darbuka.orgby Ibi Malik

Play along · every rhythm I teach

Rhythms

Every rhythm and drill from the course in one place. Press play, pick your tempo, add a metronome and play along.

Think of this page as your practice partner. Every rhythm and drill from the course is here — press play to hear it, slow it right down while you learn it, then speed it up as you get comfortable.

How to read a tab: each numbered column is one beat, split into four. D is a Doum, T a Tek, k a Ka and t a light Tek. The filled notes are the rhythm’s points of emphasis — its iqa’ — and the outlined ones are ornaments. I explain it all properly in Lesson 5.

The sounds are made by your browser, not a real drum — so use them for timing, and let your own darbuka do the talking.

The Maqsum family

Four rhythms that share the same points of emphasis, each in its basic and ornamented form — the bread and butter of Arabic music. I teach them in Lesson 10.

Heavy Sa’idi 4/4
1
D D
2
D
3
D
4
T
Heavy Sa’idi with basic ornaments 4/4
1
D D
2
k D
3
D k
4
T t k
Maqsum 4/4
1
D T
2
T
3
D
4
T
Maqsum with basic ornaments 4/4
1
D T
2
k T
3
D k
4
T t k
Baladi 4/4
1
D D
2
T
3
D
4
T
Baladi with basic ornaments 4/4
1
D D
2
k T
3
D k
4
T t k
Sa’idi 4/4
1
D T
2
D
3
D
4
T
Sa’idi with basic ornaments 4/4
1
D T
2
k D
3
D k
4
T t k

Building up the ornaments

The step-by-step progressions I use in Lesson 6 and Lesson 8 to build up to a fully ornamented Heavy Sa’idi.

Heavy Sa’idi (X means space) 4/4
1
D D
2
× D
3
D ×
4
T ×
Heavy Sa’idi with basic ornaments — progression 1 4/4
1
D D
2
D
3
D k
4
T
Heavy Sa’idi with basic ornaments — progression 2 4/4
1
D D
2
k D
3
D k
4
T
Teka practice 1 beat
1
D t k
Heavy Sa’idi practice piece 4/4
1
D D
2
k D
3
D k
4
T t k
5
D D
6
k D
7
D k
8
T t k
9
D D
10
k D
11
D k
12
T t k
13
D D
14
k D
15
D k
16
T

Switching drills

My drills from Lesson 11. Start at 80 BPM with the metronome on, and only speed up when every switch is clean.

Heavy Sa’idi — basic to ornamented switch 4/4
1
D D
2
D
3
D
4
T
5
D D
6
k D
7
D k
8
T t k
Maqsum — basic to ornamented switch 4/4
1
D T
2
T
3
D
4
T
5
D T
6
k T
7
D k
8
T t k
Baladi — basic to ornamented switch 4/4
1
D D
2
T
3
D
4
T
5
D D
6
k T
7
D k
8
T t k
Sa’idi — basic to ornamented switch 4/4
1
D T
2
D
3
D
4
T
5
D T
6
k D
7
D k
8
T t k
Sa’idi with an ornamented fourth bar 4/4
1
D T
2
D
3
D
4
T
5
D T
6
D
7
D
8
T
9
D T
10
D
11
D
12
T
13
D T
14
k D
15
D k
16
T t k
Heavy Sa’idi to ornamented Maqsum switch 4/4
1
D D
2
D
3
D
4
T
5
D T
6
k T
7
D k
8
T t k
Ornamented Baladi to ornamented Sa’idi switch 4/4
1
D D
2
k T
3
D k
4
T t k
5
D T
6
k D
7
D k
8
T t k