Welcome to Doumbek for Beginners
This application will teach you how to play Arabic rhythms on the goblet drum.
The goblet drum is known by many different names: chalice drum, darbuka, debuka, Kratom, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tablah.
The rhythms presented come from across the Arab world and have a deep and rich tradition.
The lessons presented in the application have been developed by Joseph Tayoun over the many years he has taught adults and children. Joseph has found that learning the rhythms in small phrases helps speed the absorption of the rhythms. He has discovered that students who master a rhythm before mastering the technique enjoy playing, practising and discovering new rhythms far more.
This tutorial is comprised of two basic sections. Lessons and Play Along
The Lessons section allows the student to learn a rhythm using Josephs Phrase approach and then as an entire rhythm.
The Break It Down screen allows the student to learn the rhythm one Phrase at a time.
The Play Along screen allows the student to select among the available rhythms and hear them play continuously in either Josephs voice pronouncing the syllables, or played on the drum. Play Along screen is most useful once the student has learned the rhythms from the Lessons section.
The Interactive screens provide activities where you will play in response to Josephs drumming by filling in the missing beats of the rhythms. You will also get the chance to play “against” a partner and improvise a solo while Joseph plays an accompaniment.
The Improvise screen plays a rhythm where you play along in the beginning, and then you play anything you want while being accompanied by Joseph playing the base beat. Use this to practice free-style embellishments. Joseph will keep the beat by “punching the ones” while you play anything that sounds good. Then join back in at the final beats. Experiment and have fun!
The Call and Answer screen lets you play responses to Josephs playing. Listen to Joseph play a piece then repeat it as closely as you can.
Test your knowledge of the rhythms by naming the rhythm being played in this multiple choice quiz section.