The First Recipient of a Beginning

Just got back from drum class. Today we drummed an Orisha beat to accompany some dancers. Also learnt Avalo, Congo, Bele (Belair?) and Pique. In order to practice the beats at home, I had to devise a method that helps me remember how the particular rhythm is constructed.

I decided to go with sounds, like how Indian percussionists say things like te taka te ta taka tiki ta ... (etc).

I use "D" to differentiate the left hand from the "T" of the right hand ... and the different vowel endings to indicate the positioning of the hand on the drum (- o: bass; - a: mid; - e:rim)

E.g.
Left hand:
Do (bass) da (mid) de (rim)

Right hand:
To (bass) ta (mid) te (rim)

So Avalo for example is:
To-to te
To-to te te
To-to te
To-to tetete

Bele is:
Da-te da
Da-te da
Da-te da
Da-te da

And so on ...

In other news, a blogger named Kizz left a comment saying she received her Beginning. I think I had posted hers second ... so it must have been this one (?) I can't remember ...

I haven't been keeping track of who is getting what.