About the Artist and His Influences

Shelly Plaisances’ interest in Middle Eastern drumming started with amateur drum circles on camping trips and a few people who cared enough to show him some proper Doumbek technique.  Though, ultimately, his knowledge of classical musicality was limited, Shelly’s determination made him quickly proficient in basic rhythms.  After a few years of sheltered learning, Shelly finally discovered a group of Middle Eastern Dance and Music artists that helped him find better teachers.  His first real drum was a shallow frame drum called a Tar (16” Remo.)  A good sounding drum, the Tar was quiet enough to not be annoying when practiced indoors.  Shelly soon after acquired a unique wooden goblet drum (sort of a cross between a Djembe and a Doumbek) and spent the next few years refining his technique on that.  He felt it was such a great first drum because it allowed him to play melodies by learning to mute the head in different ways.  In the next few years Shelly had more formal training on Doumbek and was fortunate to have private lessons with Uncle Mafufo and Salah Dawson Miller and group classes with Omar Faruk Tekbilek and Mark Bell; all in addition to Shelly’s attendance in classes offered from a number of internationally acclaimed dancers whose musical knowledge often matched their dancing skills.  Shelly typically spent days after each lesson deciphering everything he’s shown.  Once Shelly began playing for dancers and small events, the number of drums around the house got out of hand; for a musician who’s primarily a guitarist then vocalist and, he says he’s got more percussion (that aren’t guitars) than anything else.

Despite his studies of Arabic and North African percussion, Shelly can’t remove New Orleans Afro-Caribbean rhythms from his body and soul.  Growing up in South Louisiana, rhythm is a big deal.  Shelly claims that If you go out to a party in most Southern Louisiana towns, you’d better be able to do at least four if not all of the following: two-step, three-step, jitterbug, hip-hop, line dance, break dance, slow dance, industrial Goth moves, soul moves of the sixties or the Electric Slide; at one wedding party it could be that mixed up and everybody loving it.  Shelly’s music reflects what he grew up around and that includes heavy amounts of New Orleans rhythms, largely of African influence.

With regard to guitar and the Middle Eastern music scale Shelly quickly admits, it is little tough to play quarter tones.  If someone wants to play Middle Eastern music on a guitar, the key is quarter bends.  While there are a couple of Arabic scales that work within the Western Chromatic Scale most have at least one or more quarter tones.  If the idea of quarter tones and bends is foreign, listening to 50’s and 60’s surf guitar, like Dick Dale’s version of Miserlou and a few other surf guitar songs, can usually get the idea across.