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This section contains cool things I remember from the Wisconsin World Music Drumming Workshop 2007.

Cues and ideas (and who said them):

  • Pull off the sound (Will)
  • Use paddles for tubanos, fans for bongos (James, referring to hand technique)
  • This music is descended from speech (Will and Josh)
  • Don't shout, and don't mumble (Josh)
  • Open tones are the spoken parts, the melody (Josh)
  • Muted and bass tones are the internal support parts (Josh)
  • Use Peter Gabriel's "Shaking the Tree" with Ensemble 1 (Will)
  • No specialists: everyone learns every part (Will)
  • High-energy, advanced call and response (James)
  • Highlife is a modern African form, created to imitate Caribbean music, so completing the circle (Will)
  • Highlife patterns (dig-a-dum) can be heard in Afropop, Juju, Soca, Samba, and other styles (Will)
  • "Shave and a hair cut, two bits" can be modified to teach the timeline for Highlife (Cindy)
  • Use a "huh!" on the downbeat to start the gankogui part for Highlife (staff)
  • Ensemble 5 variation: two-handed mute for the last part of the low drum pattern, can be doubled to find "8" subdivision (Will)
  • Three positions in the classroom: sit-back, resting, and playing (Hong)
  • Use Cohen's "Hallelujah," "What a Wonderful World," and "Ise Oluwa" with Ensemble 5 (Will)
  • People will sing if you give them a reason to sing (Will)
  • Don't play any louder than you are singing (Will)
  • "Match my spirit" rather than volume (Hong)

Songs from the workshop: