Our all-inclusive – Everyone is Welcome! African Drumming Workshops are here in the Wellness area of Camper Calling 2024
If you have ever wanted to play an African Drum and create music with other festival goers then now is your chance!
Graeme of RhythmWorks will be hosting African Drumming with Tempo Rhythm & Melody – Bringing Djembe Drums made by Graeme. If you attend one of his RhythmWorkshops – You will learn and practice many fundamental techniques and rhythms – learning how to make the Djembe Drum speak and learning how to play African Rhythms in the 4/4 Musical Timing – like Pop Music.
You will practice Susu Meditation Technique to prepare for playing rhythms and you will practice the 3 Basic Tones – exploring all possibilities of right and left hand interaction and combinations. After practicing the signal or phrase used to start, stop and change – it is Rhythm Time! We will practice a rhythm called Kuku and Graeme will guide the group in learning and playing a Melody, ultimately creating a full musical piece with Tempo Rhythm & Melody. You will need to come with comfortable clothes and a caring, sharing good attitude! Graeme’s teachers and family in Guinea Conakry & The Gambia are griots and master drummers / musicians and in fact, the father of Graeme’s teacher known as Grand Master Gibi Camara was the pioneer and the first Djembefola to make the super tight Djembe in the late 1950s, in West Africa and to popularize the use of the Djembe in the Djoliba – The African Drumming & Dancing Ballet of Guinea Conakry, going on to create the first training schools for Drumming & Dancing in the Djoliba. Graeme initially travelled to The Gambia to meet Gran Tomas Camara and ask for help in reformatting himself, after suffering head injuries and complete loss of memory from a near fatal car accident. After 1 month of traing with Tomas, in The Gambia, Graeme felt an inspiration and feeling of re-birth and in turn donated his then recent inheritance to build a training centre and home for Tomas and his family, in The Gambia, West Africa. Come and celebrate the joyfulness and happiness created when drumming and dancing together and experience the Roots of Pop Music, with only the Djembe Drum and your hands. Each workshop will be accompanied by the Dun Duns – Bass Drums, bringing a more authentic experience of West African Percussion commonly known as “African Drumming”! Our RhythmWorkshops are suitable for all ages and require only the use of your hands and to be able to sit on a regular sized chair.
