In September, this very very white girl went to an African Drumming class and holy shit it was amazing.
For most of my life I have recognized the joy of making music with others. I love to just play by myself but there is something about raising your voice or playing an instrument with others that really gets the vibes high.
I’m by nature relatively solitary. My preference is to be home and not around other people. So for me to get out and go do a new things was kind of a big deal.
I borrowed a drum from one of the other folks and it was just the four of us and wow.
I think because it feels so PRIMAL to just bang your hands on something. Anyway, I barely remember my drive home I was so high. Next time I’ll take a minute to ground myself before driving.
So, despite my self imposed moratorium on buying new instruments, I decided to poke around looking for an inexpensive djembe to play. The group locally meets once a month (I will be out of town for October so I’ll be missing that one) and they go through May.
I asked in the local group where one buys a djembe and was told to try Guitar Center. I mean… ok. I got my bass ukulele there and I’ve picked up a few things but they aren’t known for .. well.. quality and I really don’t know what I’m looking for to be honest.
But I gave it a shot. I went to my local Guitar Center and they had a bunch of small ones like.. meant for kids and there was one for $400 that didn’t feel good. The drumhead felt dry (like I know what I’m talking about haha I don’t) so I passed on that.
In the meantime, I did a little internet sleuthing and found Earth Beat Music and sent an email asking if they had drums to try.
They don’t but they did give me a referral to The Djembe Lab (Facebook link)
Turns out he’s a local builder who I think buys the shells from Wula Drums .. anyway he has a few shells that need skins so I’m going to take the drive on Sunday to go see what he has.
Did I plan on a custom build drum? Nope, I did not, but if I’ve learned anything over the years of playing so-so instruments and then upgrading, I can so for sure that the upgraded quality instrument is going to be easier to play so I guess I’m going to go with it.
Hopefully he will have a shell that I like and we’ll go from there.
Leave a Reply