Slap Happy: How to Play World-Beat Rhythms with Just Your Body and a Buddy
By Alan Dworsky and Betsy Sansby
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Book preview
Slap Happy - Alan Dworsky
Music
What is Slap Happy?
SLAP HAPPY is a fun way to turn drum rhythms into body rhythms you can step, clap, and slap with a buddy. Right from the start, you’ll be learning how to slap traditional rhythms from West Africa and the Caribbean: Kuku from Guinea, Sunguru Bani from Mali, Kpegisu from Ghana, Bomba from Puerto Rico, and Conga from Cuba.
You can do Slap Happy in pairs or in groups, indoors or out, at home or at school. If you’re a parent, it’s a great way to do something fun and educational with your kids that doesn’t require any previous musical training.
If you’re a music teacher, you can use Slap Happy to give your students a hands-on experience of world rhythms without having to buy any instruments. And while the kids are learning the rhythms, they’ll be building co-ordination, concentration, and cooperation.
Here’s how it works. The book is organized into lessons that are arranged in order of difficulty. Each lesson includes several patterns related to a single rhythm. The patterns start simple and gradually get more complex. But you’ll hardly notice, because we make sure you get the right-size steps, in the right order, at just the right time.
The first step with each new pattern is to learn to slap it solo. The next step is to learn to slap it with a buddy. The final step is to combine patterns to create the Slap Happy version of an African or Afro-Caribbean drum ensemble.
The charts we use are easy to understand even if you’ve never read music before. And we don’t just dump a pile of charts on you and leave. We’ll be with you every step of the way, anticipating your questions, pointing out whatever is most important, and explaining whatever we think will make your journey easier.
Slap Happy was designed to embody the spirit of world rhythms and make people laugh. We hope it does both for you.
The charts and the moves
We use box charts for Slap Happy because they’re simple, clear, and easy to read. We could have used standard music notation, the kind you’re familiar with if you play an instrument or sing in a chorus. But standard music notation gives you lots of information you don’t need for Slap Happy, like the pitch of a note and how long to hold it. All you need to know to start slapping is what move to make and when to make it.
That’s what our three-row box charts tell you. Let’s take a look at one:
Above the chart you’ll see the name of the pattern and the word solo
or buddy
in parentheses. You’ll also see track numbers that tell you where you can hear the pattern on the CD.
If there’s only one track number, that means you’ll hear the pattern slapped on that track. If there are two track numbers – as on the chart above – you’ll hear the pattern slapped on the first track and drummed on the second. The slap tracks