Trống Cơm – Song of the Rice Drum

T H E   S T O R Y:

Trống Cơm [The Rice Drum], is a folk song of Quan Họ tradition since the Lý Dynasty of the Xth Century. The drum is 50-60cm long, and each face 15-16cm in diameter. Before playing, people used to paste hot cooked ground sweet rice on the 2 faces of the drum to tune and to make the sounds clear and distinct. It was mentioned in Vietnamese text of the XIIIth Century, that the Mridangam drum was imported into Vietnam from south India.

Tah boom, there is a rice drum
Praise the one who plays it flowery tah boom,
Which prompted a bunch of eager kids,
wading and swimming across the rivers, looking for
the one who fancies your heart and turns your eyes dreamy
It’s a band of intoxicated spiders, tah boom,
the band of spiders, tah boom.
They spin confusing webs in search for
the one who fancies your heart and turns your eyes dreamy
It’s your sweet fate with a handsome vagabond.

PREPARATION FOR RIGHT HAND:

PREPARATION FOR BENDING with LEFT HAND:

FINGER SWITCH – FEELING THE POSITION BY SLOW LOOK AWAY FROM YOUR HANDS

TABLATURE:

Try here if the tablatures are blurry.

DEMONSTRATION: SINGING + ĐÀN TRANH + TABLATURE

DEMONSTRATION: OSTINATO 1 (2 STRINGS) OR OSTINATO 2 (3 STRINGS)