Products from Kobi Hagoel

Our Israeli percussionist friend Kobi Hagoel is a very prolific musician, designer, and author. He has three worthwhile products we would like to call to your attention: his book, an excellent custom designed darabuka, and the CD of his group Kav Hatefer. Now then, let's start with the book.

The Art of Middle Eastern Rhythm
the book by Kobi Hagoel

This is a comprehensive look at the hundreds of rhythms played in the Middle Eastern region, including names, history, country of origin and notation, with the explanations and exercises on how to play them. Iit is written and compiled by Kobi Hagoel, and is suitable For experts and novices alike. An all in one English, Hebrew, German, Spanish and French 136 page hardcover version.

This amazing book contains 422 rhythms, 474 if you count the 52 warmups at the beginning, with well recorded examples of each on the 6 CD set which is included. In our opinion, it is an absolute must have for any serious student of Middle Eastern Percussion.

Here's what one student had to say: "As I live in a small town in the North of the Netherlands, far away from Amsterdam or other big cities, I am condemned to learn to play the darbuka without a teacher. I had help a while from a Kurdish refugee and find a lot of information on internet and listen a lot to related music. I try to play now for 2 years, my first "big"improvement came after buying the video "Arabic Percussion"by Yinon Muallem, actually a former student from Kobi."

"But since October I have [had] Kobi's book and I have the idea that these last 3 months I progressed as much as the 2 years before I had this book. The excercises are easy to follow and that is exactly what brings about the progress. Just follow the lessons (about 50) and practise, practise, practise.... Actually there are much more lessons than these 50, because Kobi encourages you to "copy and paste"and play first half lesson with second half of next lesson, or a dum instead a tek, or from right to left, to double speed and to vary the dynamics. I often find myself in a fantastic "groove"by just practising.Amazing, thanks to Kobi for this wonderfull teaching. The book has also a large collection of rhythms from Greece, Turkey, Egypt and to check how you are doing you can listen to the 6 CD's that came with the book."

Peace and drum......Jaring Huijser, GDG member, Netherlands..

Here is another detailed review of Kobi's book at Drum Dojo.

The Drum

Kobi's darabuka's unique shape creates a larger range between the lower "doum" tap and the higher "tak" sound of regular darbukas. (a fifth above octave).

This baby is NOT to be confused with the million other cast aluminum drums that are out there. It's a very special drum with a very accurate tuning system.

• Weight 3.9 kilos (8.6 lbs.)
• Height 44 cm. (17.3")
• Remo "Renaissance" fiberskyn® 8.75" ( 22.2 cm.)

Hear the difference for yourself: This darbuka is the first of the two in this mp3 clip.

We have not yet played Kobi's darabuka 1st hand, but we hope to be doing so very soon.

The CD

This is a CD that stands up to repeated listenings and is fun to play along with as well. I quote here from the description at kobi's website:

"Kobi and fellow percussionist Tiran Bublil play the zarb, darbuka, daf and riq, just to name a few, all local drums. The ud or Persian lute played by Asi Givati and Amit Carmeli with the violin of Hadas Goldschmidt-Halfon and Tiran's nay (Arab flute) playing, make up the core of the "eastern" sound. Add the wild improvisations of Harel Shachal on alto sax and melodica, and the electric bass of David Otterman and Amit, with Asi's acoustic guitar rocking away and everyone mentioned on vocals (Kobi on lead), you get a wide variety of sounds and influences, both upbeat and relaxing, that makes for a pleasurable and interesting CD, even through repeated listenings."

( stu: "I couldn't have said it better myself, so i went ahead and cut and pasted it :-P")

Medley sample 1 | Medley Sample 2 | Medley sample3

Kobi has this to add about the Kav Hatefer CD:

"Kav Hatefer means seam line in Hebrew and is also the term used by Israelis for the geographical boundary between the Palestinian and Israeli areas. Our music is a fusion of elements inspired by the peoples and cultures of that area and of neighboring countries. Through our trade as musicians we hope to transcend politics and add a voice of love and harmony to this beautiful but torn-up region. We hope you’ll join us in our thoughts and efforts.
On behalf of the band - Thanks and please check us out."