Learning to Call: When It’s Your Turn to Lead (Eek!)
If you’ve ever watched Batala perform, you may have noticed someone at the front waving their arms around rather enthusiastically.
They’re not directing aircraft... they’re calling.
A caller uses a series of visual hand and arm signals to tell the drummers what comes next, whether that’s a change in rhythm, a break, a movement or the start or end of a piece.
We use signals because, over the sound of the drums, shouting a change would be pretty much impossible. Instead, the band watches the caller and responds together.
Which can make it all look wonderfully simple.
It isn’t, though!
More Than Waving Your Arms
Calling means knowing the music well enough to think beyond your own drum part.
You need to know what is happening across the band, give signals clearly, get the timing right and, importantly, make sure people can actually see you.
There is a lot of listening involved too.
A caller needs to hear what the band is doing while already thinking about what comes next.
The clearer the call, the easier it is for everyone else to respond. That means being visible, being decisive and giving the band enough time to see what is coming.
No pressure, then!
Learning to Call
Like learning the drums, nobody starts off knowing how to do it.
Calling is learned gradually, usually in rehearsals, where there is room to practise the signals, try things out and occasionally discover that what felt perfectly clear in your own head was not at all clear to anyone else.
Always encouraging.
It is also very much something you learn together.
Experienced callers play a huge part in helping new callers understand the signals, timing and all the little details that make a call easier for the band to follow.
And the drummers matter just as much.
A bit of patience, encouragement and willingness to go with it gives someone learning to call the space to try, adjust and try again without feeling that every signal has to be perfect first time.
Because sometimes it won’t be.
And that is absolutely fine.
Building Confidence
A big part of learning to call is simply becoming comfortable standing in front of the band and committing to a signal.
Confidence grows alongside musical knowledge.
The more familiar the signals become, the easier it is to look up, listen more widely and spend less time thinking, What exactly are my arms supposed to be doing now?
Watching other callers helps too.
Everyone has a slightly different style or way of communicating with the band. Over time, new callers begin to find their own way of doing it.
Hearing the Bigger Picture
One of the nicest things about learning to call is how naturally it can grow out of being part of Batala.
You may start by concentrating entirely on your own drum part. Then, little by little, you begin to hear the other sections, understand how the rhythms fit together and notice what is happening across the whole band.
Calling takes that a step further.
You stop hearing only your part and start hearing the bigger picture.
And then comes one of the most satisfying moments: giving a clear signal and hearing the whole band respond together.
There are also moments when a signal is not quite clear, the timing is slightly off or the band does something completely different from what you thought you asked for.
That is part of it too.
With practice, it starts to feel more natural each time.
Until one day, hopefully, all that arm waving really does look simple.
Could drumming be your next chapter?
Come along and experience Batala London for yourself.
