Have you heard about heard about the djembe drum; it is an african instrument played with your hands. It's basically a hand drum... but not just any hand drum, it's a djembe! This is the coolest percussion instrument around, in my opinion, and I'd like to share this article about why I love it so much. 1. Wherever there's a djembe drum there's a party! We used to have international students who lived and worked with us in Scotland. There was quite a few guitar players, I'm best at keyboards, some great singers, and Mike, a Scottish guy, who had a djembe drum. The djembe was so cool; it added rhythm and some beat to our jams, and made the sound so much fuller. Over 20 of us went to South Africa in springtime as a relief visit for two months. About 8 of the group came back with a djembe drum, after jamming and learning from the african drum experts we spent some time with in Jo'burg. I'm not joking, the djembe drum became part of our group, and there was usually someone drumming away in a corner with a guitarist. 2. It's portable. You can take your djembe drum with you anywhere (except underwater). It rarely goes out of tune, so you can just take it out and start to play. We've used it in a park under a tree, in a church, in a cafe, in a home, on a high street, on a beach, in a subway â'†almost impossible I could do this with my piano keyboard, maybe a guitar... but still, it's ideal for the musician who wants to take his music with him. 3. Easy to learn to play. I began to play the djembe drum in 2003 when we had our group of students living with us. I began by watching my friend Mike, and also Bryan and Sophia. They were the first ones in our group who played. At first I was really nervous to pick it up and play as I didn't want to make an idiot of myself. I am musical, however, and have tapped out an â'air drumâ' to music for years. So I paid close attention to my friends and got up the guts to ask for a try on the djembe. Mike showed me the different tones I could make on the djembe, and a few points to note, then he picked up his guitar and I tried playing along. I found that I could play a few beats, and as long as I didn't mess up the timing or try and get too fancy it was sounding fine. As time went on, I purchased my own djembe drum in South Africa in early 2004 and haven't looked back. :) That year, after a whole bunch of us bought a djembe in South Africa, each person could play reasonably well by the end of our tijme together. There's not many musical instruments you can say that about! 4. Everyone loves the way a djembe drum looks. It's true....nearly everyone I have had in my house has asked about my djembe. It is a wooden djembe drum I picked up at a reasonable price in South Africa at a market, and it probably needs tuning, but it has been a real conversation starter. So many people have been itching to play it, and I can understand why... it almost begs, â'Play me!â'. Lol Of course, not everyone can go to Africa, so it's good that there are good stores online like the Djembe Drum Shop, http://www.djembedrumshop.com to get a djembe drum. 5. It sounds good with loads of other music styles. We've used the djembe in a choral concert! This was bizarre, as my wife sings in the choral and they needed a djembe drum for one of their pieces to create a different sound. We've used it in worship sessions with our church home group â'†it works really well for this. We've played a gig playing Scottish music (jigs and reels etc) with the djembe. And of course there's traditional african music too. I'm not an expert on african music, but it's not hard to find a local drum circle in your area where you could join in and play together. I'm sure there are other styles of music which would work well with the djembe drum. I'd love to hear your stories if you have any. So there you go, 5 great reasons to get yourself a djembe drum. I could go on, there are so many things I like about this percussion drum. The question is, â'Are you interested in taking up the djembe drum yourself?â' . If so, then pop on over to for a great selection of djembe drums and find out for yourself!
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