Hand Drumming Essentials is unlike any book you've seen! This innovative new approach provides all the information you need to begin and maintain your own hand drumming ensemble. The book includes an introduction to hand drumming; instruments of the hand drumming ensemble (including conga, bongos and timbales, and exotic world percussion instruments such as agogo, axatse, caxixi and toke); performance techniques; rehearsal techniques; the development of hand drumming technique; and compositions for performance.

The hand drummers bible. Designed for use with any style hand drum, this book contains rhythms for percussion ensembles and solo hand drummers. Two styles of easy to understand notation are used. Includes information on playing positions and how to create varied sounds on a vast array of ethnic percussion instruments. A companion CD is included with this book.

Hand Drumming Ensembles is the companion to the method book Hand Drumming Essentials: The Instruments, Techniques and Compositions for Ensemble Performance. This supplemental volume contains 12 complete performance scores of compositions for hand drumming ensemble. These compositions (Rhythm Chants) are written at a variety of levels and can be learned by young musicians and students with no previous musical training. All of the Rhythm Chants can be studied and performed by more proficient musicians.

More than twenty universities and twenty other colleges in North America (USA and Canada) offer performance courses on West African ethnic dance drumming. Since its inception in 1964 at both UCLA and Columbia, West African drumming and dance has gradually developed into a vibrant campus subculture in North America. The dances most practiced in the American academy come from the ethnic groups Ewe, Akan, Ga, Dagbamba, Mande, and Wolof, thereby privileging dances mostly from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. This strong presence and practice of a world music ensemble in the diaspora has captured and engaged the interest of scholars, musicians, dancers, and audiences. In the first-ever ethnographic study of West African drumming and dance in North American universities, the author documents and acknowledges ethnomusicologists, ensemble directors, students, administrators, and academic institutions for their key roles in the histories of their respective ensembles. Dor collates and shares perspectives including debates on pedagogical approaches that may be instructive as models for both current and future ensemble directors and reveals the multiple impacts that participation in an ensemble or class offers students. He also examines the interplay among historically situated structures and systems, discourse, and practice, and explores the multiple meanings that individuals and various groups of people construct from this campus activity. The study will be of value to students, directors, and scholars as an ethnographic study and as a text for teaching relevant courses in African music, African studies, ethnomusicology/world music, African diaspora studies, and other related disciplines.

With Freeman Kwazdo Donkor and Abraham Adzenyah. Based on four Ghanaian rhythmic groups (Sikyi, Adowa, Gahu and Akom), this book and CD will provide drumset players with a "new" vocabulary based on some of the oldest and most influential rhythms in the world. A groundbreaking presentation!

Finally, a book no percussionist should be without! This unique guide to world percussion covers 28 different instruments with descriptions and performance techniques. Exercises and traditional rhythms are illustrated in both traditional music notation and time-box notation. With information on several different cultures and six unique compositions, Drum Circle: A Guide to World Percussion is the definitive guide to getting you started with your own drum circle.

A Cross-Cultural Curricular supplement. In just five short years, WORLD MUSIC DRUMMING has become the hottest new addition to the school music curriculum in years. In thousands of classrooms (grades 3-12) across the U.S. and Canada, teachers have found that this active, hands-on approach really works. Through the teamwork approach to learning West African and Caribbean drum ensembles with songs and movement, teachers are able to reach all of the students - even in middle school! Now comes Will Schmid's new book and playalong CD, World Music Drumming: NEW ENSEMBLES AND SONGS, that supplements the original World Music Drumming curriculum. These new pieces expand the drumming spectrum to include new culture areas and contemporary drumming styles. All pieces and songs have been kid-tested by grades 3-12. Available Book/CD Pak.