Andy Gleadhill’s Slap Djembe Second Edition - Book with online content

Introducing Andy Gleadhill's Slap Djembe Second Edition - with online content

Building on the award-winning Andy Gleadhill’s Slap Djembe, the second edition includes all the hugely popular content from the original, along with a multitude of exciting additions. In here you’ll find three more African-inspired compositions, a brand new “Call and Response” section to lift your performances, and a brief history of the djembe from its origins to its introduction into popular culture and education settings. Complete accompanying resources including video, audio, whiteboard assets and a full digital copy of the book are available for free online to help make your lessons flow!

Written in partnership with Percussion Plus, this incredible resource is the perfect introduction to playing and teaching the djembe. It utilises unique, easy-to-follow notation that works with any drum, but pairs especially well with Percussion Plus' Slap Djembes. Now expanded to 60 pages with full colour throughout, this edition promises a comprehensive class percussion experience for KS2 & KS3, as well as US elementary & middle schools.

The expanded ‘10 weekly lessons’ have been carefully crafted as a practical teaching aid and can be applied to any of the 15 rhythms in the book, making for a potential 150 lessons to choose from! Alongside the book comes an extensive selection of online content, from video performances to individual audio parts and plenty more.

15 rhythms from around the world

As with the first edition, the book includes traditional rhythms from around the world, two each from countries in Africa, Australasia & Oceania, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. However, the second edition now includes three brand new transcriptions from Africa too! With each country you are given a core rhythm, followed by a three part arrangement featuring that rhythm. Each tune is also graded for difficulty so you can measure your progress as you go.

Award winning education resources

Andy Gleadhill's Slap Djembe was honoured as Outstanding Music Education Print Resource by the Music and Drama Education Expo awards in 2024, highlighting its usefulness for visual learners, innovative use of video, and commending how the resource engaged with rhythm and notation in a culturally sensitive and progressive way.

Take your lessons to the next level with video, audio, and classroom resources!

Watch and play along with video performances of every tune, or use the audio clips of each separate part (with metronome intro) as a handy reference when learning and teaching the rhythms. We’ve updated the resources to include all the notation from the book in a format compatible with interactive whiteboards, so now you can teach even more efficiently. You’ll also find a digital copy of the entire book alongside downloads of printer friendly spreads for each individual composition, with new content frequently being added.

Unique, easy-to-follow notation system

The notation system developed by Percussion Plus makes this book easy to understand for a variety of learners, and a joy to teach from! It combines standard western notation with symbols for the bass, tone, and slap, which demonstrate how to play the drum correctly. This marries seamlessly with the Percussion Plus Slap Djembes (which feature those symbols printed on the drum head!) but can be used with any djembe or similar drum.

What makes a good performance?

The ‘Making a performance’ chapter answers just this by taking you through the stages of a djembe performance with tips and tricks along the way, so you can create amazing music whilst having fun too! This is supplemented by Andy’s performance notes - specific pieces of advice for each rhythm, included throughout the book.

Call & Response

This new section of the printed book consists of 10 patterns which can be used to sculpt the final performance of each piece at the conclusion of the lesson plan. These could be used as a powerful finale, or even a linking section between different rhythms. Each of the three new pieces in the second edition has its own tailored call and response, but these can also be used in any setting as required.

Lessons planned for you

Planning lessons for a djembe group has never been easier – Andy Gleadhill’s Slap Djembe provides you with 10 fully planned lesson ideas, making it easy for you to follow along. From learning the basic elements of music, to creating a performance-ready piece, the 10-week lesson plan can be applied to any of the tunes in the resource. Think what you could do with the time saved!

More than the music

Alongside each rhythm is a whole range of additional content, cultivated to add an extra dimension to the learning experience. These include fun facts, geographical information, cultural and social context, as well helpful maps and topical imagery.