Thoughts re: Our Overall Organization of this Site

I’ve realized there are many ways to think of the stateside djembe (or other African drum) resources and scenes. One way is by U.S. city, town or region, and another is by African tradition which a particular teacher represents. The former seems more relevant in cases like Santa Fe, New Mexico, where limited population means that different drum teachers are sharing a common pool of local enthusiasts. The latter approach seems more appropriate in other cases.

Also, within specific traditions it may be desirable to look at specific pieces. I finally started organizing my own lesson notes and score xeroxes according to this method, rather than by teacher, by year, by publication, etc. However, to fully realize the potential of the internet, I think it is necessary to think outside of this box built on paper. Even a well-indexed book pales next to the ease of clicking links. And since the internet can link everything to everything else, we don’t have to utilize old-fashioned, real world, approaches based on linear schemes or even on a single overriding hierarchy.

Final note: what about weaving the textual references into our sites? Its good to have a handle on the printed, book-form resources and with them, some of the history of the scholarship in each area. Could that integrate into our our great-looking course project site?

Matthew Hill

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