The Wright Hand Drum Company makes a variety of handmade ceramic drums: udus, dumbeks, guntas, ghatams, bongos and shakers.

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Each year, the day after Thanksgiving, the town of Cornwall, Connecticut holds a “talent” or variety show in a church to raise money for their library. My percussion group, The Offbeats was one of many acts. I’ll post pictures of the other acts in the next few days. Here we are playing our opening samba [...]

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coverpop: every hand drum on amazon is an amazing resource for finding percussion items on amazon by simply pointing at their picture in a huge matrix. I want that, and that, and that… oh boy. Oh, and try the world music coverpop on the right column. Gad. Source: Ed Beaty

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This is a set of simple practice rhythms from a frame drum workshop a few of us took with Glen Velez. There are many more rhythms like these in Glen’s books which can be bought from his web site: Glen Velez – Frame Drums. These practice rhythms can be played on any drum. This is [...]

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Last night a few of us went to see Sandip Burman play tablas at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. The concert was one of the better concerts of any kind I’ve seen in years. Part of it is because it was just plain good, part of it is because I play drums now and [...]

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Scott Feiner, an American living in Rio and a professional pandeiro player is about to release Pandeiro Jazz, a new CD of fusion pandeiro playing. Scott’s other site, Pandeiro.com is a great place to follow the evolution of this traditional Brazilian tambourine/frame drum in both the samba world and the jazz world as well as [...]

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Sandip Burman, one of the great Indian tabla players on earth will be doing a benefit concert at Western Connecticut State University on September 17, 2005 at 6:00 pm. Contact info for advance tickets are on this pdf. This should be a fantastic concert.

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Gary did a series while I was practicing on a new tar frame drum outside. This is a nice view of my less than capable hands on a wonderful Cooperman, Glen Velez model 15″ tar.

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Gary took some pictures of me playing a 15″ Cooperman Glen Velez model tar, a fantastic frame drum that’s beautifully made and has a wonderful sound. The tar, a north african frame drum, is my current fav drum. It’s one of the harder drums to play as you have to hold it as you play [...]

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Randy Gloss, a member of the percussion group Hands On ‘Semble has a great pandeiro lesson online: Frevo and Marcha for Pandeiro. It is described well, has full notation, and QuickTime movies showing hand technique. The rhythms are fantastic and worth learning and if I can every learn how to hold a pandeiro I might [...]

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Our drum group, now officially called The Offbeats, played at Music Mountain in Falls Village, Connecticut this past Sunday. We played outside as entertainment for people waiting to go inside to hear a chamber group play classical music. We played well and it was a heck of a lot of fun. Here’s Evelyn Williams playing [...]

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David Kuckhermann has an excellent web site with information about frame and other hand drums. He has online lessons, audio and QuickTime movies and is coming out with a DVD that looks like it might be a great source of information. His technique pages alone and the QuickTime demos of all of the various strokes [...]

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The Burnt Earth Ensemble has released a new CD: Terra Cotta that is outstanding. I first heard about Barry Hall, a member of this group through seeing a great instructional DVD he did: UDU: Clay Pot Drums and How to Play Them. He makes a variety of instruments with clay and other materials and he’s [...]

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Drumming for Fun and Profit: “‘Drumstruck’ started as a goofy corporate bonding ritual. So how did it become Off Broadway’s loudest new play?” (Via NYT > Business.)

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Last night a portion of our drum group drove down to New Jersey to see a concert by the Hip Pickles. They were great, it was fun and it inspired us. I had seen this group on the Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 2003 DVD and loved them, watching their piece of the DVD numerous times. [...]

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The kanjira is a small (8″ x 2″) Indian tambourine with a single jingle. The one pictured here is made by The Cooperman Drum Company in Vermont. One of the more famous kanjira players and the person who designed this one for Cooperman is Ganesh Kumar. For a great demo of this little drum, watch [...]

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Last night a small group of us drove down to New Jersey to hear Glen Velez do a concert with his wife Lori Cotler, an incredible South Indian vocal percussion (Konakkol) singer. Glen is the most famous frame drummer on earth and has influenced world music far and wide, won a Grammy Award, and collaborated [...]

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Pandeiro.com is Scott Feiner’s excellent site on all things pandeiro (Brazilian tambourine). Check out the movies of various folks, including young jazz musicians in Rio playing pandeiro. Scott also has a weblog: Tales of a Gringo. Okay, time to break out my pandeiro and start practicing again. The dang thing is hard to play but [...]

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Nine men in Kenya have claimed the world’s record for non-stop drumming: 100 hours. I wonder what they played? I wonder how they moved from one rhythm to another. I wonder if my local group here in Connecticut is interested in going after the record? Not! Source: Manish Kothari

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This picture, taken by my wife Anne who had never used my camera before was at a rehearsal just before our drum group drove over to a local gig. I’m playing a traditional Brazilian samba band drum called a repique which is similar to the even more traditional repinique, a Brazilian tom tom for marching. [...]

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