Doum, Tek, Huh?

What on Earth are Doum and Tek anyway? Why is Baladi vocalized as:
Doum Doum... Tek Doum... Tek
and not something like: 
Doum Doum... Doum Doum... Doum?

A drum, like any other musical instrument, can produce different pitches. While it can't produce as many different notes as, say, a violin, a drum can produce notes of lower and higher pitches. Thus, the Doum and the Tek. Baladi, Maqsum and Saiidi are three different little melodies made up of 2 notes.* 

So, Doum is the low note, Tek is the high note. Doum feels heavy, earthy, full. Tek feels light, like a smile. It jumps, it goes up. How amazing that a single drum can make such different sounds. Instead of calling them "Doum" and "Tek," you could call them "Low" and "High."

In nature, low-pitch sounds usually represent things that are big, scary and serious like an earthquake, a big dog barking, a huge tree falling. You can find high-pitched sounds coming from small creatures, like birds and puppies. When we are happy, we naturally raise the pitch of our voice. Lola, my dog, gets incredibly upset when she hears a big truck approach. She hides behind me and refuses to walk until the sound of what she perceives as danger goes away. In contrast, whenever she hears a woman's happy voice she runs towards her, tail waving. 

The other reason they have such names is that Doum and Tek are onomatopoeias, words that suggest the sound they describe, like the words meow and tick tock: by hitting the drum with his or her right hand, in the center of the skin, a doumbek player produces a low note that sounds like, well, "Doum". Hitting the skin close to the rim produces a more metallic beat that sounds very much like, you guessed it, "tek". The usage of these words simplify things immensely for doumbek players, students and teachers. 

The doumbek I have at home is a C drum. I know this because it gives me a Doum that corresponds to my keyboard's lowest C (Do) note. When I played a Tek, I could hear it matching the next C note on the keyboard (one octave higher.) But when I asked my boyfriend, who has a better ear than mine, he showed me weird things! He said "I can hear the C one octave higher from the Doum but also the C two octaves higher and even 3 octaves higher." So cool! He reminded me of this video my math teacher played for me a long time ago—one of my favorite ever! If you don't want to watch the entire video, go directly to 2:35.

Next: Raquy the queen of tabla gives us a lesson.

* One of the characteristics of a good drummer is that he knows how to play the note he wants. He achieves this by applying the right amount of energy and by placing his hands in a precise position... every single time.

** Doumbeks can be tuned to different notes by tightening or loosening their skin.

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RHYTHM & DRUM SOLO WORKSHOP
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