Kita Soli / Beginners Djembe Drumming

Welcome ! So glad you are considering to take my course.

What to expect:

When it comes to drumming there are 3 fundamental building blocks:

1. Technique
2. Timing
3. Tempo

We will refine our personal and group understanding of these concepts through playfully exploring a variety of rhythms.

Without lengthy explanation the drum will guide you to the peace you seek. There is no rhythm without presence, when that presence becomes evident energy and ecstasy follow. However nothing worth doing is easy so expect to work your body and mind in the pursuit. Then watch with wonder as your skills progress, your perceptions sharpen, and your body strengthens. This practice will improve your memory, coordination and overall brain function. On a musical level your sense of timing, tempo, and swing will be greatly improved. Beyond technical understanding you will also be shown how to improvise based on your own intuition. To play this type of music takes a communal effort. The more we drum together the more we see how the interconnection of each of our individual rhythms create one larger singular rhythm. The skills derived from communal drumming when applied to other community efforts greatly improve their efficiency and lend a light touch to ones efforts.

The skills taught in this class are universally applicable to all music. No previous experience needed. Simply show up with an open heart and eagerness to learn.

The lessons are slow paced with lots of details to assist you in getting the parts and building confidence as you go

Party Time !

Let it go! Shake off the worries of the day and hit the djembe.

• Community

• Enthusiasm

• Co-creation

• Empowerment

Kita Soli invites you back to yourself. Dance and play with your friends and community to the sound of this friendly rhythm.

Everyone is invited

Play alone, with friends, at a drum circle, during a open mic or at a gig. Kita Soli goes well with all types of common time music. This is a cornerstone rhythm everyone can benefit from learning.

Once you know Kita Soli you are the party. What are you waiting for, get started !

Origin

Kita, Mali

Kita is a town and urban commune in western Mali. The town is the capital of the Kita Cercle in the Kayes Region. It lies on the eastern slope of Mount Kita (Bambara: "Kita-kulu"), known for its caves and rock paintings. Today, the town is known for its music, its annual Roman Catholic pilgrimage and its role as a processing center for the surrounding cotton- and peanut-growing region. Kita lies on the Dakar-Niger Railway and is the largest transit hub between Bamako (112 miles) and Kayes (205 miles). In the 2009 census the urban commune had a population of 48,947.[1]

In November 1955, Kita became a commune of average exercise. On March 2, 1966, Kita became a commune of full exercise. The town grew in the 1990s around the cotton industry, but this has since declined.

About the rhythm Kita Soli

This is a fun rhythm similar to Djansa a very popular rhythm also from Kaye. It is a 4/4 rhythm with a celebratory feeling. It is a crowd pleaser, always good for any party atmosphere.

I chose this rhythm as the basis for my beginners course because I noticed at some point in my progression as a musician that the feeling of Kita Soli was in the vast majority of popular music styles running from Rock, Hip-hop, Pop, Jazz, electronic music, Country, Kirtan, and drum circles. Everyone was playing Kita Soli but didn’t know it. It was in fact one of the very first rhythms I learned in my early days at drum circles. This rhythm is encoded in our musical DNA. Young and old will recognize it on a body level and rock to the beat when heard. Seeing that it was what everyone was trying to play anyways I decided to expand on the theme. Here you will find a total of 24 variations on the root Djembe sole part from the rhythm Kita Soli. Enjoy !

What’s covered:

Section 1

• Intro

• Get to know your Djembe

• Rudiments

• Full Lesson

• Rhythms 1 - 6 recorded in 5min downloadable shorts

• Practice instructions

• Test your skills and play along with me

Section 2

• Intro

• Rhythms 1-6 full instructional lesson introducing the slap sound

• Rhythms 1 - 6 recorded in 5min downloadable shorts

• Dun Dun Solo instruction

• Practice instructions

• Test your skills and play along with us

Section 3

• Intro

• Rhythms 1-6 full instructional lesson introducing the Bass layer

• Rhythms 1 - 6 recorded in 5min downloadable shorts

• Dun Dun Solo instruction

• Practice instructions

• Test your skills and play along with us

My story:

It is a miracle that I am here at all.

My life was heading in a direction of total catastrophe. My environment was incredibly abusive and so my life was a living hell. Filled with depression, and anxiety I was on the brink of suicide. Then I found the drum.

Drumming literally saved my life.

It allowed me to release and express my pent up emotions.

I was not musician material, I had no concept of music. I had no concept of anything except hate, rage, and depression. The drum didn’t mind, she invited me to strike and express it all.

My very first instruction came from my Mother, she approached me one day as I was frantically beating my drum in the back yard of my family home. She sat with me and explained that to play music I had to understand and implement the down-beat. It took me a couple years of frantically beating my drum before those words began to sink in.

I played because I had to, it was medicine, it was church, it was also family. My life revolved around it.

The drum guided me, providing me with a level of trust I had yet to encounter with any person or modality. She gave me a purpose, even if no one else knew. Playing the drum connected me to the rhythm of life.

Over time it released me from my emotional / mental burdens revealing to me that there is a choice ever present:

to be humble and let go to the rhythm of life it’s self or to cling to my own interpretations and stories. She reintroduced me to my inner drum, my heart

This is a success story but not your typical type of success. I was suicidal, filled with toxic hate and shame. I was literally in hell.

Playing the drum saved my life, healed my mind, regulated my emotions, connected me to loving community, reconnected me with my heart, and brought hope to me through revealing that magic does exist

It can do the same for you. You don’t need to be a musician to experience these types of breakthroughs. You just need to show up and hit the drum.

I hope this message meets you well

Timothy