Drumming workshop inspires participants

This weekend, downtown Bloomington experienced a transformation when the rest of the world invaded its streets for the annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival.

A similar transformation took place Sunday in the parking lot behind Athena when 20 people gathered for a Middle Eastern and North African drum workshop taught by local musician Anass Sentissi.

Athena, a store downtown that specializes in international instruments and goods, frequently offers workshops in African drums, didgeridoo and other instruments that are available for purchase in the store.

“We think it is important to give people an avenue to learn how to play the instrument they purchased in the store,” said Merribeth Fender, co-owner of Athena.

Fender met Sentissi years ago when he came into the store.

Sentissi, originally from Morocco, is a conservatory-trained percussionist who specializes in classical Andalusian music. In Sunday’s workshop, Sentissi primarily taught participants how to play the doumbek.

A doumbek is an Andalusian drum that gets its name from the sounds it makes when struck; “doum” and “bek.”

At the beginning of the workshop, Sentissi taught participants how to properly strike the drum to make the desired sound.

To achieve the “doum” sound, the player rests the bottom part of his or her palm on the side of the drum and hits the drum head using the upper part of the palm.
If the drum is held properly, the upper part of the player’s palm should hit the inner rim of the drum. To make the “bek” sound, the player should have a relaxed hand and use his or her middle and ring finger to strike the outside edge of the drum.

Sentissi said most players use the right hand to make the “doum” and the left hand to make the “bek.” He said sometimes a player will play a rhythm with only his or her right hand and save the left hand for embellishments.

Sentissi concentrated on teaching participants Andalusian rhythms rather than concentrating on technique.

“It would take months to learn the correct technique,” Sentissi said. “I encourage people who are serious about learning doumbek to work with a private teacher.”

After Sentissi explained each rhythm, he asked participants to say the rhythm before hitting the drum. He said it was impossible to play the rhythm if the player couldn’t say it beforehand.

“The beauty of this music is that you get to be creative,” he said to the class.

Toward the end of the workshop, Sentissi demonstrated how to combine rhythms together in a complete song.

He said the “doum” serves as the downbeat and connects each rhythm to the next. He also said it was important to practice playing different rhythms together.

“The trick of drumming,” he said, “is to teach your body how to move from one rhythm to the other.”

After showing how the rhythms related to each other, Sentissi had all the participants play a series of rhythms together.

Sentissi called out the rhythms he wanted the class to play and encouraged participants to embellish. As the jam session continued, he pointed to various players, such as Adam Riviere, who embellished the rhythm.

Riviere, a percussionist for 20 years, said it was interesting to learn traditional rhythms and the different approaches to playing the doumbek.

“It was also nice to expand on my previous knowledge of Andalusian rhythms and add the rhythms we learned today to what I already know,” Riviere said.

Overall, Sentissi said he was pleased with the turnout for the workshop and was happy about the progress participants made.

“Drumming is something people are born with,” he said. “Today, we just learned the basics and reflexes of drumming.”