I want to share some good news about another fabulous event being organised by NADA with the Baladi Blues Ensemble.
It's on Saturday 16 February 2013 in Lancashire and the day features dance and music workshops, the NADA AGM, and a fabulous evening show with performances and a chance for everyone to boogie with the band. The event features dance teacher Claire Novis (from the JWAAD belly dance school) and Guy Schalom - the fabulous tabla player and band leader - will also be teaching and of course leading the band. Some of my all time favourite traditional Egyptian style musicians will be there including legendary accordion player Sheik Taha and the wonderful singer and oud player Abdel Salam Kheir. There will also be lots of lovely guest dancers, and oh yes, I'll be performing too!
Guy Schalom by James Campbell
Claire Novis
Thanks to NADA's support, this event is amazing value for both NADA members and non-members alike. And if you're not taking part in the workshop, you can still come along to enjoy the show. Anyone who was at the NADA/Baladi Blues event I hosted in Edinburgh last year will know how great this group are. And if you haven't heard them yet, what are you waiting for?
The event is taking place at the Ellel Village Hall, Galgate, Lancaster, LA2 0LQ. The first workshop starts at 1:30pm and the evening show starts at 7:30pm (with doors from 7.00pm). Oh, and for dancers staying for the whole day, you can even book a special 'dancer's tea'!
For all the information, packages and bookings go to Desna Dances.
I hope to see you there, and for anyone coming along who also follows my blog please do come and say hello!
I've added a couple of new clips of traditional Moroccan dance to my YouTube channel. I filmed these during my trip to Marrakesh last year. You can read my previous post for a collection of some of the other videos, including Berber dancing and an unexpected surprise during a beauty cooperative tour.
First of all here is the candle tray dance filmed at the beautiful Palais Chahramane restaurant. I loved watching this dancer for her sense of spectacle without skill. Possibly even an insight into what might have been the low class street entertainment of days gone by.
The second video is of fun and athletic Gnawa musicians and dancers. This was part of a brilliant afternoon of entertainment aimed at Moroccan people rather than tourists, in an unlikely location - an outdoor restaurant, behind a service station on the road to Casablanca. I have still have some unpublished video of the different acts that featured, so either watch this space or feel free to leave me a note if you would like to see more.
Here is my second post about resources I've used for teaching myself zills. My previous post talked about learning from online videos. This time, some information about the stuff I've been doing to learn to play Arabic rhythms.
A while back, I took some drumming workshops with the very talented Tim Garside. Tim is an incredibly talented musician who plays many different percussion and musical Arabic instruments. Tim teaches around London, and these classes were on offer at Raqs Sharqi Society events. He's a great teacher with a mild manner and dry sense of humour. Alongside the workshops, he gave us a couple of photocopies of handwritten notes on Egyptian rhythms. This covered all the basics, each with a core rhythm - including Maqsoum, Saaidi, Masmoudi, Malfuf, Zaar and Fellahi - transcribed in simple form, and then followed by one or more additional versions with elaborations.
I've been learning and practising all these rhythm variations straight off the handouts. My current technique has followed on from this study and relies on using the same hands to play my zills as I would if I was drumming. The general rule of this method is for my right hand to play all the "dums" and "taks", and then my left to play the filler "ka"s. I also differentiate these groups of notes with different sounds. For dums, I select an open ring sound, and for taks a slight muted tone. I seem to remember drummer Chas Whitaker, suggesting this to a group of dancers once. I also add in the left handed ka, again with a softer mute tone. This interpretation is perhaps where I feel I'm on uncertain territory. From the you tube videos and recordings so far, there seems to be quite a lot of variation in how the different sounds are expressed. In their drills, Ansuya and Mahin played a consistent ring across all the notes. However, I've seen and heard other dancers use more texture in their sounds including Artermis and Sophie Armoza.
I've also been drilling the same rhythms with a dampened zills tone, although trying to maintain some tonal differentiation between dum and tek. I think the benefits of sticking to the drumming fingering (the term perhaps could better be described as handedness, although I'm not sure) is that my learning would transfer better, if I had the opportunity to learn more drumming.
Consistent with this approach, I found a short series of YouTube darabuka tutorials from RexSoli. He additionally covers the split hand technique, for playing faster rhythms like Malfuf (where dums are played with the dominant hand, and taks with the other hand). This is easy to replicate on zills, and makes some rhythms a lot easier to play. Here is Rex in action:
The approach of following the drummers' language for rhythms (what Artemis calls "drum speak" - including the dums, taks and kas - makes sense to my brain. I found this easier than counting variations (e.g. 123- or 1-&-a-2-) or using "RLR" type transcriptions. The consequences of this approach also means opening up countless resources that transcribe rhythms and their variants. In fact, there are heaps of free online resources written in this format. There are far too many to list here, although one favourite I really liked for quantity of information ease of use is the info on the website Khafif.
Living on the sixtieth parallel, rain, cold, walking, and zills have challenged me. Foggy rain, I simply play as I walk. Soaking rain, I wear a gortex hooded poncho over my warm-weather gear. I do not know what brands of glove liners you have available, but should you run into the "numbing cold zill effect" then I recommend getting a second pair of zills and sizing the elastic to a pair of wind-breaker, water-proof glove liners to wear under your poncho. Hope that this helps!
Wow, I have to say it's really nice to know I'm not alone, and that there are even greater challenges for outdoor zillers than the Scottish weather. When I started this practise regime about 6 weeks ago we were experiencing an unseasonal cold spell. Indoors, I had my heating on. Outdoors, after about 10 minutes my hands would start to feel bitter cold as the metal of the zills plunged with the outside temperature.
I love the idea of a second pair of zills sized to fit over glove liners. Although if I manage to achieve some sort of musical competency before the onset of this year's winter that would also eliminate this sort of hazard.
Thank you, my fellow zills walker, I zaghareet you! Enjoy the summery zills days while they last!
Since getting my new zills at the end of April, I've stepped up the amount of practise I've been doing. As I don't, unfortunately, have access to a teacher, I have had to find different ways to teach myself. My learning so far has been through online videos, and from a variety of CD and other rhythm resources. For anyone who might be in the same position, I thought I would share some of the things that have really helped. I'll start with the online videos.
Free videos
YouTube is as good a place to start as any, when looking for some top up online tuition. A quick search for "zills" plus "lesson", "learn" etc. will throw up a range of clips of varying quality together with a few trailers for video resources that can be purchased. I found this a good way to cover a few basics and find some interesting play along material too. Some of the videos that are for sale also look good, although I haven't invested as yet. Here are 2 teachers that recommend.
Firstly, Anthea Kawakib, a master ziller from the States. She has an online course on her YouTube channel with 7 classes, suitable for both students and teachers who want ideas for teaching zills in class. This short course, felt like an opportunity to follow the classes I never had. The best thing about them is that from the outset, playing at the same time as dancing and moving about is absolutely essential. By stop starting the clips and doing the same lessons over and over, there are maybe a few hours worth of free training here. Here is an example of Anthea breaking the technique down into manageable doses, from her second lesson:
The second teacher is Mahin Sciacca, author of the "Daily Bellydance Quickies". She has posted a huge amount of free online material on belly dance and body conditioning. This includes over 40 great zills videos, again aimed at familiarization, practise, and getting you moving and playing at the same time. It helps to already have some experience of zill playing beforehand though, as does having some familiarity with American names for basic Arabic rhythms. Here is Mahin teaching a combination with zills to Leylet Hob:
Subscription videos
The other set of videos I found useful, were Ansuya's online classes. Former bellydance superstar Ansuya is famous for performing high energy belly dance, zills always in hand. Just when I needed it, I came across a tweet from Ansuya granting a 24 hour free trial of Ansuya Online. This is a subscription service that offers 4 new videos every month, together with the previous few months worth in an archive. There is a basics class, a workout, a choreography and an "entertainment" section featuring extras type titbits. I followed I think 3 different zills classes from the archive. Lessons were 40 minutes long and I found the teaching to be excellent, clear and precise. Rhythms were broken down into small pieces, built up again, speeded up and combined with moves. I got a lot out of the learning, which even stuck with me for several days afterwards.
Although I am very grateful for the trial, I found the American belly dance posture and style quite alien to my own Egyptian Dance training. But I would still recommend this series to an experienced dancer who can't easily access classes/workshop, especially if you're already a fan or interested in learning a variety of different props in addition to zills.
I've been trying to learn to dance with sagat for years. It is a rare an interesting sight to see a dancer on stage who is proficient in playing finger cymbals, and as a former musician this instrument has always had a certain appeal. I have also been impressed whenever I had a teacher who used her sagat in class to provide instant music to accompany the moves, and I wanted to do that too.
One of my dance specialities is Sha'abi style folk dance from the South of Egypt. This looks and sounds great when danced live with sagat, as exemplified by the Ghawazee tribes of Upper Egypt. I even performed my own tribute to the Ghawazee dancers a couple of years back in Sarasvati Tribal's Gaslight Faeries show.
However, I found it difficult to make progress in learning this instrument. Mine are the heavy one-holed proper Egyptian sagat, imported from Mohammed Ali Street in Cairo. And although I love the sound, the one-holed design means that although they are fine when played sitting down, when I dance, they wobble. I have tried every manner of things to stop this happening, different sizes and thickness of elastic, even using bra elastic, but nothing really helped.
I had to find another solution to my finger cymbal problem. So I turned to a different instrument altogether, the zill...
Finger cymbals are an ancient percussion instrument, still played by dancers in the middle east today. In Egypt they are called sagat, in Turkey they are called zills and the instrument exists under different names and sometimes slightly different forms all over the middle east and North Africa. Zills have a higher pitched, more ringing sound than sagat. The slightly different sound means that they are not entirely authentic to Egyptian dance, however they are a reasonable substitute. And due to their popularity amongst Stateside bellydancers, good quality zills are easier to find. The best ones also have 2 parallel slits, which you string with thick flat elastic, and they don't wobble!
I did some research and discovered Saroyan, one of the manufacturers of quality zills popular with US dancers (other brands include Turquoise and Zildjian). And more importantly, I found a supplier in the UK, Aladdin's cave, who carries this brand. So here are my new zills, they are professional quality Saroyan Arabesque II.
I'm quite pleased with them so far. They are heavy and loud and more tuneful sounding than my sagat. They stay on my fingers too which helps me to hold my hands in a nicer more open position while dancing. And more importantly, this has given me motivation to start practising more regularly again.
The first Arabic music CDs I bought were albums containing the tracks my teacher was using in class and for class choreographies. When I was starting out, I also frequently browsed the world music sections of the big music shops and came away with some good starter compilations including numerous titles containing a taster of music from a particular region or title, for example Rough Guide - which can often include a pretty decent selection of tracks. The good stores will also let you listen to the music before you buy.
I have to admit, I've not fully embraced the digital world when it comes to my music collection and I am very attached to owning the actual CD containing the tracks I am after. And yes, it's important that these are the originals.
Windows of l'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
From here I moved on to the independent stores and suppliers. These will often let you listen before you buy and often contain the more interesting international and independent labels. In Edinburgh, I will always drop into my favourite music shop, the traditional folk music store Coda whenever I am passing. They have a good world music section with a small rack of Arabic music and you can always find albums from the well known international artists featured there, and from the world or traditional music radio shows on Radio 2 and Radio Scotland. They also stock independent titles and I've frequently seen CDs from UK based Arabic music talent appear there. They will also let you listen to any CD before you buy and have a great sound system. Also if you're lucky, Coda sometimes has some great special offer prices and the sale rail can also turn up the odd gem. Hilary's Bazaar is another place worth browsing for CDs and definately worth a visit. This store doesn't tend to be as competitively priced as the online retailers. However, it has a big selection, including a number of rare titles, and you can ask for advice and listen too.
My other main trick for buying great Arabic music is browsing for my collection wherever I happen to be on holiday. This can often include the big chain music stores like fnac. Certainly different countries in Europe will often have various middle eastern communities in their midst, so browsing through a store catering for local tastes whilst abroad can open the doors to many new titles and lables. For example, on a trip to Paris a few months ago, I made a special trip to l'Institut du monde arabe, just to go to their bookstore and browse through a complete set of music titles from their own label.
This post responds to Emma Chapman's article on Choosing Your Music, a blog entry aimed at advising her students. Emma is a Cambridge based professional belly dancer and her handy guide contains some great tips on where to start and useful links. A nice little introduction for any student, particularly those accessing Arabic dance from a Modern Egyptian style perspective.
