West African Drumming – An Extended Introduction (full)
Click for Free Download- Basics and further reading for both teachers and non-music specialists
- History and cultural background
- The instruments and playing techniques
- Warm-up exercises
- Call and response
Some teachers may wish to dig a little deeper in order to feel fully confident or may wish to read around the subject and choose key areas to develop further in their lessons, but not be entirely sure what information should be classed as relevant. This Extended Introduction is for them!
Richard McKerron has written a series of introductory articles (downloads available below) which utilise information from Andy Gleadhill’s books as well as information from further afield. These provide enough information to answer the trickier questions that may be put to you in a lesson and a strong starting point for further reading.
These can be taken in isolation, but are presented here in their collected form as originally intended if you are after a full overview.
- What Is Special About West African Drumming And Why Should You Do It?
- How Could You Introduce West African Drumming To Your School?
- Benefits of African Drumming
- History and Cultural Background
- The Instruments
- How the Instruments are Made
- General Technique
- Master Drummer
- Grid Notation
- Warm-up Exercises
- Call and Response
- Soloing
A series of videos has also been uploaded in support of the article, designed to help you develop the basics with confidence, and these are shown below also embedded in the PDF documents.
You may also be interested in our Downloadable Schemes of Work and one-page lesson plans which benefit from these supporting documents, and are also based upon the information and techniques found within Andy Gleadhill’s Teaching Guides.