Hans Camp Winter 2013

I've just come back from Hans camp (Winter) 2013 in Norwich. Hans Camp is a djembe/ dunnun drumming workshop, run by my mum's djembe teacher. For the whole camp we only focused on one rhythm: Tinsamba, so we could really get to know it - a couple of different breaks, lots of variations on the different parts for both djembe and dunnun. I'm really glad that we just did Tinsamba because it meant I remembered more than I thought I would; usually after my normal djembe classes, I go home and straight away I can't play what I've just been playing in class - it takes a few lessons for the rhythm to sink into my long term memory. Not that I throw away the rhythm when I get home, just that it goes to the bak of my head till I next play it at class. But at Hans Camp, because we focused on Tinsamba for two days, I remembered WAY more than I usually do.

The first day, not counting the evening we got there (The camp was for a weekend) I didn't get in as much drumming as I would have like to because I got tired and found some of it quite hard. But the second day I learnt a really good amount... and remembered it! :-)

What was cool about the camp was that there was always drumming going on - well, apart from meal/ break times (Fine, it wasn't going on all the time, but it was going on A LOT of the time) so you could just join in whenever (No complicated memorisation of timetables involved.) 

My mum and I were helping out in the kitchen, so I when I wasn't drumming I had something to do (I couldn't just read, partly because I'd finished my book on the second day and partly because I didn't want to.) Working in the kitchen was great 'cos 

1.  The kitchen was huge, and I got to use the jet spray for cleaning the crockery - and the dishwasher that you don't have to program; you just slide in the dish tray and pull down the lid.
2. It wasn't stressful AT ALL. The main lady who worked there and told us what to do was not stressy or bossy, and was great to be with.
3. It wasn't boring i.e. there weren't only stupid, "Un-fun" jobs like mopping the and sweeping floor and wiping the hob.

Something I found really neat that I noticed about playing djembe there: What I learnt at my other drum classes back home (With a different teacher) fitted in with a couple of the things we did there, like once or twice a call (That I hadn't been around for while they were learning it at camp) was played and I knew the answer phrase.

What I perhaps should have mentioned earlier is that the camp wasn't actually a camp; we were using a Scout hall that's sometimes used for school trips, with some activity walls outside. Upstairs were rooms with bunk-beds that we slept in.

Here's a video from a previous Hans Camp (I wasn't there when it was taken as this was my first Hans Camp)CLICK THIS.

So, Hans camp - yes, I would go again.