The tambourine

by Luc Boivin © 2003

 

 
 
 

In the world of percussion and percussionists, tambourine is sometimes considered as a more «common» instrument. It is sometimes refered to as «the singers' tambourine» and considered as a less important instrument. But, in its roots, tambourine has taken a lot from different musical cultures : North Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, and America (gospel music). You can find tambourine in almost all musical styles of all eras.

I invite you to discover this intrument with a somewhat new approach. Please feel free to share your ideas on tambourine and send us your comments on this presentation, or any other topic you would like included in this section.

Exercise 1: Wrist movement

The important part here is to relax the wrist on order to obtain a regular rhythm. And do not forget accents on downbeats or upbeats!

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Watch the video AVI format, 3.75MB)
 


Exercise 2: Horizontal, in sixtenth notes

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Exercise 3: Horizontal, in triplets

Watch the video (AVI format, 1.69MB)
 


Exercise 4: Variation, Gospel and Motown style

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Exercise 5: Combination of different styles

Watch the video (AVI formatI, 2.88MB)

 

 

 
 

 

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