Book reviews: Andy Gleadhill's Slap Djembe

Building on the success of Percussion Plus’ Slap Djembe instrument range, percussion educator Andy Gleadhill has produced a new teaching resource designed to help young musicians explore a broad range of musical cultures. The book received ‘Outstanding Music Education Print Resource’ at this year's Music and Drama Education Awards, and I was excited to receive a copy and explore it further.

The Slap Djembe range is a relatively new but well-established line of djembes geared towards schools looking for an effective ective and low-cost route into west-African percussion music. The USP of the Slap Djembes is their printed drumhead design, which clearly demonstrates to beginner percussionists where best to achieve tone, bass and slap sounds – keys to effective djembe performance. Andy Gleadhill's Slap Djembe builds on this clear approach by incorporating the drumhead decals into an easy-to-read and highly informative education resource, which allows pupils to explore musical cultures from 12 countries covering North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Its bright and colourful layout makes it perfect for primary years, though there is no reason why it couldn't be used in secondary too.