Talk:Djembe

Size

I have a full size djembe, constructed in the traditional way. The shell was carved in Guinea, and the goat skin came from the Ivory coast. I also have a 3/4 size djembe; both the shell and goat skin came from Guinea. I made these at drum-making workshops. I'll take photos and change the photos in the article. Bruce 22:25, Sep 12, 2004 (UTC)

[comment deleted by user]

Loosely defined, any of these drums can be called a djembe because of the shape and construction. However, anything smaller than about 12" will generally not produce the range of sounds that a "real" djembe can. This is an important distinction -- the djembe is traditionally used in an ensemble, and occupies a certain part of the melodic line in a song, so a player of traditional music must be able to play in that range. The djembe has become so popular that it is used in many ways that are out of the traditional context, so these smaller drums can fit in many other places.

I am a musician and have played with West Africans since the mid 80's, and have bought, sold, and otherwise interacted with dozens of djembe drums in that time. Nearly every one of them was between 24 and 25" tall, and between 11 and 14" across the top. This is pretty standard. I don't think there's any point in disparaging the size of another guy's drum, but for the purposes of the article, if "size matters" to the definition, I'd say that's what should be used.

The smaller drums that are being produced these days are mostly made for tourists, and many africans make them for the huge U.S. market. At lest the bodies of the drums pictured probably originated in Senegal. Just like any other instrument, some djembes are considered better than others by musicians. Those produced in Guinea, Mali, and Ivory Coast top the list, while those from Ghana and Senegal are not considered as good. Of course, there are exceptions - good and bad drums are made in all of these places, but the djembe is not native to either Senegal or Ghana -- they got into the game later on. I play with som Ghanaians now, and they use djembes from Ivory Coast, not Ghana. (It's also important to note that the way these modern countries are divided up bears little relation to the cultures and ethnic groups that originated the drums.)

I changed the disputed paragraph so it would be more NPOV. I made it clear that traditional djembes are twelve inches and the djembes pictured are not full sized. I think the pictures are fine. I mean, they still look like djembes.

Ccj

US and Europe

I changed the "The djembe is very popular in US and Europe for all over the world. Its also popular in Brazil and in Japan, places I lived. Dionisio

Adding and external link

I would like to add an external link to my site www.djembefola.com, but it would be preferable if someone else were to deem it appropriate and add the link.

We hope to help connect djembe players around the world, facilitating learning from each other and to help those eager to learn but have no access to teachers.

We also provide learning reseurces, such as articles and videos for those interested in learning djembe and related instruments. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Djembefola (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia's "external links" sections are for additional reference information, not for directing users to non-reference resources or related communities. You might consider submitting the link to the Open Directory Project at http://dmoz.org instead. — Saxifrage ✎ 18:33, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Replacing Picture

The picture in the upper right hand corner shows a traditional djembe, which is in fact quite basic. The djembe does not have a wrap on it, which is present in many high-quality, authentic, traditional djembes.

Would anyone mind if I replaced this with a picture of an authentic, West African djembe? This would be done in order to give the reader a better idea of what a high-quality, authentic, traditional djembe looks like. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dougtremblay (talk • contribs) 05:49, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Sounds like a good idea. The Original picture could be put further down the page.Freddythehat 07:20, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

A picture of a djembe with a rope-wrap would be inappropriate because the rope-wrap hides the traditional Mali weave pattern used to tune the drum. Furthermore, it has nothing to do with the quality of a drum, rather it is an aesthetic effect which has only been added to djembes in the last 10 years or so, which is very recent when one takes into account the antiquity of the djembe (around 2 millenia, according to the article).60.242.19.59 13:35, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure who deleted the excellent image that I saw only a couple of weeks ago. Now all that exists is a very basic student djembe. If the image is to be replaced, I agree it should be a good quality djembe but without a rope-wrap or other accoutrements.60.242.19.59 13:42, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Nice picture! I think a picture of the mali weave down by the section on tuning would be helpful to the uninformed reader. What do you think? Gkokaisel 03:17, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

That doesn't look like Lengue (Lenke) wood. It looks exactly like Khadi (Hare). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.252.134.185 (talk) 00:49, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

External Link Ad/ Body Content

I believe a much needed addition to the external links section, or even added content into the main body, would be reference material on selecting wooden shell djembe drums that are manufactured using legally certified timber that is environmentally sustainable and the importance of doing so. In today’s age of worldwide deforestation and global warming it’s important for people to understand that their buying decision could be contributing to unhealthy environmental ramifications. Unfortunately, there are many drums being imported into this country that are made using timber that was harvested illegally. We should all be made aware of the differences and knowing the right questions to ask is part of the solution.

unsigned comment added by Nscommission (talk • contribs) 20:02, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Red "see also" links

These links were in the see also section, but have no articles. Aleta (Sing) 04:54, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

• Adama Drame
• M'Bemba Bangoura
• Mohamed Bangoura
• Mohamed Diaby
• Abdoul Doumbia
• Fode Seydou Bangoura
• Sega Sidibe

external links to commercial sites

Does anyone know the wikipedia rule for external links to comercial sites? User [Wwdrums] has reverted the deletion of a comercial external link at least 6 times in the past few months. If this is ok then I'll let it go but I don't think it is.-Crunchy Numbers (talk) 19:23, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Etymology?

The explanation of the name by native informants appears to be a "folk etymology". Perhaps this should be indicated? Or should we mark it as "needs attention from an expert on the subject"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rulatir (talk • contribs) 20:25, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Djembe -Factory

We are professionl djembe builders located in Tema Ghana, we produce all kind of african drums namely, Pro Djembe, kpanlogo, dun-dun Etc. We build our djembe from Lenke, gone, Odum, Red Tweniboa and any other hard woods you may requrie of us For more info please visit our website www.westafricandjembe.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.230.155.223 (talk) 03:22, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Djembe -Factory

We are professionl djembe builders located in Tema Ghana, we produce all kind of african drums namely, Pro Djembe, kpanlogo, dun-dun Etc. We build our djembe from Lenke, gone, Odum, Red Tweniboa and any other hard woods you may requrie of us For more info please visit our website www.westafricandjembe.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.230.155.223 (talk) 03:25, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

drum names

The D’jembe drums are also called: D’jimbe, Jenbe, Jymbe, Jembe, Yembe or Jimbay, but in Susu they call it Sanbanyi. They named this drum D’jembe because, according to the Bamana people in Mali, the name D’jembe comes from the phrase “Anke dje, anke be” translates to “everybody gather together” so that means in the language Bamanakan (the Bamana’s language) the dje at the beginning of D’jembe means gather and the be at the end of D’jembe means everyone so D’jembe = gather everyone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.104.91.175 (talk) 18:35, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

love the djembe

djembe is beutiful instroment it plays such a pretty tune, people spell D'jembe drums like this djembe but its spelt like this D'jembe, but dont you think these drums are amazing, but when i played these drums for the first time i got a purple thumb

from D'jembe admiara

Western Music Section - List of Artists

This list of artists is a mess. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it? I think most of the artist examples need to be removed, unless the band/artist features the djembe it seems like it would be more useful to the reader to provide specific examples of songs that feature the djembe. Thoughts? Xixtas (talk) 16:45, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

List of djembe dummers

The list is entirely too long with no references or indication of notability for most of the drummers. I am moving all of the redlinked ones here. Individuals can be moved back into the article's list if it can be shown that there is a reason for inclusion. LadyofShalott 17:29, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

• Abdoulaye Sylla (Guinea)
• Abdoul Doumbia (Mali)
• Adama Dramé (Burkina Faso)
• Adama Diarra (Ivory Coast)
• Adama Bilourou Dembele (Bukrina Faso)
• Alex Bottoni (Italy-South Africa)
• Fode Mohamed "Akra" Soumah (Guinea)
• Aly Sylla (Guinea)
• Austin Holliman (USA)
• Babara Bangoura (Guinea)
• Bruno Genero (Italy)
• Fode Seydou Bangoura (Guinea)
• Harouna Dembele (Burkina Faso)
• Ibrahima "Kolipe" Camara (Guinea)
• Jaraba Jakite (Mali)
• Kassoum Diarra (Burkina Faso)
• Laurent Camara (Guinea)
• Mito Camara (Guinea)
• Mady Keita (Mali)
• Mahiri Keita (Guinea)
• Mangue Sylla (Guinea)
• Mare Sanogo (Mali)
• M'Bemba Bangoura (Guinea)
• Mohammed Bangoura (Guinea)
• Rosenfeld Victor DR (USA)
• Sam Lightsey (Russia)
• Sekou "Pablo" Dembele (Ivory Coast)
• Sekou "Maoulenden" Sangare (Mali)
• Tahirou Djembe (Burkina Faso)
• Tonton Sylla (Guinea)
• Thomas Guei (Ivory Coast)
• Ibrahima "Boka" Camara (Guinea)
• Fadouba Oulare (Guinea)
• Gbanworo Keita (Guinea)
• Papa Ladji Camara (Guinea)
• Walter Leniton (USA)
• Ousmane "Zoumana-djan" Sidibé (Mali)

List of djembe drummers

I have added Fadouba Oularé to the list of djembe drummers as he was one the great Guinean djembe folas of the post collonial era. He was the first soloist with Les Ballets Africains in 1959, only later relinquishing his place to Famadou Konate in 1965. He also founded ballet Djoliba which recruited Mamady Keita. He surely desrves his own page, especially since he died last January.

Adama Drame, Thomas Guei, Ibrahima 'Boka' Camara and several others on the above list are highly respected djembe folas.

I do understand, though, that it will be difficult to stop everybody adding their teacher to this list. Maybe the title of the section should be changed. Djembeweaver (talk) 10:26, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Also Babatunde Olatunji was not a djembe fola, though he was an iconic west african percussionist (largely due to the fact that he was one of the first to teach in America). I think this section should be removed as it will proove to be unmanageable. Djembeweaver (talk) 17:06, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Key Tuning

Ok, obviously anyone who knows a bit about djembe will know that any old factory made Remo lug djembe isn't exactly proper, but seeing as these are what many people new to the instrument might see as good for their simplicity, or what have you, I feel that the Tuning section should be split into Key and Rope. Perhaps the key tuning section could, in addition explaining the tuning method, mention what makes it different from/functionally inferior to rope tuning. On an unrelated note, there are certain parts of the article that seem to lack encyclopedic tone (e.g. "too many jazz bands to mention.") Also, I think the first sentence under Origin qualifies for "weasel words". I'm not exactly a Wikipedia editor, though, so I'll leave it up to someone who isn't going to have his edits reverted.