Darbuka Teachers Resources                      

PDF file coming soon!
Crossing darbuka rhythms           c 2009 Fingers of Fury

This is an exciting and chunky sounding cross rhythm for medium to large sized ensembles. 
In a perfect world we would have around twelve darbuka players. We are crossing a six
beat Debke rhythm with the two beat cycles of Ayub and Karatchi. Group one will play the
Debke and group two play one bar of Ayub and then one bar of Karatchi continuously.
The whole cycle once put together is a new sounding rhythm over a twelve beat cycle.
The reason for this is simple; One bar of Debke = Ayub+Karatchi+Ayub. It’s simple
mathematics that 3x2=6!

Now for the interesting part! As you can see group B will begin and end on Ayub the first
time round. The second time round however, it will begin and end on Karatchi.  So it takes
two bars of Debke (6/4) and six bars of Ayub/Karatchi (2/4) to arrive at the same place.
This creates a fantastic sounding ‘dip’ in the middle of the groove.

Once everyone is comfortable with both parts on their darbuka, I highly recommend playing
the cross pattern yet occasionally re-grouping back to just the Debke before parting ways
once again! This sounds awesome! Of course we could also introduce frame drum parts but
for now let’s just stick with the darbuka.

Darbuka Cross Rhythm

Ideal for ten or more darbuka players.

Debke - Ayub - Karatchi 

Tempo- 85 BPM

Note: Remember this will only sound good if you keep it super clean! No soloing! 

Group A            Debke x 2

Group B  Ayub/Kartchi cross

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Enjoy your drumming! Matt Stonehouse
www.fingersoffury.com.au