Welcome to ‘Doumbek for Beginners’
This application will teach you how to play Arabic rhythms on the ‘goblet drum’.
The ‘goblet drum’ is known by many different names: chalice drum, darbuka, debuka, Kratom, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tablah.

The rhythms presented come from across the Arab world and have a deep and rich tradition.
The lessons presented in the application have been developed by Joseph Tayoun over the many years he has taught adults and children. Joseph has found that learning the rhythms in small ‘phrases’ helps speed the absorption of the rhythms. He has discovered that students who master a rhythm before mastering the technique enjoy playing, practising and discovering new rhythms far more.
This tutorial is comprised of two basic sections. ‘Lessons’ and ‘Play Along’

The ‘Lessons’ section allows the student to learn a rhythm using Joseph’s ‘Phrase’ approach and then as an entire rhythm.

The ‘Break It Down’ screen allows the student to learn the rhythm one ‘Phrase’ at a time.

The ‘Play Along’ screen allows the student to select among the available rhythms and hear them play continuously in either Joseph’s voice pronouncing the syllables, or played on the drum. ‘Play Along’ screen is most useful once the student has learned the rhythms from the ‘Lessons’ section.

The Interactive screens provide activities where you will play in response to Joseph’s drumming by filling in the missing beats of the rhythms. You will also get the chance to play “against” a partner and improvise a solo while Joseph plays an accompaniment.

The ‘Improvise’ screen plays a rhythm where you play along in the beginning, and then you play anything you want while being accompanied by Joseph playing the base beat. Use this to practice free-style embellishments. Joseph will keep the beat by “punching the ones” while you play anything that sounds good. Then join back in at the final beats. Experiment and have fun!

The ‘Call and Answer’ screen lets you play responses to Joseph’s playing. Listen to Joseph play a piece then repeat it as closely as you can.

Test your knowledge of the rhythms by naming the rhythm being played in this multiple choice quiz section.