At the weekly open mics I go to, recently a Djembe/percussionist has been showing up. He doesn’t sign up to play, but accompanies a couple other regulars including the host. I have a couple songs I loop rhythm patterns to, but instead I’ve invited him to play the parts with me.

But the more interesting territory is for the last song or another as a requested encore, I’ve asked him to take the lead and I will follow him for a purely improvised unrehearsed jam. This guy is really good and so far it’s been a big hit with the regular patrons. The Stick has a great rhythmic quality to it so I watch him closely as to what he does, and I’ve been able to keep up with his tempo changes tapping out some chordal patterns I’ve done on various songs I’ve created. The most difficult thing I try to pull off is hit a good bass note whenever he hits a deep bassy note. If I miss, I’m fortunate to get it in time with the beat, but just somewhere else. So far no hiccups and even one encore request the first day we tried it. I have tried this before with a few other people that do OK with a Djembe, but this guy is definitely quite experienced.

I just finished a guitar and Stick seminars back to back, and the topic of having parts or “toolkit” was brought up, which is basically what I’m doing with this. Since a Djembe does not play chords or keys being a percussion instrument, I’m free to move around without worry. So I just dip into different chunks of what I have in my personal toolkit and match the rhythm. For those that were at Interlochen with me, parts of what Art Durkee was teaching is in line with what I was doing. Not quite the same context, but having small pieces as building blocks is what’s going on here.

Steve - that sounds great!! I find a rhythm figure to be a great inspiration. That has to be really something to pull off live.

Congratulations and good for you ( literally). I’m a percussionist especially multiple congas and bass. Hearing his drumming and you clearly will be essential. For me i feel my bass side. I’m sure it will pull off very nicely. I really like good percussion with stick. Congrats again.

Here's the latest video to share from my post from last August. Had to take a bit of a break from taking videos as I had photographed/took videos at a coworker's wedding shortly after this post, among a few other projects, shot with a GoPro in low light with the multi-media mod:

I like this one very much.

Thanks! That's outside of the same building during the summer. Lots of great learning experiences playing through different amplification in different environments. Before COVID we used to play in the main building that had huge windows, and ousidte on the patio during the summer. This old building really has far better acoustics. And outside of it we have the woods, a trail system has an entrance on the otherwise of that van - and pretty much no car traffic.