Groove o’ the day: Ogene 6/8

Via African Muzik Magazine and Famoudou Don Moye, music by traditional Ogene musicians, from Nigeria:

I’m transcribing some of the cool instrumental breaks they’re playing on the bells, between vocal parts, but until I get those done, here are some of the things happening with the time feel— simplified a little bit, and adapted for the drumset.

The basic groove, played with shaker and jug— a bass sound; since we’re drumset musicians, we’ll play the parts on the bass drum, and any right hand sound you want— hihat, bell, rim, whatever you have handy. It’s felt “in 1”; one beat per measure of 6/8.

Note the staccato, muffled bass drum note in the first measure, and the accented long note in the second measure. The circled note is an optional variation, played occasionally; when you play it, it’s a long note, slightly softer than the accented note.

With a tonal middle voice added; in the video it’s played on a bell; we’ll play it on the high tom, or on the snare drum with the snares off. This occurs briefly after many of the instrumental breaks— the strong, interactive bell parts that happen between vocal phrases. Listen for the double in the second measure; you can hear it pretty clearly at 2:02:

A more complex middle voice, with articulations— this is played by the bell player on the right during many of the vocal parts:

The housetop accent is a stronger note with an open sound; the staccato notes are softer, with a dead stroke; the note in parenthesis is the softest, and also a dead stroke. If you watch the player, you can see there’s often more going on than what I’ve written— more soft notes— when I get some more time with this, I’ll post some more…