Music & Sound: African Drumming, Parent & Child

Some things are better learned side by side than dropped off and picked up.

About This Course

The same five-week introduction to West African drumming, built to be shared. A parent and child sit side by side, learn djembe technique together, and play in the same ensemble. No experience needed for either of you, just a willingness to listen before you play.

What You'll Create

Shared participation across all five sessions, parent and child playing together.
Basic working knowledge of djembe technique for both participants.
A short informal performance for family and friends in the final session.

Course Details

Age Range: Parent & Child
Term: Term 2
Schedule: Saturdays, 3:00pm
Duration: 10 weeks
Price: $450
Spots Available: 10 of 10

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What You'll Learn

• You'll learn djembe technique side by side, not one teaching the other.
• You'll each hold a different part in the same rhythm.
• You'll learn call and response as a pair, not just as individuals.
• You'll build something together that neither of you could do alone.
• You'll perform, together, in the final session.

The Support You'll Get

You won't be handed the answer. You'll be shown how to find it.

Your practitioner has spent years making their own work, and their own mistakes. In the studio they work alongside you: asking the right questions, pointing out options you hadn't seen, helping you push through the moment you get stuck. The ideas stay yours. The decisions stay yours. They're there so you're never finding the way through alone.

Week by Week

Week 1: Rhythm basics. Listening before playing. Call and response, together.

Week 2: Djembe technique: bass, tone and slap, side by side.

Week 3: Building a simple polyrhythm as a group.

Week 4: Dun dun and ensemble playing. Parent and child holding different parts.

Week 5: Putting it together. A short performance for family and friends.

Every course ends with an exhibition

Celebrate what you created with the people and our community. Every term concludes with a presentation or exhibition of your work: a chance to share your process, your ideas, and what you've made.

Your Instructor

Valanga Khoza

Musician & Storyteller

Valanga learned to drum in Limpopo, South Africa, from neighbours who were orators, healers and storytellers, carrying rhythms handed down for a thousand years. He has been playing and telling those stories in Australia since 1976. Author of Dumazi and the Yellow Lion, published by Scholastic. He plays djembe, dun dun, kalimba, marimba and shijororo, and several instruments he built himself. Almost nobody gets taught rhythm by someone who learned it at its source.