Jabba Jabba Jembe

Last week all of class Emnet gathered in the music room for a percussion workshop. We all helped bring in the instruments. At the beginning i had no clue what was in the large bag covers, but when the covers where taken off we all saw that they were musical instruments. David (the instructor) then told us that they were jembes and not bongos. We then all got to work learning how to use the jembes. I loved just hitting the jembe aimlessly but I also loved making rhythms with them! The noise from the music room must have been awful as one person described the noise coming from the room as ‘a racket and a half’! Then we worked on making rhythms, he gave us simple tips to remember the beats for example ‘Pat the Bak-er’. When we had learnt all these we all performed an orchestrated rhythm together. Some people were on the jembes while others where banging chairs and other drums. All together the rhythm sounded amazing! We then watched video clips of the place where jembe was originated. The people who live in the town live and breathe rhythm and they also have a very ancient way of life. I was amazed at how their culture was so well maintained as they still had very old traditions and ways compared to my life. today. After that we all tried a little freestyle. Now that didn’t go too well. When I stopped and listened to the noise around me all I could hear was random beats! J I had a great day and I would absolutely love to do it again or learn the jembe myself. But I found that the day was a bit long and I was very tired by the end of it!