dcp

African Rhythm and African Sensibility  African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms by John Miller Chernoff is a fundamental ethnomusicology study based on his observation and exploration in West Africa, especially among the Dagbamba drummers of northern Ghana. The book looks into how African music, particularly drumming is not just entertainment, but deeply tied to social life, communication, morality, and cultural identity . The book emphasises that African rhythm often involves multiple layers of timing happening at once , creating complex polyrhythms. These rhythms reflect a broader cultural sensibility where balance comes from interaction and tension rather than strict uniformity. Another key theme is that music functions as a form of social communication and ethical expression . Drumming can reinforce respect, authority, humor, and social coordination. The author shows how performances often carry meaning beyond sound, shap...

 J Dilla "Dilla Time" by Dan Charnas is a biography and music history book about the life, influence, and musical style of hip-hop producer J Dilla (James Dewitt Yancey). The book explores how Dilla transformed rhythm in modern music through his unique sense of timing, often called “Dilla Time.” I've learned from chapters 4 and 5 that are relevant to drum machines that  Dilla first worked with simpler equipment before mastering more advanced machines. Early in his career he used tape-deck "pause tape" techniques and later machines like the SP-1200 before settling on the MPC3000, which became closely associated with his sound and legacy. The book also discusses the technical capabilities of the MPC series. Unlike many earlier machines, the MPC allowed producers to apply swing and timing adjustments to indivi dual sounds rather than the entire beat.  A major focus on chapters 4 and 5 is how Dilla used the Akai MPC3000 differently from most producers. The autho...

 What am I doing for my final major project? I have decided to do a research blog for my final major project.   In these blogs I will be researching different drummers and styles, I will also be including some tracks of me experimenting with these styles. I will make a total of 7 posts which are traditional drumming, jazz drumming, funk drumming, time signatures, African drumming, drum machines and a recording journal for my own tracks. Why have I decided to do this? As a drummer myself, I have very little knowledge on different historical contexts and styles of drumming. Therefore, I decided doing multiple different research posts would be very beneficial for me and would hopefully help my development as a drummer. Experimenting with different genres and styles will also help my development with songwriting.  Recording journal post: I decided it would be best to create a separate blog post to include all of my tracks, mixing and recording journal instead of keeping it do...

6/8 The first track I began working on was the 6/8 time signature track. I firstly came up with two simple chords which were Dm7 and Fmaj7 which I found sounded well together after I started playing some random chords on the guitar to come up with something. I then created a simple strumming pattern that was played in 6/8. Once I had the input set properly and the gain on the guitar, I then used a tap tempo app on my phone to figure out what the tempo of the song was, which was 31bpm. I did struggle playing the chords for a long time as they were barre chords, so I simply recorded the first 2 bars of the song using a thick and clean amplifier on logic which I picked out, I also added an echo pedal and a retro chorus pedal which I thought sounded very well put together and it was the sound I was looking which was bright. After recording 8 bars on the guitar, I repeated this process until I had 12 bars put together. I then moved onto using a bass track which I used from logic and changed...