Dumbek

From crispyneurons

doum, tek, ka

I've been taught to play a variety of instruments: violin, guitar, clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax and flute. These days I play a drum known as a dumbek (or doumbek, or doumbec, or doumbeck, or dombak, depending on who's spelling it). I've studied with Frank Lazzaro and Randwulf and I've already had the opportunity to perform for belly dancers in parades and for friends and family at parties.

The dumbek emerges from the cultures of the Middle East and Mediterranean. It is of ancient origin, and is believed to have been invented before the chair. Mine was made in Egypt and is shaped like a nuclear reactor's cooling tower. The body may be made of beaten metal (with a screwed-down tunable head), cast metal (usually aluminum), pottery (often with a glued-on head) or wood. Materials for the head include plastic or mylar (for professional drums, usually with an aluminum body), animal skins or fish skin. The dumbek has a single head on one end and is open on the other end. In general, dumbeks tend to have much lighter heads than African drums, and are played with a much lighter touch and quite different strokes... more use of the fingers than palms.

[edit] Dumbek Rhythms

Dumbek rhythms are various combinations of these three basic sounds:

• doum (D), produced with the dominant hand striking the sweet spot of the skin
• tek (T), produced with the dominant hand striking the rim
• ka (K), produced with the recessive hand striking the rim

In traditional notation, these three sounds are represented by three letters: D, T, and K. When capitalized, the beat is emphasized, and when lower-case, it is played less emphatically.

These basic sounds can be combined with other sounds:

• grab (G), produced with the dominant hand. Similar to the doum except the fingers are cupped to capture the air, making a loud terminating sound. The hand remains on the drum head to prevent sustain
• slap/suk (S), similar to the grab except without cupping the hand
• trill (l), produced by lightly tapping three fingers of one hand in rapid succession on the rim
• roll/rush (r), produced by a rapid alternating pattern of teks and kas

Thus the 12/8 rhythm known as debhke looks like this:

                  1 1 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
D tktk DD tktk DD   G

There are many traditional rhythms. Some are much more popular than others. The "big six" Middle Eastern rhythms are ayyoub, beledi, chiftitelli, maqsoum, masmoudi and saidi.

But traditions are simply starting points -- you have to learn the rules before you break them. The Middle Eastern context is, for me, just a platform for wild experimentation. I love to play dumbek in all kinds of contexts: parties, parades, drum circles, accompaniment for bellydancers and fire-spinners, or even just jamming by myself on the beach.

I've included here a sampling of dumbek rhythms and all the variations I know of. I'll keep adding more as I discover or create them.