Buy the Thione Diop DVD and get our CDROM 1 for Free! That's a total of 15 rhythms for the price of the DVD! Click on the cover on the left to order. We will automatically add the CDROM when we ship your order. The Thione Diop DVD was shot at Big Music studio which produced 11 remixes that have gone #1 in the Billboard Dance/Club charts.

Pamela Lynn

Pamela Lynn will be coming to Chcago in August to shoot her instructional DVD "Freestyle Drumming with Pamela Lynn: A Non-Traditional Approach to Hand Drumming." . She sent me a great promo video. This DVD will be geared to anyone that wants to learn how to play any type of drum. She's a very energetic person and she's as excited to do this video as we are. As always we will use Big Music as the studio. You can download Pamela Lynn's promo video by clicking her picture below.

Contact us to notify you when the Pamela Lynn DVD is ready for release.

Drumskull Drums Endorsement

DrumSkull Drums is happy to support the latest effort by Alejo Balingit and Thione Diop. This DVD is an excellent source for students of djembe drumming to access the real tradition of West African Music. The information in this DVD is clear, concise, easily accessible, and very thourough in relation to djembe accompaniments, dunun accompaniments, and breaks. DrumSkull Drums believed so strongly in this project that we donated our drums to be played on the DVD. We are 100% satisfied with the end results. Please support this effort. Not only will your playing benefit from your purchase, but so will the teachers that have come here to share their knowledge of these instruments!

DVD Review Forms

Have you seen any of our DVDs and found them helpful? Please click on the following links to give us a review on Amazon. Every sale supports us and the artists to make more quality DVDs.

John Yost DVD Thione Diop DVD

Modern Drummer Magazine Review March 2004 Issue

"John Yost Teaches: West African Rhythms is very interactive, with no frills. Yost is selling steak, not the sizzle, and there's plenty to learn here. Viewers are given choice of instrument (djembe or dunun), rhythm, and speed. Wisely, the djembe sections are seen from out front and from the player's view. And the dundun section offers seperate parts for the dundunba, sangban and kenkeni."

PREVIEWS

Thione Diop DVD Previews

Audio and video clarity is excellent on this DVD. There will be at least 4 different audio tracks per part. You can listen to each dunun by itself, djembe 1, djembe 2 or djembe 1 and djembe 2, all with a click of a button. You can pick 4 combinations to listen to for the djembe parts as well. The break for each part will be framed in red to allow the user to know when to begin and end the rhythm.

Video Previews

Diba fast mixed Kotoba fast mixed Wango fast mixed

Djan fast mixed Aconcon fast mixed

News and Updates

6/16/04

I haven't written for two months! I've been a really busy juggling time between my day job and producing the DVDs. We recently went to Lewiston, Maine to shoot performance footage of Inanna Sisters in Rhythm. The shoot took place in the Bates Mill and lasted for two days. 5 cameras and 18 microphones were used to capture this captivating group of women. Using that many equipment gave us some excellent footage and sound. I will post a sample video soon. Expected release is in September.

Pamela Lynn will be coming to Chcago in August to shoot her instructional DVD "Freestyle Drumming with Pamela Lynn: A Non-Traditional Approach to Hand Drumming." . She sent me a great promo video. This DVD will be geared to anyone that wants to learn how to play any type of drum. She's a very energetic person and she's as excited to do this video as we are. As always we will use Big Music as the studio. You can download Pamela Lynn's promo video by clicking her picture below.

4/16/04

We have used Big Music Inc. studio for three of the DVDs we've shot. Thione Diop's DVD was the first one recorded there and it sounds great. John Yost Teaches: Djembe 101 and the Madou Dembele DVD were also done in the studio.

The people in Big Music have shown professionalism to the highest degree and have made our visions a reality. I'm proud to pass along the following headline from Big Music Inc.:

HEADLINE! Chicago Music House- BIG MUSIC lands another Billboard #1!

Madonna's "Love Profusion" hits the # 1 position on Billboard Magazine's Club Chart AND is currently the # 1 selling dance single in the US for 2 straight weeks.
Remix by Craig J. Snider

For more information on BIG MUSIC-visit...
www.bigmusicinc.com

3/27/04
You can now buy the Thione Diop DVD on Ebay and Amazon. The price on Ebay won't last long so use the Buy it now to reserve your copy. Payment does not have to be made until we notify you that the DVD is ready for shipping.

3/7/04
The Thione Diop DVD is finally finished. It was hard work but the results are amazing. The DVD is excpected to ship by end of March. Reserve your discounted copy and we will email you when we are ready to ship.. Retail price will be $32.95

2/9/04
It's been a while since I updated this site, but we're wrapping up the Thione Diop DVD. We need to do some testing to make sure we have a quality product and then it's off to get duplicated. I'm positive people will enjoy this as much as the John Yost DVD!

Check out a review from Modern Drummer Magazine, March 2004 issue:

"John Yost Teaches: West African Rhythms is very interactive, with no frills. Yost is selling steak, not the sizzle, and there's plenty to learn here. Viewers are given choice of instrument (djembe or dunun), rhythm, and speed. Wisely, the djembe sections are seen from out front and from the player's view. And the dundun section offers seperate parts for the dundunba, sangban and kenkeni."

12/14/03
Please take a look at our new layouts for the Thione Diop videos. They are looking real nice and the DVD is being created slowly but surely. There will be at least 4 different audio tracks per part. You can listen to each dunun by itself, djembe 1, djembe 2 or djembe 1 and djembe 2. You can pick 4 combinations to listen to for the djembe parts as well.

11/29/03
It's been a while. I had computer problems which resulted in a harddrive crash, hence the long lapse between updates.

We are churning along with the Thione Diop DVD, but unfortunately they will not be out before Christmas. There is just too much to do on this DVD and we don't want to rush it. We want to produce a great and informative DVD. Expected release date is now late January.

We've reached 600 units sold and are now in more than 20 stores and one in the UK. This calls for celebration! We will have a sale in December on the John Yost DVDs for $21.50 shipped free in the US ($23.50 internationally)! These will make great gifts for the holidays.

I may have spoken too soon about M'Bemba Bangoura being our third master drummer. We're still in negotiation but if we don't get him we'll pick someone else to do the Guinea rhythms.

11/17/03
I just talked to M'Bemba Bangoura and he will be the star of our next rhythms DVD. He will teach traditional Guinea rhythms and is the most seasoned of all three master drummers. It will be an honor to work with him. We're planning for a December shoot. Thanks goes to John Yost for suggesting I approach M'Bemba about this project.

We've been very busy editing the Thione Diop DVD. The videos are looking real nice and sharp. Thione looks nice on camera and has a great smile. We'll have a great product when it comes out in December.

11/10/03
We taped Madou Dembele's DVD on Saturday and it was a great time. Madou wore some great costumes and played some Ivory Coast and Mali rhythms. Expect the DVD to come out next January or February. Until then, enjoy some of the solos he played by clicking on the images below.

Contact us to notify you when the Madou DVD is ready for release.

11/6/03
Bouba Fnu, Phil Haley and I took a road trip to tape Voices of Africa in Philadelphia on November 1. The concert was great and featured Alo Brasil and ICAF-Philadelphia as the guest artists. All bands were awesome and if time permits I will post clips of the bands in our performances page.

We've been very busy in our current projects. The Thione Diop DVD is being edited by three people and the Madou Dembele shoot is this Saturday. These DVDs along with the John Yost DVD will be great learning tools.

10/29/03
Here is a sneak peek of the Thione Diop shoot. It's a big file at 26 Meg but it's worth it to hear Thione's clear sound. Just right click and save it on your drive.

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Many thanks to Drumskull Drums for supporting our products and lending us their amazing djembes and dununs for this project. Thione loved the solo djembe enough to buy it and take it back to Seattle!

The DVD will have the same menu navigation as the John Yost DVD and will include the following rhythms done in the Senegalese style:

Diba, Djan, Aconcon, Kotoba, and Wango.

Thione plays sabar and solos on some of the rhythms. In addition to playing dununs the traditional style, he also shows how to play all three together (Senegalese style). The mixed portions of the DVD will now contain ALL djembe and dunun parts together.

Expected release date is before Christmas 2003. The DVD will be in PAL and NTSC versions. Contact us to notify you when the DVD is ready for release.

Archived News and Updates