Notation
There are a number of ways to represent West African rhythms. The Djembe-L FAQ includes an article called Hand Drum Notation Systems, which describes four of these systems in detail, and offers a brief history of music notation.
The rhythms on this website are written using two methods: Modified Western Notation and Text Notation, which is a variation of the Morris (Djembe-l) Notation.
Although the musical notation and MP3 files on this site are as correct as possible, they can never completely represent these songs; West African music has it's own feel.
Modified Western Notation
Using Modified Western Notation, the drum sounds are written as notes on the musical staff. The bass sound is written as an F; the tone as a B; and the slap as a D. So the lowest note used on the staff is the bass, the middle note used is the tone, and the highest note used is the slap.
For dununs, either F or B represents the drum sound; a high G (written with an "X") represents the bell.
For example, first accompaniment from Lolo looks like this:
Text Notation
Using Text Notation, a monospaced font (such as Courier New) is used to show the count along with the drum sounds. The bass sound is written with a B; the tone with an O (for Open tone); and the slap with an S. Uppercase signifies the dominant hand; R and L indicate which hand to use (for right-handed players).
B - Bass O - Tone Of - Tone flam S - Slap Sm - muffled Slap * - Bell L - Left hand R - Right hand
For example, first accompaniment from Lolo looks like this:
1 2 3 4
| e & a | e & a | e & a | e & a
S s S O o S s S O o
R L R R L R L R R L