Doumbek Delight Book

Great information but this book has been photo copied so many times it’s really hard to read and make out the print in areas. It’s the worse quality reading material I’ve ever paid for.

Yes it's 46 years old. But was one of the first books of its kind during that time. The author still teaches. I sold my origional copy. I'm so glad to purchase this again. I'm almost positive, it has instructions for replacing the drum skin. Can't wait to receive the old friend.

I wanted to like it, because I respect Mary Ellen Donald alot, but if I'm honest with myself, the book is extremely dry, and boring. I am not sure the two products are meant to be companion products, but the CD called "Drum and Dance / 30 Doumbek and Djembe Rhythms" by T. Roy is the EXACT same material, but MUCH easier to learn and practice with, so I reccommend that instead.

This book is a superb introduction to the doumbek for the drummer/percussionist who is already familiar with basic musical notation and has a certain amount of facility with rudiments. Do not be put off by the "old-fashioned" look of the book: this is a classic of the order of Chapin, Vol I, and most of us would not complain about the formatting of that book! I have been playing Middle Eastern style percussion for a couple of years after several decades immersed in jazz, blues, rock, etc., and have many of the instructional DVDs and books available for doumbek. Most of these are fine for the basics, but after covering the production of "dum", "tek", "pah" and "ka" sounds, most authors then proceed to give a survey of rhythms, ornaments and tricks 'n licks chosen according to their own tastes and skills. This is OK, but I am left feeling a lack of a solid, rational foundation for my playing. Here is where Mary Ellen Donald's book really shines: it is a concise, rational and systematic approach to the development of rhythmic capability on the doumbek. If you know your rudiments (really just basic rolls, paradiddles and triplets), and can read at the level of Stone's `Stick Control', then this book will show you *what* you should be doing and *why* (in terms of rhythmic structure): it explains in a rational and systematic way the essence of embellishment and improvisation on the doumbek. As with any genre, developing the appropriate musical "feel" will take a long time and much hard work - years of practice and listening to and playing with other musicians. Mary Ellen Donald's Doumbek Delight will provide you with the technical tools you will need to make this process as straightforward as possible. In summary, this book is a classic and should be much better known: it is `Stick Control' and `Syncopation' combined for doumbek! Postscript: the companion CD sets are also well worth having.