocal "timing" while tapping along to the beat
to see what I mean.