This Youtube link contains the audio from a YANKADI lesson with FATOU ABOU. The video was posted by a friend who studied with Abou in the United States. On May 5th, 2000, Abou taught Yankadi in two separate sessions, an early one and a late one. The audio comes from the early session, but some details of the written presentation are from the late session, so you may notice a few differences. I will clarify these differences, very soon.
To find out the all-important "which hand plays what," go to the Dr. Lee post, where his version (filmed in Guinea) is compared to the El Paso version.
Here is the full score for Fatou Abou's Yankadi arrangement, followed by a key to reading the notation.
Note that this arrangement is very similar to the one posted by "Docta Lee," and available in the previous blog post...
THANK YOU THANK YOU to "Docta Lee" for posting this video! It looks like Fatou Abou taught 'the Good Doctor' a Yankadi arrangement very similar to the one he taught a friend of mine in the U.S. in 2000 during the WOFA tour. The patterns taught stateside were, in a very few cases, ever so slightly simplified versus the Guinean ones. So it is super helpful to have this great video of Dr. Lee's. He posted a second lessson video from Guinea, too! I'll address that one in a later post...
A number of authors (books & also internet) have published rhythm transcriptions represented in typed and/or monofaced format. Having read very many of these, ever since the 1990's online, and actually dating back at least into the 1970's via scholarly journals, I find them mutually intelligible. All of them have been influenced by "music notation." Within the sphere of *World Music,* and more specifically trans-Atlantic ("Black African and Diaspora") drumming, the hybrid notation systems continue to influence transcriptions in all other notation systems, both traditional and modern. If my own transcription choices are unclear, this portalshould lead to more detailed explanation(s) of both the underlying, basic and agreed-upon system(s), as well as my occasionally unique applications of these traditions... And now -- whew -- without further ado... 0:22 --- First support djembe. Abou starts the rhythm, plays a few lead licks, and then settles into this rhythm. As the camera pans over to Dr. Lee, Abou can be heard switching back to lead licks. Dr. Lee is playing a pattern identical with the "first djembe" as taught in El Paso. The El Paso version, however, used different handing. It began either on the right or left hand (Abou said it didn't matter) and alternated throughout. With twelve strokes in all, the complete pattern doesn't switch hands every other repetition, as does the "second support djembe" taught in El Paso. 0:30 --- Second support djembe. He's "riding" what could be called a basic shuffle rhythm:
123123123123 O.OO.OO.OO.O
Note that the right hand is on the beat, and that the left hand's hit prepares the right hand's hit. Call & response. In order to make a more melodic and beautiful rhythm, of course nobody is playing a basic shuffle beat, but is adding to the skeletal framework. There is additional melodic and rhythmic detail. Note that the left hand delicately muffles the right hand's slap. I used the "y" symbol -- it seemed appropriate. That would be "and," in Spanish.
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea --- --- --- --- B.y S.B B.O O.B r r r r l l l l
The Guinea version is slightly different from the handing taught to my friend from El Paso. In that case, it was taught using an open slap: 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea --- --- --- --- B S B B O O B What about the handing? Well, playing the complete cycle requires 7 strokes, and Abou was very clear that he wanted his student to alternate hands, throughout. This would mean playing the drum pattern twice before coming back to the beginning of the handing cycle. Abou said it didn't matter whether one started with the right or left hand. In any case, this is a great technique for practicing one's timing and "chop," no? You sometimes see the pattern played like this, too. This is a third version. Notice there is no slap:
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea --- --- --- --- B B B O O B
r l r l r l
Notice that for all three versions:
******* whereas the slap might be open, muffled, or not there at all...
******* a characteristic Yankadi melody of "double bass to double tone to double bass" is always there...
A fourth version can be added to this list: it was one of two Yankadi support djembe patterns taught by the late, great Kemoko Sano. For close to 30 years, he was director and choreographer for Les Ballets Africains. As he told me, once when I mentioned Mamady Keita, "I taught Mamady Keita." Sano's drum pattern, not surprisingly, produces the characteristic Yankadi melody. His Yankadi has the same melodic contour as the other versions, and also it has the same motor pattern of left-to-right handing. Clearly, it is related to the "third version" just discussed. In both instances, the same melody is produced via the same strokes: double bass, to double opens, to double bass. The last bass stroke is one the ONE, which is in keeping with the characteristic West African musical aesthetic of building toward the one. By resolving onto the ONE of the subsequent cycle, a powerful form of rhythmic motion is generated. According to my most trustworthy of sources, this ubiquitous compositional technique relates to West African spirituality and to concepts of human reincarnation. The "interplay of 2's vs. 3's" also will be a key theme when comparing many of the Yankadi djembe patterns. To have found identical second djembe patterns in two different time signatures (Sano's and also the previous, or 'third' version of the pattern) will not seem unusual. In many more instances, cognate versions exist in both duple and ternary textures.
The discussion of this "second support djembe pattern" has been quite lengthy, since this pattern encapsulates an important and characteristic Yankadi melody. Several of the djembes and both of the bass drums work with this melody. The bottom two djembes add counterpoint, while the lead djembe interacts with dancers and/or singers. Additional examples of the characteristic melody will be found here.
0:44 --- Third support djembe. Again, this drummer is riding on that basic underlying "shuffle" feel. I'm using an Americanized word that at least gives some indication of the African aesthetic reality. Of course its only "the finger pointing at the moon," and could be more limiting than revealing, at times.
The pattern fits like lock and key with the pattern which preceded it. The open tones between drums combine to reproduce the characteristic Yankadi melody already mentioned: basically, just an onbeat low-to-high-to-low, resolving onto the ONE, and all placed within a shuffle or even a *swing* feel... How delightful! 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea --- --- --- --- O t t o o t t o I didn't write the handing: its still the same left-to-right shuffle feel. It moves and dances between the left hand's syncopated question... and... a resolution of this tension via the right hand's onbeat response. He's using very light, ghosted t(ouch) strokes in addition to the open tones. In El Paso, Abou taught this rhythm as being in a strict duple, not triple (read: "shuffle" or "swing," etc.) feel. This is a statement you can be sure of. Why? Because the class required substantial repetition and clarification on this point. None were accustomed to hearing such intricate "interplay of 2's and 3's." (...Like "Call & Response," this term refers also to multiple levels of meaning and application...) The version from El Paso, though using a different underlying rhythmic texture, still keeps the underlying motor pattern intact: left hand precedes right hand, and the right is on the beat. We already saw this exact process at, courtesy of Kemoko Sano's pattern for second djembe. 0:56 --- Fourth support djembe. This Guinea version has the same melodic concept as the delightful and unusual(?) fourth djembe pattern taught in El Paso. Details of the handing are slightly different, however. If you are comparing to the notated music from Abou's El Paso session, the video's drummer comes into view during the fourth bar, and then very quickly goes into the roll that comprises the fifth bar. He's not on camera for very long. During the middle of his pattern's first bar, the camera moves to the next player. The overall form of the fourth djembe pattern is AAB. This won't be difficult to remember, since a lot of people know it already from blues verse form. Two identical calls are followed by a single unique response. This complicates the notation, since "B" already is getting used to represent a bass djembe stroke. Sorry, this is unavoidable and may cause confusion when skimming the analysis. Within each phrase of either "A" or "B," there is also call and response between an active bar and a "waiting" bar of purely onbeat bass. Here is how the hands distribute the various notes while playing the pattern. As taught in El Paso, and available in notation here, the left hand always hits the bass, and never the right hand. The right hand hits the open tones and muffled slaps from the (identical) first and third bars. In other words, most of the time the left hand is in the drum's center and the right is at the rim -- very easy! The fifth bar's 9-stroke roll of open tones is played beginning on the right hand and alternating. This is followed by a slap flam, which in this example is most easily played left-to-right.
Abou's Guinean version seems to fit within the shuffle feel, rather than El Paso's use of duple for all but the "B' section. This seems consistent with Abou's Guinean version being more entirely in a shuffle/swing feel, versus the sparkling "interplay of 2 vs. 3" from the El Paso version's mixture of ternary with duple.
1:04 --- Fifth support djembe. Very similar to the pattern as taught in El Paso. On video, the bass tones are a bit more active, but the open tones are identical. In both arrangements, the open tones are handed in the same way. The left hand is hitting open tones on the first and second beats, while the right hand plays three syncopated open tones. In the Guinea arrangement, this seems to be one of the few patterns played "straight duple." For all other patterns: whatever was taught "straight duple" in El Paso was played as shuffle/swing in Guinea. You hope you will listen to the audio and verify this, for yourself. ...The sangban player's left hand is beginning to come into view, but you don't get a good close-ups of the drum until...
1:21 --- Sangban.
Wow, nice pattern! What about the all-by-itself bounced drumskin stroke that is usually played to coincide with the slap from the second djembe? In this instance, Sangban is delaying, retarding, hesitating a little bit, right? As a friend used to say: DEEP POCKET! Wow, what a great touch. This seems to be more than just a little show-off thing for the camera closeup. I hear him playing it that way throughout the video. Once again, this is a pattern played in shuffle feel vs. the clearly duple version from El Paso. The Guinean Sangban transcription is below, and has been written so that conversation with Dundun is more clear.
1:31 --- Dundun. Note that the dundun is played upright: two sticks on the drumhead, but no bell. With this type of arrangement, you usually see the drummer also playing click strokes: both sticks striking in unison, hitting against the wooden side of the drum. This drummer is doing all of that, in addition to some fancy and flashy visual effects. Throwing and catching the stick communicates his joy, at least for this viewer. Notice that Dundun and Sangban combine to form a recognizable variant on the **characteristic Yankadi melody** previously discussed vis-a-vis the second support djembe. Further examples of this melody, played among three rather than two members of the Dundun family, can be found here. For this musical example, I've used "S" for open tones on Sangban and "D" for the Dundun's drumhead strokes. The "P" indicates lightly pressing the stick into the Sangban's drum skin. I notated Sangban's delayed hit, just as its played during the ten-second close-up beginning at 1:21. Visually, the typed notation of this music seemed a little bit bare, so I added "." just to indicate silent pulses. They don't indicate any kind of stroke from either player.
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea --- --- --- --- P.. .S. p.S S.. <-- This is Sangban
D.. ..D D.. ..D <- and this is Dundun!
As for the Dundun's stick clicks, the video shows that they seem to occur concurrent with the Sangban's open drumhead strokes. Thus, the two drums are playing mirror images of each other's sonic output. For example, when Dundun is hitting the drum and bouncing the stick(s), Sangban is playing a higher-pitched and understated press stroke. When Sangban is hitting the skin and bouncing the stick, Dundun is hitting the stick clicks on its wooden body. This "call and response" interlock (combined hocket melody technique) already has been noted at various various junctures within the overall ensemble melody interactions. It is especially explicit in the pattern of the second support djembe, a highly melodic pattern which in fact calls to and responds to itself!
and don't forget FATOU ABOU as "soliste!"
Abou's lead playing -- WOW! He's so profound. In addition to taking more time further to analyze the ensemble patterns, I'm going to listen to Abou's soloing, but in a new and deeper way. Hopefully I can grasp a few specifics, and then post & share the knowledge. The ultimate goal is to elicit feedback & ideas, and (if I'm lucky) get some additional help and greater insight into Abou's masterful art.
This is the drum pattern Abou is teaching this boy. The lesson also includes an intro call and "break" sequence, as well as a very easy second drum pattern.
4ea | 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea | r r r r r B | OO- O-B O-O O-B |<-- This line is the drum pattern! l l l l | 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea |
"B" is a Bass stroke in the center. (O)pen tone is near the edge. The hands are indicated r(ight) or (l)eft. And you have the video for reference.
This is the call and "break" sequence...
The call and "break" sequence also will be given in typed notation. Anyway, most drummers probably already know the first call, since it is a very ubiquitous one. There should be very little trouble with getting the complete sequence...
The parts all fit within a (12/8) compound quadruple scheme, in other words four groups of three pulses per cycle, which is to say: twelve eighth notes in total.
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea
(But in order to fully quantize the initial drum call, you'll need to use 16th notes, too, in other words 24 smaller pulses. This is a killer mathematical exercise for those who don't speak the jargon, hahaha. It makes no sense on its face, because none of the fractions seem to relate to each other or to create anything complete. We're calling them 8th's or 16th's but a single cycle has 12 or 24 of them, what?!?! Don't worry about it: that's why I put it in visual form, too.)
NOTATING THE INTRO CALL & UNISON "BREAK" FIGURE WILL REQUIRE TWO SPECIAL SYMBOLS. THESE WON'T BE NEEDED LATER, BECAUSE THE BASIC SUPPORT DRUM OSTINATO PATTERNS ARE MUCH MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD... The handwritten notation is actually much easier to read vs. the typed notation, in this instance(!)
I'll follow the example of Paul Nas (http://www.paulnas.eu/wap/legenden.html), and use the symbol "2" to represent two 16th note open tones played in the span of a single eighth note. Of course that messes-up my ability to write r(ight) or l(eft) hand concurrent with the drum strokes! Anyway, these double-things are played Right-to-Left.
Note that the slap flams (F) in the response are played closer together than the "roulement" (as Paul Nas calls it) from the call. All of the boys play their flams left-to-right, but Abou plays his right-to-left.
The boy with the highest of the 3 "drums" (tin cans) is the one who plays the calls. After making the first call, we see that he also plays at least the first two slap flams (of the four total slap flams played for this response), thus providing an additional cue and reinforcement for the other boys. The subsequent, shorter calls are just shortened versions of the initial call.
THE CALL and RESPONSE "INTRO BREAK" begins at 1:15
CALL:
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea
2rl rl- rl- r--
ANSWERED BY:
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea
F-F --- F-F ---
SECOND CALL:
1ea 2ea
2rl r--
ANSWERED BY
3ea 4ea 1ea 2ea
F-F --- F-F ---
AND AGAIN, THIRD CALL is same as the second:
3ea 4ea
2rl r--
Notice that whereas the first call and first response are each four beats long, the second call is only two beats long. So the second response, which is four beats long, will cross against the underlying meter... until another two-beats-long call gets everything back in alignment. This crossing effect is part of the fun and excitement of this initial "break" figure.
NOW THE FIRST SUPPORT DRUM PATTERN The difficult drum pattern is pitched in the middle, between the higher calling drum and the other support drum (which is lowest of the three tin-can-drums heard in this brief excerpt, although obviously there are many other boys sitting there, and the complete arrangement clearly utilizes many more patterns.) It begins with an eighth note pickup, voiced as a bass stroke. This is hard for many of us to hear, since we are used to bass always coming on the beat, and rarely being syncopated. The pattern is played by Abou first this way, at 1:35, r r r r B | OO- O-B O-B O-B | l l l l l This is almost 100% a basic "shuffle beat" pattern, except where Abou's left hand hits a little earlier than expected, near the beginning of the bar. Such simple means are used to create such an interesting overall effect! The second time, at 1:51, Abou changes the pattern slightly. Notice that the next-to-last stroke with the left hand is now an open tone rather than a bass stroke:
r r r r B | OO- O-B O-O O-B | l l l l l
The young boy successfully plays this version, although he reverses the handing (he's just mirroring Abou), and thus begins on his right side, like this:
4ea | 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea | r r r r r B | OO- O-B O-O O-B |<-- This line is the drum pattern! l l l l | 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea |
NOTE that the boy's left hand is just playing open tones on the main beat: very easy! Also, his right hand is simply alternating between bass (center) and tone (near the rim), which again makes playing the pattern much easier than it seems! Notice the timing of where the right hand hits during the first versus third beats, because this is pretty much the only tricky part. This little detail gives the overall pattern its polarity, in other words, the feeling of call-and-response between each half. When the boy begins (incorrectly) the second time, he's beginning it on the back half instead of the front half... Actually, the very first time he starts playing, I can't tell what the problem is? He seems to be exactly in synch with the rhythm Abou is speaking? Any ideas?
Eventually, at 2:11, Abou claps this pattern while his pupil plays the drum. It begins with a pickup: 4ea | 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea | 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea X | -X- x-X --X x-X | -X- x-X Abou only plays one full bar of the pattern (plus the beginning pickup and also half a bar at the end) and then he seems satisfied that the boy has learned the drum part, and Abou moves on. It seems like when Abou claps on the 2nd and 4th beats, he uses more of his right-hand fingers into his left-hand palm, producing a less intense clap versus all the other claps (where palm meets palm, for a more powerful sound.) It is subtle, but if I'm right, it would be an interesting detail. For that reason, I represented those particular claps with small x's. In any case, Abou is clapping every time his pupil's right hand strikes the drum, plus claps on the 2nd and 4th beats. Abou's resultant clapping pattern is almost exactly an **offbeat-6 cross rhythm**, where six claps fit within a span of four beats, and align with the 2nd and 4th of those beats. 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea .*. *.* .*. *.*
While we might be used to thinking of "triplets" always aligning with one and three, that is only one of two possibilities within this particular metrical scheme. As written in the example above, you can accent either the "." or the "*" and thus achieve either an on-beat feel or an off-beat feel. See this link for much more detailed information on the techniques of cross-rhythm, written by the teacher, performer and theorist who pioneered this analytical model: http://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/PrinciplesFr.html
Therefore, the drum pattern along with which Abou was clapping contains both a "shuffle" element and also an element of "6-against-4" cross rhythm. This is not a contradiction: the two rhythmic concepts are interwoven within a pattern that is multivalent rather than one-dimensional. This gives it its power! And once you combine it with the other, lower-pitched djembe (tin can) pattern, further metrical ambiguity and rhythmic interest is created. The result is a very musical and compelling groove!
AND NOW THE SECOND SUPPORT DRUM PATTERN Played at 2:19, the other, lower djembe (tin can) support part is: 1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea r r r r S-- SOO S-- SOO l l l l When the second boy begins the pattern, he starts with the single slap (on the ONE) using his right hand, and then very quickly uses the left hand to "close the mouth of the drum," as CK Ladzekpo would say. But then upon repeating, he plays it as I have written: using all open slaps, beginning with the left, and not "closing the mouth" with the free hand. That was a detail he used only on initiating the pattern, and it gives some extra emphasis to the ONE. It helps solidly ground everything, and makes that initial slap more crisp, in order to start the rhythm more authoritatively.
Notice that the second drum pattern's slaps reinforce the main beats, as do the previous drum's left hand open tones. Further analyzing the interaction between both drums, we realize that the combined open tones create a lovely little melody. I'll use 'o' vs. 'O' to represent the open tones from each of the two drums.
1ea 2ea 3ea 4ea
--- --- --- ---
oo. o.. o.oo..
... .OO ... .OO
=D ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- Hopefully now you have everything you need: all the necessary details to actually try this intro break & the rhythms with your friends! If anyone has some idea as to what dance they are playing, I'd love to know. Maybe if this beautiful clip gets better known, eventually the some additional footage from the complete lesson will get released, whether in another project, or just on Youtube? Thanks for reading... =)
