About
Who wrote Darbuka Mastery, why it’s free, and what this site does and doesn’t do.
The course #
Darbuka Mastery, Level 1: Building Strong Foundations was written by Ibraheem Malik and first published as an ebook in May 2020. This site is that course, rebuilt for the web and free to everyone: every lesson, every rhythm and every photograph.
It’s for complete beginners. It assumes no musical background and no teacher — just a darbuka, and the patience to practise the basics until they’re second nature.
The author #
Ibraheem learnt the darbuka in London, has performed and taught it, and spent years in the darbuka trade working with Egyptian workshops. The drum in every photograph is his own Egyptian Sombaty.
What this site does — and doesn’t #
- Nothing to sign up for, nothing to buy. No accounts, no adverts, no affiliate links.
- No tracking. No analytics and no cookies. If you tick “Mark as practised”, that’s stored in your own browser and nowhere else.
- The sounds are synthesised in your browser when you press play. They’re a guide to timing, not a recording of a real drum.
The original edition #
The 2020 ebook is kept exactly as it was first published — you can download it from the whole-course page. The text on this site has been lightly edited for the web: references to the shop and the video course that accompanied the original have been taken out.