Drum Africa classes on Tuesday evenings from 7:30pm:
Beginners’ class 7:30-8:15pm
Community band rehearsal (int/adv) 8:15pm-9:30pm
Greenwich West Community Centre, 141 Greenwich High Road, SE10 8JA
We are in Room 4
COME AND TRY IT OUT – FIRST SESSION £5 or sign-up for our HALF-TERMLY MEMBERSHIPS!
Welcome to our website for African Drumming classes in south-east London. We provide drumming workshops for schools, businesses and institutions in London and the south-east as well as our beginner djembe and Drum Africa Community Band classes, which have been running since 2010 in Greenwich.
If you’re a keen and interested Londoner looking for a drumming class or band rehearsal to attend, well done you’ve found us! You can learn more about our community band rehearsals here.
Attendees of our weekly rehearsals can access videos and song lyrics for all the material we learn in our password-protected ‘Members‘ area, and even hire djembes to practise on for just £3 per week!
We also offer all-day weekend workshops for drummers from semi-experienced beginner to advanced level, check our weekend workshops page to find out when the next workshop is.
However, if you’re just keen and interested (but not a Londoner), please check out our interesting articles and tuition videos, or be inspired by our videos of Ghanaian drumming and dance troupe Noko Ye Dzen.
**NEWS** 15/01/24 HAPPY NEW YEAR! Sessions begin again tomorrow at Greenwich West Community Centre when we will start on some brand new West African rhythms. Join our beginners’ class at 7:30pm or our intermediate/advanced community band rehearsals at 8:15pm every Tuesday! See our sessions dates page for the most up-to-date information.
**NEWS** 18/09/23 NEW BEGINNERS’ DJEMBE CLASS – *FREE TASTER*! Our Community Band have been progressing from strength to strength over the past couple of years – so now it’s time to start up a new beginner djembe class for those who’d like to start drumming for the first time! The class begins with a FREE TASTER on Tuesday 31st October 2023. Email africandrumming@hotmail.co.uk if you’d like to sign up!
**NEWS** 22/05/21 COMMUNITY CENTRE REHEARSALS! If all goes to plan we will be restarting sessions at Greenwich West Community Centre on Tuesday evenings 8-9:30pm from 22nd June 2021. Fingers crossed!
**NEWS** 20/05/21 PARK SESSIONS As the lockdown eases, we are now beginning park drumming sessions on Saturdays 10-11:30am at Hilly Fields in Brockley from 22nd May 2021. No more muted zoom drumming for us (for now), woo hoo! Email in advance to let us know you’re coming, djembes provided for free on request.
**NEWS** 18/03/21 UPDATE: STILL ZOOMING! The band has been rehearsing on zoom for nearly a year now! Looking forward to a Spring and Summer of playing in the same room/park as each other – and getting ourselves our first gig of 2021! Contact africandrumming@hotmail.co.uk if you know of any venue that would welcome a friendly drumming group. Hope to see you soon, and stay safe!
**NEWS** 28/03/20 ONLINE ZOOM CLASSES! We will begin online African drumming classes at 8pm this Tuesday 31st March with a completely free trial class! Let’s see how we get on, if it goes down well we can make it a weekly meet-up. Email africandrumming@hotmail.co.uk if you’d like to join the online fun!
**NEWS** 16/03/20 CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS CANCELLED Following the latest government advice, we are cancelling all evening classes and postponing the next weekend workshop until further notice. Stay home and stay safe everyone! Hope to be back soon.
**NEWS** 11/02/20 WEEKEND WORKSHOP! Our next weekend workshop will be on Saturday 28th March 11am-4pm. For all levels from semi-experienced beginners to advanced drummers – come and join the fun! You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn in a day! See weekend workshops page for more details on how to sign up.
**NEWS** 10/02/20 JOIN THE BAND! We are changing our class format from a regular ‘drumming class’ to ‘community band rehearsals’ beginning on Tuesday 25th February. Anyone who signs up for our termly membership or even ‘drops-in’ for occasional rehearsals will be a part of our performing community band! Read more info here.
**NEWS** 19/01/20 FIRST CLASS OF THE YEAR! We will have our first class of 2020 on Tuesday 28th January at the usual time of 8pm at Greenwich West. Hope to see many if you joining us then!
**NEWS** 18/11/19 NO CLASS TOMORROW There will be no class tomorrow, Tuesday 19th November – but the class will continue until the end of our current 5-week block on Tuesday 26th November and our FINAL CLASS OF THE YEAR on Tuesday 3rd December!
**NEWS** 07/07/19 SUMMER BREAK Thanks to those who came along for our weekend workshop yesterday. We are now officially on our summer break. Back on Tuesday 10th September – enjoy your summer!
**NEWS** 10/06/19 WEEKEND WORKSHOP! We will be running our first Intermediate-Advanced weekend workshop on Saturday 6th July at Greenwich West Community Centre. Watch this space for more info!
**NEWS** 05/05/19 We have some new djembes for sale from our supplier Abdoul Tounkara’s latest djembe shipment. We’re very happy with our brand new bespoke signature dunduns, thanks Abdoul! See our Buy a Drum page for more information, and email us if you’re interested in buying our new djembes.
**NEWS** 08/01/19 DRUMMING CLASSES RETURN! Join us tonight for our first African drumming class of the year where we will be tackling Djabara djembe and dundun rhythms from Guinea.
**NEWS** 09/10/18 DRUM AND DANCE WITH ABRAM DIALLO We’re raising money for Abram’s school building project in Guinea with a special one-off drumming and dance class 8-9:30pm on Tuesday 16th October! Refreshments will be provided for additional donations. Book your place for £10 by emailing africandrumming@hotmail.co.uk now!
**NEWS** 04/09/18 AFRICAN DRUMMING IS BACK! Join us for African drumming classes again starting Tuesday 4th September. We’ll be running until December – check our session dates here.
**NEWS** 10/07/18 FINAL CLASS AND SUMMER BREAK! We are taking our summer break, so there will be no class until we begin again on 4th September. Don’t hesitate to email if you’re interested in joining us in September. Have a nice summer!
**NEWS** 21/05/18 DANCE CLASS WITH ABRAM DIALLO After an unforgettable Drum Africa and Fore Fote Drumming and Dance cultural holiday to Guinea last month, we are inviting Abram Diallo (aka Fore Fote) back to teach our class to dance Kania Soli this Tuesday 22nd May! £15 drop-in for 1.5 hours of drumming and dance.
**NEWS** 21/03/18 OFF TO AFRICA! Next Tuesday 27th March will be our last week before we take a 3 week Easter break, when Laurence and some members of the class will go to Guinea for our exciting African drumming and dance cultural holiday!! The class will return on Tuesday 24th April.
**NEWS** 06/12/17 TRIP TO GUINEA! We have very exciting news – we’d like to invite you all to Guinea with us in March-April 2018! Visit our Guinea Trip 2018 page for more information!
**NEWS** 05/12/17 SESSION CANCELLED! Unfortunately we need to cancel tonight’s session due to Laurence fracturing his arm. We wish him a speedy recovery!
**NEW** 28/11/17 DANCE CLASS We are running an extra special drumming and dance class with Abram Diallo on Tuesday 12th December. Spaces are limited, email us to sign up!
**NEWS** 27/10/17 OUR NEXT 6-WEEK BLOCK! We will begin our next 6-week block of classes at Greenwich West Community Centre this Tuesday 31st October. Join us for some exciting new djembe and dundun rhythms! Upcoming session dates here.
**NEWS** 16/07/17 FINAL SESSION AND PERFORMANCE! Join us for our final class of term before our summer break. We will be preparing ‘Koma’ and ‘Bobofoli’ for our performance at the Bird’s Nest pub open mic night! After the summer, classes will begin again on 12th September!
**NEWS** 17/05/17 MOVED SESSION! We are changing the day and venue of our class next week as Laurence is attending a funeral. The class with be on Wednesday 24th May 7:30-8:30pm at the New Haddo Centre. We will then perform at the Bird’s Nest pub open mic night straight after the class!
**NEWS** 02/04/17 EASTER HOLIDAYS We are taking a 2 week break for the Easter school holidays. We will return on 18th Tuesday April with our new set-up!
**NEWS** 13/02/17 NO CLASS There will be no classes on 14th and 21st February. If you miss your drumming fix, come along to see TalkingDRUM perform at the Jamboree in Limehouse on Tuesday 21st February, supporting Op Sa! Balkan band.
**NEWS** 09/02/17 MUSIC EXPO 2017 Thanks to all the music teachers who came down to Music and Drama Educuation Expo this year and saw Laurence’s talk on how to teach African Drumming the African Way. Further teacher training courses are on offer, email theAMSproject@hotmail.com for more info!
Come and join us!
African drumming is a great skill to learn, and a fun way to meet friendly and like-minded people! It is accessible to anyone and everyone with a sense of rhythm and a willingness to learn, a truly enjoyable way to spend an evening!
Visit The Classes page to learn more about our sessions.