I don't claim to be the best drummer in the world! But I've been drumming for many years, firstly with Adam Warne, Guy Schalom and Tim Garside, and currently on my trips to Egypt with Hamada Fathy and Saleh Dahab.
And the drumming I love to do reflects the cultures, principally those of Africa and the East, where making music is enjoyed within the community and not so much taught as picked up from an early age. In the Mazazik Drum Circle we'll play with rhythms from Egypt, Nubia, Morocco, Turkey and play them together in a supportive and non-competitive way.
We now tend to focus on frame drumming but also include simple tabla/darbuka playing also. If you want to solo or do lots of fancy stuff to show off, then this group won't be for you. And the great thing about these these drums, our instruments, is that they are easily transportable. And part of the fun is being able to travel to places to gather and make music - whether it's Yorkshire, the Scottish coast or Egypt.
What I offer which other drummers may not is my proven ability to 'facilitate' YOUR drumming, to break things down in an easy, accessible way, and to combine that with my vision of bringing people together to make music. There are many drum tutorials out there, but few that actually create real opportunities to gather to drum.
And this is also not a drum circle for people wanting to be completely free to just make sounds and see where it goes. As with my dance work, the cultural side of what we do, what the rhythms are, where they come from, what they are part of, is an important part of our playing.
These classes are for people prepared to engage to learn, gradually building confidence in the rhythms and the pieces we are working on.
So if you'd like to join, you can:
1. Work through the free Drum Bites tutorials below.
2. Join us for our termly Zoom get togethers to practice and reinforce rhythms.
3. Ask about our in person get togethers and come and join in.
If you'd like to be on drumming mailing list, drop me a message at [email protected].
You can also buy a Year 1 condensed class - Drills, Fills and Variations for Egyptian Baladi, designed to consolidate and put into more practice some of the Drum Bites tutorials, plus give you another new rhythm. The class with playalong is approxmiately 1.5 hours. Get in touch for more info
Buy Zoom drumming - 7 September - 19.30 to 20.30 London time