You will find with this book:

54

transcribbed tracks

322

bars of exercise

57000

and more channel views

About the Book

What is new with playing drums in Afrobeat Drumming?

New look for four way coordination

You will start to use your four limbs in a way that you never tried before with Afrobeat Drumming!

A method that you have never seen in any other drumming books!

Play very complex patterns easily with revolutionary “step by step” technique...

A Drumming Style that makes you realize music more!

With Afrobeat Drumming you will realize how we create our rhythmic patterns according to other instruments.

A fresh mental approach which improves your musicianship!

Playing your drums with such kind of mental approach is going to improve your musicianship by playing with more expression and coordination.

Play better / Feel better!

Play more like making chords as a guitar or piano... Not in harmonies but with drums!

Accompany every genre of music style!

You can accompany many genres of music with your drum-set by using Afrobeat techniques which connects easily to any style of music.

Video Samples

Here it is what is called Afrobeat

Oghene Kologbo - Remembering Fela

Author's play-along to Africa70's legendary tenor guitar player Oghene Kologbo's tasty tune.

Tony Allen @ A Take Away Show

Shot at Le Comptoir Général, in Paris, in January 2015

Samples From The Method of Afrobeat Drumming

Here are some pages from the unique method

You can look through the first pages before you get the book; instructional infos about how to practice the examples, song list / contents of method and some samples from the practicing section.


Introduction

This book is basically about decoding and notating the grooves of master drummer Tony Allen. In this book you will find many various notations of records that Allen played using the afrobeat style which was invented by him.

Michael Veal, writer of the autobiography of Tony Allen, depicts in his wonderful book: “Tony Allen, the rhythmic engine of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat. Allen embraced the drum set, rather than African handheld drums, early in his career, when drum kits were rare in Africa.” Also legendary Fela Kuti is known for saying ” Without of Tony Allen there would be no Afrobeat!” Well, anyone interested in afrobeat drumming you may have realized that it is a shame that it is next to impossible to find any afrobeat book among the hundreds of great method books.

I have been working on analyzing and deciphering afrobeat for more than five years. After much analyses and study, finally this method book born. I am convinced You will see that playing your drums with such kind of mental approach is going to improve your musicianship by playing with more expression and coordination. Play more like making chords as a guitar or piano… Not in harmonies but with drums; In the same way that making chords on a guitar or piano (uses more than one note at a time) you will learn to play your drum kit with perfect four-limb coordination!

In my personal career I have discovered that I can accompany many genres of music with my drum-set by using afrobeat techniques which relate easily to any type of music. In other words, with this style of playing you can play with perfect feel and unity with your band mates!

During the preparation of this book I used a “step by step” way to find the main groove. You can reach the complex beats of afrobeat in 4 or more steps easily. If you find it hard to coordinate in with your four limbs, you should practicing by slowing down the tempo. After you feel comfortable with the beat that you working on, play along withthe original record, so that you can get the main purpose of afrobeat drumming, which is in a total unity with the what other instruments doing.

I believe that every serious drummer should learn and integrate afrobeat tecniques for a more musical knowledge and sophistication.
In the words of Brian Eno: “Tony Allen is the greatest living drummer as far as I’m concerned!”

Anıl Sahinoz

Introduction

This book is basically about decoding and notating the grooves of master drummer Tony Allen. In this book you will find many various notations of records that Allen played using the afrobeat style which was invented by him.

Michael Veal, writer of the autobiography of Tony Allen, depicts in his wonderful book: “Tony Allen, the rhythmic engine of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat. Allen embraced the drum set, rather than African handheld drums, early in his career, when drum kits were rare in Africa.” Also legendary Fela Kuti is known for saying ” Without of Tony Allen there would be no Afrobeat!” Well, anyone interested in afrobeat drumming you may have realized that it is a shame that it is next to impossible to find any afrobeat book among the hundreds of great method books.

I have been working on analyzing and deciphering afrobeat for more than five years. After much analyses and study, finally this method book born. I am convinced You will see that playing your drums with such kind of mental approach is going to improve your musicianship by playing with more expression and coordination. Play more like making chords as a guitar or piano… Not in harmonies but with drums; In the same way that making chords on a guitar or piano (uses more than one note at a time) you will learn to play your drum kit with perfect four-limb coordination!

In my personal career I have discovered that I can accompany many genres of music with my drum-set by using afrobeat techniques which relate easily to any type of music. In other words, with this style of playing you can play with perfect feel and unity with your band mates!

During the preparation of this book I used a “step by step” way to find the main groove. You can reach the complex beats of afrobeat in 4 or more steps easily. If you find it hard to coordinate in with your four limbs, you should practicing by slowing down the tempo. After you feel comfortable with the beat that you working on, play along withthe original record, so that you can get the main purpose of afrobeat drumming, which is in a total unity with the what other instruments doing.

I believe that every serious drummer should learn and integrate afrobeat tecniques for a more musical knowledge and sophistication.
In the words of Brian Eno: “Tony Allen is the greatest living drummer as far as I’m concerned!”

Anıl Sahinoz

Before you start

1- TRY TO FIND MORE VARIATIONS: After you feel comfortable with the part you are practicing you can try to make some other variations.To do this I recommend to start with just one part of the drum-set (like snare), and than try to add your ideas piece by piece. If you try to combine two or three parts from the set, sound may become more different than the original groove. In other words, try to keep the main feel of the groove and embellish it with little changes. You can also try to find some other variations by removing some parts of the example that you are working on.

2- TRY TO ADD SOME ACCENTS / GHOST NOTES: While I preparing this book I triedto decipher the main rhythms of afrobeat.Trying to notate a comprehensive drum sheet for Tony Allen is really next to impossible. On this point we can think like we are observing a master jazz drummer. Although you can analyze the main beat, you would see the drummer changes his expression, dynamics or accents in some measures, even though he is playing the same beat. So we look to afrobeat drumming in same manner. After you feel comfortable the beat try to add some accents or ghost notes. Again, try to add different dynamics stroke by stroke.When you feel like you found a nice accent, try to vary more accents or ghost note over that pattern you found. You can try to add some accents / ghost notes on the snare drum parts, bass drum parts or even cymbal parts…

3-…

Contents

1 Afrobeat Example 1 (First Pattern of Afrobeat)
2 Sorrow Tears and Blood
3 No Aggrement
4 Go Slow
5 Upside Down
6 Mister Follow Follow
7 Fear Not For Man
8 Opposite People
9 Power Show
10 Colonial Mentality
11 Selfish Gene
12 Shakara 1
13 Shakara 2
14 Shakara 3
15 Path to Wisdom
16 Darker Side of Night
17 Three Continents
18 Calling
19 Don’t Fight
20 Every Season
21 Home Cooking
22 Kindness
23 What’s Your Fashion
24 Crazy Afrobeat
25 Eparabo
26 Think About It
27 One Three
28 Olokun
29 City Girl
30 Secret Agent
31 Ijo
32 Swift
33 Celebrate
34 Busy Body
35 Nina Lowo
36 Lady 1
37 Lady 2
38 Love Is a Natural Feeling
39 Expensive Shit
40 Water No Get Enemy
41 Progress
42 Go Back

43 Zombie
44 Road Safety

45 Dog Eat Dog
46 Pansa Pansa
47 Equilasation Trouser and Pant
48 Sinuhe
49 Moving On
50 Tiger’s Skip
51 Ewa
52 Jealousy

53 Hustler
54 Afro Disco Beat
55 Bibliography

First Pattern

This is first the first afrobeat pattern is created by legendary master drummer Tony Allen.
1st bar afrobeat patern


Start with the hi-hat pattern. Practice it until you get a flowing feel between the relation with hi-hat pedal sound and regular closed hi-hat stroke.
2st bar afrobeat patern


Next, add to bass drum parts on the beat 1 and 3
3st bar afrobeat patern


After you add the snare drum parts you end up with the first written pattern of afrobeat!
4st bar afrobeat patern

Sorrow Tears & Blood

Again, start with the hi-hat part. Although the master,Tony Allen, varies this hi-hat patterns very richly in this song, this starting cymbal ostinato can give you an idea about main groove of the beat.
1bar Sorrow Tears and Blood


Next we are going to add the bass drums again. Don’t forget to start with a tempo that you can easily get the main combinations and practice with a metronome.
2bar Sorrow Tears and Blood


Now let’s add to hi-hat pedal strokes that gives an unique taste to afrobeat rhythms. We start with &’s of beat 1 and 3. If you arenot used to using your left foot in general please take your time and practice this pattern slowly. If you still feel uncomfortable with the main flow, just practice the two foot pattern by itself. Then just practice the hi-hat pattern that consists of lead hand and foot strokes as seen in. After practicing these two, try to play full the pattern again. Don’t forget to start slowly. You can begin without a metronome if you feel uncomfortable when practicing but after your muscle memory gets the combination, start using a metronome again.
3bar Sorrow Tears and Blood


Now we finalize the main groove of the beat by adding snare drum melody in beat. You can try to vary snare and hi-hat melodies as you go further in the rhythm.
4bar Sorrow Tears and Blood

Get your method of “Afrobeat Drumming” now!

Start to think more sophisticated when you sit at your drum-set and make yourself and all people around you get joy from your way of playing!

Get your copy now

TONY OLADIPO ALLEN

Inventor of Afrobeat

Tony Allen, one of unique drummers of modern times who invented something new that is never created before on drum-set.

Early Career

Early Career

A self-taught musician who started to play drums at the age of eighteen. Influenced by Juju, traditional Yoruba and American Jazz.

Highlife

Highlife

Played with Cool Cats and Koalo Lobitos; Fela Kuti’s High-life Jazz band.

Afrobeat

Afrobeat

“You can tell a good drummer because we have four limbs and they are playing different things… the patterns don't just come from Yoruba but other parts of Nigeria and Africa." Tony Allen

After Fela

After Fela

After Fela, Allen developed a hybrid sound, deconstructing and fusing Afrobeat with electronica, dub, R&B and Rap. Allen refers to this synthesis as Afrofunk.

Compliments for Allen

What music world thinks about Tony Allen and his unique invention of Afrobeat Drumming.

FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI

FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI

“There would be no Afrobeat without Tony Allen.”

MARK HUDSON, The Daily Telegraph

“Tony Allen is best known as the hands and feet behind Fela Kuti’s explosive Afrobeat, and his playing is both fabulously propulsive and melodic, in a way that might seem paradoxical, but makes perfect sense once you’ve got your feet in motion... Simultaneously breaking up the rhythms and reassembling them in one loose-limbed, easy rocking motion, his playing is at once apparently effortless and breathtaking.”

MARK HUDSON, The Daily Telegraph
ROBIN DENSELOW, The Guardian

ROBIN DENSELOW, The Guardian

“There is no question that Tony Allen is a genius, one of the greatest percussionist in the history of popular music.”

Pricing Offers

Special CD package and pricing plans

Paperback Version

$32.00

  • Printed version of the Book
  • 54 transcribbed Tony Allen track
  • Revolutionary “step by step” technique

Paperback With Audio CD

$37.00

  • Complete audio sources
  • Printed version of the Book
  • 54 transcribbed Tony Allen track
  • Revolutionary “step by step” technique

About the Author

Introducing the author of this book

Author's carreer and biography

Anil Sahinoz is a self educated drummer. Started to play drums at the age of nineteen. He has played many different projects in different styles of music. Also working as drum instructor who very experienced about pedagogical education and his one of the biggest passion is willing to make Afrobeat (and all kind of ethnic rhythms) more popular among the drummers all around the world, rather than play the beats that you hear every day of your life!


Enjoy the Afrobeat