preface

infolato is designed to be as comprehensive as possible. It includes large amounts of techniques and information. It has the organized structure of a traditional print book and the comprehensiveness and searchability of a modern online encylopedia.

Like other online encylopedias, infolato will be continually updated and expanded.

This volume of infolato focuses on the asalato from a performer's/learner's perspective.

why is this project free

Unlike many music education resources and platforms, infolato is free, and will remain free, forever.

infolato was inspired by learnasalato.com (archive.org mirror), a now-defunct freely accessible website for the asalato, and the first resource that I used when I started to learn the asalato when I was in high school. Were it not for the fact that it was a free online resource, I would not be an asalato player today. This is my way of paying it forward.

However, developing and maintaining this website takes considerable time. You can help support the development of infolato through donating or buying merch here.

influences and objectivity

infolato is closer to an organized version of my own personal notebook of observations regarding the asalato rather than objective documentation of the instrument.

Most of my interactions within the wider asalato community have been through the Japanese asalato community, and this website largely documents techniques and conventions used or originating from the Japanese asalato community, which have spread to some degree internationally. It has influences but does not largely reflect the asalato's performance practice within West Africa.

Therefore, most statements within infolato are only relevant as they pertain to the Japanese and international online asalato community.

infolato takes heavy influence from my studies in music education, contemporary percussion performance, and contemporary classical composition; which occured within academic settings in the United States. It is not an unbiased view of the asalato. The system used to organize techniques, parts of the asalato, and multiple notation systems, are original creations of my own, or modified from existing practices.

For more information about me (the author), see the author page.

infolato is not meant to replace a teacher

infolato is more of a reference manual rather than a teacher. A teacher can watch you perform and give feedback on your playing and ideas for improvement, which this book cannot do.