For those out there who came to the didj after taking music classes I was wondering how you do you’re composing. I know a lot of players mostly or always due the improve thing is this what you do or do you actually kind of hammer it out on paper as you go. And for those who have nor had any formal musical training due you think it is a hindrance or a benefit and how do you compose.
namaste
namaste
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Re: Compose?
Tue, April 1, 2008 - 2:05 PMVery good question.. I've played around a little bit with standard rhythmical notation, with extra symbols at the bottom/top (sort of like lyrics), that denote various things.. where to put diaghram punches and breaths, and various types of articulations and harmonics, etc. You could also use different note heads to mean different things. This seems to work "ok" for rhythmical playing (although I'm not 100% satisfied), and doesn't work very well for slow, meditative playing.
I remember seeing this one website once.. probably a couple of years ago. I've looked for it a couple of times since but with no luck. I think it a was a website of some French woman, iirc. She had developed a pretty good didge notation system using standard rhythmical notation along with IPA (international phonetic alphabet). I wish I could find that website again.. anyone know what I'm talking about? -
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Re: Compose?
Tue, April 1, 2008 - 5:29 PMDidgeridoo magizine had a few things here and there on didge music theory. Its based on drum rythems.
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Re: Compose?
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 12:09 AMI heard classical composer Erik Bergman wrote some pieces incorporating didj. Haven't seen it, though. -
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Re: Compose?
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 5:50 AMI've said many times that "the type of didjeridu I like to play" will play 5 main notes. The fundamental drone, two jaw drops down, and two toots up.. Of course it's possible to play 3 or 4 or more toots up on some didjs with some styles of armeture.
So, you could theoretically write out something in bass clef,, but to me it's more of a percussive instrument, so you'd probably be more concerned with remembering and notating the percussive aspects..
I've spent about seven years now working on Afro-Cuban drumming, and every time I learn something new it's written down. We have our own script where a note below the staff means right hand, and above means left. Then, there's a hollow note meaning open tone, closed note means bass, X means slap, a strike through means a muffled tone, and a T means a touch.. We have really only two timing sequences. 6/8 and 4/4.
But, the writing is more of a way to share with other players, more than it is a compositional tool or creative outlet.
I could see how you could write out didj stuff.. Shouldn't be that hard!
Dave -
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Re: Compose?
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 5:57 AMThis is what I'm working on now. It's what we call block form, and seems to be what most percussionists use to communicate with each other,, probably because it's clean looking. But, it's clunky to have to write out all that stuff..
animaldreams.net/cong/curr...hythms.htm
Here's everything I've translated in block notation:
animaldreams.net/cong/congblock.html
And here's how our group's Western/personal drum notation looks:
animaldreams.net/cong/cuban.pdf
Dave
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