Drum jam

I went last night to a drum jam at my drumming teacher's place. He invited all his students, current and former, to come and play. We drummed for almost 3 hours. That is a lot of rhythm! My hands were sore - and I could feel my arm muscles when I went to wash up at the end of the night.

We played around with bembe for a while - a very fun rhythm - and then sang some songs to that rhythm, and some other made-up rhythms. We played yambu, then jammed on conga (a new rhythm for us all) and guaguanco, another rumba. We took turns soloing in the hot seat. And closed with aisa, a beautiful rhythm that I still can't remember.

I have had a hard time enjoying drumming lately. My mind seems to go elsewhere, which is kind of the opposite of where you need to be when drumming. The only time I fully got into it was probably soloing, because you have to listen to the rhythm to know what to play. And possibly, playing high drum on bembe, where I think I can finally feel where it comes in.