Frame drums-small circles (history and teaching method)
History:
Frame drums or cube-shaped frames are a group of family-sounders. That have a simple appearance and are among the ancient instruments. From this group, one can mention the instruments of Rick related to the countries of Arabia and Turkey, Kanjira related to the country of India, Tambourla related to the country of Italy and Pandiro related to the country of Brazil.
The teaching method of frame drums-small circles
In this training course, four main frame drums that have more applications in today’s playing are taught. Which includes the instruments of Kanjira, Tambourla, Rick and Pandiro. This family of percussion instruments are also played in three modes, which are taught in order.
Top Style
The first mode is the playing style of top style. That the player holds the instrument like a circle and a frame drum with both hands in the air. That the rhythms and techniques specific to this mode are taught.
Lap Style
The second mode of playing is in the style of lap style. That the player places the instrument like a tombak and a darbuka on his leg. That includes a wide range of techniques.
Free Hand
The third mode of playing is called free hand style, where both hands of the player are free. And the instrument is either placed on a stand or between the legs.
Generally speaking, playing fframe drums has a high rhythmic range regardless of the variety in appearance, which includes all the combined topics from the rhythmic cultures of regional areas such as western Iran, Arab countries, Turkey, India, southern Italy, Latin America and so on. Because of the multi-nationality of these instruments, they have the ability to play in most musical styles such as modal, traditional, fusion, pop, jazz and so on.
For the educational content, the method of Andrea Piccioni for Tambourla and the method of Master Hakim Ludin for Kanjira Pandiro and also the method of Mehmet Akatay for Rick and in addition the authored booklet of Roozbeh Zarei are used.
