Videos
Instruction, Demos, and helpful Drum Videos. Rhythms, Techniques, patterns & Lore.
Drum Performance Videos
Shangö Percussion YouTube Playlist
YouTube Channel where the Instructional Videos from our Videos Page are hosted. Includes all of Kurt’s Demos and a number of other helpful demos and and inspiring performances.
During the Covid-19 Emergency, Kurt has been streaming some Drum Stuff and posting tutorials to YouTube in place of our regular sessions, most of them are avaiable here to re-watch.
Demos & Instructional Videos
Featured Video
NEW! — Taiko 101 - Taiko History. Depending on when and where you first learned about taiko, you might know some, a lot, or hardly any taiko history! While I'm no expert, I wanted to put something out there that would give at least a start to those looking to understand where taiko has come from - and where it's gone! – Adam Weiner, Tic Tac Taiko
Apr 11, 2009. Shidara demonstrates the song Raku (composed by artistic director chabo-san) before teaching it to the residency participants. This song was written by Shidara artistic director Chabo-san at Shidara's home in Toei-cho of Aichi prefecture, Japan.
NEW! — Prelude: Introduction to Taiko Drumming — This is the instructional content from my Livestream on March 30, 2020, just when the Pandemic was really emerging in the USA. Interesting to look back. We clipped out all the dumb stuff like checking the chat, adjusting cameras, and other content that aged poorly, added much needed graphics, diagrams and titles. MUCH better. Now an actually useful instructional video.
Included are some background and history of Taiko. Some of the basics of taiko drumming in the naname-uchi style, the drums, kuchishoga, and introductions to the Taiko songs Renshu, and Matsuri Daiko.
You can download a PDF of the Taiko Introductory Material on the Taiko Workshops page. So! Re!
Excerpt - Renshu
The Renshu segment from Prelude: Introduction to Taiko Drumming. Includes the kuchishoga, patterns, jiuchi, and song run-through.
Excerpt – Matsuri
The Matsuri segment from Prelude: Introduction to Taiko Drumming. Includes the kuchishoga, patterns, jiuchi, relationship to the 2-4 root rhythm and song run-through.
You can download a PDF of the Taiko Introductory Material on the Taiko Workshops page. So! Re!
Two-Four: Decontructed — Shangö Percussion uses a basic 2/4 rhythm as a beginner pattern and as a shakedown and simple performance piece. Tracy Prior Seffers of Shenandoah Rhythm Jam, who teaches world percussion and holds open drum circles, showed us a very clever breakdown of 2/4 that gives us ease of learning and great flexibility for improvisation.
The idea is that the Dominant Hand, (usually the Right), does a repetitive motion with the baseline phrase, and the non-dominant (typically the Left) performs fill beats.
You can download a PDF of the Rhythm Notation on the Recordings & Docs page. Ashé!
A Lil’ Drummin’, Boyz — Rhythms & Patterns – A percussion positive Afro – Middle Eastern – Worldbeat interpretation of the classic holiday song “A Little Drummer Boy” with tons of drums! Most recorded versons of the song are notoriouly light on drums for a song about a drummer. This video Introduces the Rhythm Patterns and Arrangement with even a couple of Taiko parts! Percussion Arrangement by Thunder Magewind, Kurt Griffith, and Members of Four Winds Earth Chorus. Happy Hols!
Here is the Original 2006 Recording by Four Winds Earth Chorus. to enjoy in our Audio Files. You can download a PDF of the Rhythm Notation and arrangeemnt on the Recordings & Docs page. Ashé!
Shangö’s Gate: Root Rhythms – Chiftatelli – While we are pretty much still in a COVID-19 driven suspension of Classes and sessions, so more paterial for the Drumheads and Shangö’s Gate students. A short introduction to another world root rhythmn, the North African /Mid-east Dance Rythmn Chiftatelli.
There are sone Audio Files to practice with and a PDF of the rhythm on the Recordings & Docs page. Ashé!
Corona Matsuri Project Introduction – A little trailer and promo introducing the Corona Matsuri Uplift Project with a bunch of crazy drumming! I might be a little out of my mind, but willing have some fun with this and invest a little sweat in trying to put this together. If you’re interested, bored, frustrated, inspired, curious, climbing the walls… you’re all welcome to shake it off, shake it up, and kick in!
New! – Demo 2/4 - Matsuri Daiko Solo Tag the Shango Players. We've been having a little trouble with figuring out where people's solos in the Ni Yon (2/4) Matsuri Daiko Jam ended. So we're picking up an idea from Shoji Kameda's Omiyage and using a dead simple Solo Tag to signal the end of solos for the next player. Will make the changeovers much sharper.
Demo Yama-Taiko: Rhythms the basic parts of my original Taiko & World Percussion Composition experiment Yama-Taiko - or ”Mountain Drums.” We have the Baseline or Jiuchi. The Main Line for Hand Drums, which is also the first double length line of the full eight line Yama-Taiko Pattern. The arrangement is designed to have all kinds of drums interacting with Taiko, and celebrate Shangö Percussion’s Mountain Home here in West Virginia. Check out some recordings and a downloadable PDF of the rhythms and arrangements on the Yama-Taiko page.
Demo – Lego Solos Does the idea of performing a solo on a hand drum fill you with deer-in-the-headlights dread? Fear not, here is an easy way to use a set of easy to learn and remember simple rhythm phrases to build drum solos like snapping together legos! We’ll use number descriptions here instead of traditional names to make the phrases easier to remenber. Also check out some recordings and a downloadable PDF on the Recordings & Documents page.
Demo – Serto. A detail breakdown of the somewhat obscure rhythm Serto, which may be an African styled expression of of a Greek rhythm. We take a look at the main rhythm in detail with the handing, and accompanying layers. We also take a look at it's namesake on the Doumbek. Also, check out this version at Tribal Soup Project.
Demo Updated! – Bolomba. A detail breakdown of the Bolomba rhythm from Guinea. It is based on a rhythm played on the traditional Guinean instrument the (M’)Bolon. Version 2 - updated to show the rthymn pattern notations on-screen longer [12 Nov 2019].
Demo New!– Shangö/Chango – From the folks at Tribal Soup Project, a very approachable version of the Shangö rhythm. Much more accssible than the impressive, but wall-of-sound version of Babatunde Olatunji's recordings. Given that we are Shangö Percusison, certainly a rhythm we ought to embrace!
Demo – The Heartbeat Drum. The Heart Beat rhythm underlies almost every drum pattern. It is essentially quite simple, but by itself has so much silence it can give beginning and intermediate drummers a hard time. The 2-8 Heartbeat is about 90% silence, and can be surprisingly challenging to keep consistent and steady. But everybody has a heart. Ashé!
Cool Stuff – 3 Essential Djembe/Hand Drum Rhythms for Beginner/Intermediate Level Players A cool set of three djembe rhythms for jamming and Drum Circles. Tresillo (aka Carribean Clave aka Malfuf). A Basic Hip-Hop, and and African/Worldbeat. Enjoy and widen your chops. By Didge Project.
Demo – Learning To Play the Six. A short introduction to the sometimes challenging process of learning to play drum rhythms in Six – 3/4 and 6/8. Simple patterns and three Traditional rhythms, Farewell Song, Ajaja, and Kakelambe.
Fanga – Fanga Djembe Rhythms. A very accessible demo of the traditional base rhythms – with Jonathan Harmor.
Babatunde Olatunji – How to produce the voices of the drum, Gun , Go Do , Pa Ta method. Demonstrated by the great Nigerian drummer, teacher and ambassador of the drum who introduced the syllabic method to the United States. In beautiful detail. Mr. Olatunji introduced West African drum music to the USA in 1959 via his Drums of Passion album. This video is a priceless gift.