simple as, "da-dat...da-dat" and another might be entering with something a little bit more complex "da-ti-da da, da-ti-da da," and the relationship between the two would be "da-da, bi-da-da ba-da, ba-da-bum." they converse in this way. (sharriff) the drum is an extension of the human voice. it is used to communicate. but you must know the language to communicate. many times when there are dancers involved the music will change, and will tell the dancer when to change the step, when to move how to move, when to stop. when you travel from ethnic group to ethnic group you will find that--let's say in nigeria with the yoruba where they have a very tonal language-- they might say hello "modupwe." so there's a lot of variation in tone-- many of their instruments and their drums, like the donno and the talking drums, they sound just the way they talk. you might hear "do-do do do-do-do-do-do-do, do." in senegal, the wolof, the people of the mande cultures which is the sousou, malinke the bambara-- they speak very fast. you might hear, "naga def," so you might hear, "bla ga da, mangi flec, blanka da, blankadi bla dah bleat bla-bla-bla-bla-bla." so as you could see there's a direct c