Music & Sound: African Drumming Workshop

Before you play together, you have to listen together.

About This Course

A short, hands-on introduction to West African drumming: djembe technique, ensemble playing, and the call-and-response tradition at the heart of it. This is a five-week workshop, not a full term, built for a first real experience of playing rhythm as a group rather than alone.

What You'll Create

Working knowledge of basic djembe technique: bass, tone and slap.
Participation in a group polyrhythm built across the workshop.
A short informal performance for family and friends in the final session.

Course Details

Age Range: All Ages
Term: Term 2
Schedule: Saturdays, 1:00pm
Duration: 10 weeks
Price: $300
Spots Available: 8 of 8

Book Now

What You'll Learn

• You'll learn the three basic djembe sounds: bass, tone and slap.
• You'll play a part that only makes sense next to everyone else's.
• You'll learn call and response, the backbone of the tradition.
• You'll hold a rhythm under pressure, in front of an audience.
• You'll perform, as a group, 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.

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

Week 3: Building a simple polyrhythm as a group.

Week 4: Dun dun and ensemble playing. Everyone holds a different part.

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.