Lessons were a lot of fun last night.  There is always room for improvement, but we are starting to get the Abakua and Yanvalou to sound the way they should.  It’s interesting that the individual parts are not that complicated, but putting them together and locking them in with several other people is challenging.  Every person has their own weaknesses and makes their own style of mistakes, which affects the group.  Putting in the time to practice individually is important, but coming together and working out those imperfections as a group is priceless.  We found out last night that our Orisa still needs a lot of work but we’ll get there.

Last night was by far the best session we’ve ever had.  We’ve pared down our focus to concentrate on two rhythms; the Yanvalou and the Abakuah.  It’s really paying off in that we are starting to see these things come together in that special way when the drums start singing to each other.  In the words of our instructor, it’s magical.  Now, two rhythms may not seem like a lot but let me me tell ya, the simplest appearing of the two, the Abakuah, is really tricky.  But when it comes together, it’s very lyrical, sort of rolling along in a hypnotic way.  It’s been so great starting to get into these beats, couldn’t be better.

Our St. Paddy’s Day party took a bit of an Afro-Cuban turn last Saturday.  Noland brought his great rhythms on the Congas and I just thought how cool it was to be jamming on these beats.  Made the whole party.

I couldn’t make class this week but I’ve been working very hard on our new rhythms, the Mozambique and the Orissa.  Wow, these are butt-kickers, very complicated and intricate!  But I’m getting them down and having a lot of fun learning the new licks.  Dave N’s new teaching tool is awesome.  It helped me get the stuff understood when I couldn’t be there in class.  I think just hearing it really helps me read the sheet music.  I know that Dave puts in hours and hours preparing this stuff, I really appreciate it.