Footsteps, heart beat, just breathing in and out… we’ve all got rhythm in our souls, and who better to coax those rhythms out into the open than our lovely drumming friend, Cambridge’s own drumming maestro, Daniela McDermott. On Friday 9th September we formed our own drumming circle and took turns to keep a steady beat on Daniela’s big ‘sangban’ drum, while the rest of the group did their funky stuff, weaving rhythms in and out of some totally spontaneous musical creations. We were playing djembe drums, the smaller Turkish darabouka, cowbells and woven cylindrical shakers called ganza. A new addition were the laladehs, carved from right angled sticks with wooden discs threaded on one end, which made a nice crisp clicking sound when shaken.
picking up the beat
All of this turned out to be the best base layer ever for some crazy vocal improvisations! After a bit of progressively less tentative tribal calling and responding, we moved on little by little to the magnificent and probably-never-to-be-repeated ‘Honey Monster Love Child’ riff. Well, you probably had to be there!
'honey - monster - love child!'
