Traditional West African Rhythms on the web

[James]

The most exhaustive collection of west african rhythms on the web, as far as I know is the WAP pages by Paul Nas...

http://www.paulnas.eu/wap

There's some great ideas for solos hidden in there

[jake]

that's right, i have been using that website for years now,
and the rhythms written there are all from original sources (or at least from respected teachers) I also see that Paul Nas has a link to this site, so he must be impressed,


keep up the good work

jake


ps- oh yeah, you'll need to update the link too james, he's changed it to http://www.paulnas.eu/wap

[Tou'Bab]

so James have you tried some of these hidden solos?...

[James]

I have yea,

My favourite so far would probably be solo 2 for kuku. I'd link there now (or copy and paste) but the WAP pages are down just now...

There's a 6/8 solo phrase in there that I was originally taught for tiriba by teacher in Dunedin.

It's a pretty common phrase actually. But here it weaves across a 4/4 beat repeating every 3 pulses. It took me ages to get that down with other drummers confortably and I love it!

I've learnt a good few traditional solos along the way. I like to try to mix them all up once I've learnt them perfectly, so as not to rely on playing a rigid, learnt off solo....unless we happen to be playing that rhythm of course

[Tou'Bab]

Yeah! I just heard of the WAP pages very recently and had a look yesterday.

Am getting hyper thinking about the number of solos on that site!!

The idea behind the traditional solo is to mix those single phrases and do variations on them, which means that you keep the same style for that solo. This is why traditional solos for a specific rhythm always has a particular sound and that other solos sound different.
And you guessed that these solos match the moves (traditional) of the dancers!

I better start practising these solos....

[James]

So Toubab, have you been working through any of the solos on the WAP pages?

[Tou'Bab]

Yeah had a go at some Kuku solos but have not been able to try them live (I'd like to place #3).
some seem pretty simple but you wanna hear what they sound like with the whole rhythm...

am still doubtful about all these solos being traditional... anythoughts?

[James]

Why do not think they're traditional? I guess kuku's played all over west Africa and there's different bits that are particular to each region...

It says in the blurb at the top on the WAP pages that even the dun dun patterns came from the main accompaniment which was traditionally played on a bass djembe. Kuku's pretty simple and it would make sense to me if it had a lot of embellishment to spice it up

I guess at the end of the day the traditional solos are for the dances? If we could watch somone dancing it we may have a better idea
I guess it should also sound good with the dundun's too...

Paul does say exactly what his sources for each rhythm are and I doubt he'd post something.
http://www.paulnas.eu/wap/sources.html He's got about 12 sources on Kuku there so it's no wonder there's so much there for it.

Check out that Soli de Manian mp3 for a wicked traditional solo! Excuse the dodgey kenkeni, that's me... I was really struggling with it....tricky tricky!