Some friends e-mailed me asking about some suggestions - Osama El-Gohary
Any suggestions for people who can't keep the time? I have a couple of students who a) speed the timing up after playing a few repetitions or b) speed up/slow down with no consistency.
This is a normal thing, most of the musicians and dancers faced the same problem "including me" when they start learning, but it will be OK with time, and to end with that quickly, just practice more and listen to more music " don't feel depressed when you feel that you don't understand what you are listening too or what you are dancing too" that's a normal thing, don't panic ,just keep practicing and listening to more music as you can and I promise it will end, just you need time to let your ear be familiar with this kind of rhythms and music.
It would be great if you could tell us how do you recommend to use our hands (playing zills) with the rhythms you are teaching.
Actually there are many different ways playing zills it depends on the dancer and her talent, also her mood and the style of music she is dancing to, she can translate the rhythm melody doms and taks , also she can translate some parts of the music that she's dancing to or she can play a harmony sounds going with the melody of the music. By the way its so hard to describe how to play zills in the net it could be impossible, also I'm not that professional in that kind of art, you need a knowledgeable teacher who can show you and correct you but I can tell you the very basic way to start playing zills:
Try to practice the exercises we explained before and play the doms with your right hand and the taks with your left hand .of cours using your thumb and your middle finger in each hand.
By the way, for all dancers, when you are performing, don't let your zills sounds louder than the music, try to keep the music always louder than you.
I have a metronome as you recommend in your music lessons, but I wish to know at what Tempo do you recommend should we regulate the metronome for start?
Try to adjust it as a clock - a second between each click.... 60 beats per minute.
It occurred to me that the pendulum clock can substitute, although it cannot be speeded up or slowed down. It can suffice for at least practice sessions. Good idea or not?
It's a good idea if you can hear the clicks or you will need to concentrate more using your eyes with the pendulum clock.
I'd like to see a web page about you, so if you have one, please, include this in your post.
Actually I don't have one yet, but I have an mp3 site, it has only a sample of my music http://www.mp3.com/osama
Regarding left hand for the dom beat as opposed to the right hand... I'd love it if zill technique were presented for both the right hand and for the left hand as the primary downbeat (dom beat). What about using the Left hand for the doms and the Right hand for the taks? Some people play the zills using the Left hand for the primary downbeat.
I think you are missing some thing very important, the same as many dancers in this list do. Playing zills is not a way it's a style and a level. There isn't a way to play zills but there is a style and a level of playing zills. There is many different styles to play zills, also there is different levels.
About style: Any dancer can create her own style playing zills, but of course she should be playing zills the high expert level and have the talent which will make her able to do that. You can play the doms with your right hand and the taks with your left hand. You can also play the doms using your left hand and the taks with your right hand. You can play the doms with both hands at the same time, the same with taks. Sometimes you will not need to play any doms or taks as I will explain.
About levels: There are many different levels playing zills starts from the very basic way of playing zills which is:
A) dom tak dom --- dom tak dom --- dom tak dom --- ... and the dancer repeats it over and over for the whole song, BTW this is the easiest way for playing zills.
B) Here comes the 2nd level which is translating the rhythm using your both hands, and doesn't matter which hand will play the doms and which one will play the taks, use the best for you - what you find easy and makes you feel comfortable, do it. The subject of the right hand and left hand, its just a way for teachers to guide them students and after that you are your own teacher, use the style which makes you feel more creative .
C) Here comes the 3rd level which is playing zills as a harmony music going with the melody of the music and rhythm .
D) And here comes the advanced level of playing zills, you will not need to play any doms or taks you will need to translate music, lyrics to zill playing, you will need to play Do, Re ,Me, Fa ... using your zills, Yes Zills are a musical instrument and can play the 12 notes of music.
So playing zills is levels and each level is a different style, when I said use your right hand for doms I didn't mean that you can't use your left hand for doms or both hands , I just tried to help by telling you a way to build a rhythmic hand personality.
You said in the 4th lesson that there isn't any space for silence, so, that means that Maksoum could really sound like this: domtaktaktakdomtaktaktak And Baladi could sound like this: domdomtaktakdomtaktaktak?
Yes exactly.
Should the both taktak have the same intensity of sound?
Smart question - in some parts of the rhythm yes and in another No, it depends on the drummer tabla player and his sense. But this an early question : ), because we just talked about one kind of taks to avoid confusion - also to make it easier to explain. Yes there are different taks and all of them sound different, but all of us can recognize any tak and any dom, and that is the important part.
I was reading your past mails, and I compare the rhythms of Baladi and Maksum that you described in your first mail on Rhythms:
Baladi is: Dum Dum Tak Tak Dum Tak Tak
Maksum is: Dum Tak Tak Tak Dum Tak Tak
With your description of them used in the 4th lesson:
Baladi is: domdom taktak domtak taktak
Maksoum is: domtak taktak domtak taktak
I noticed that there are one more tak in both rhythms Baladi and Maksoum in your last description. Why is it? Is that what you mean when said that the first is a wrong way of explaining and teaching rhythms?
Exactly, I was using the same way was explained without a time signature which it will be our subject next lesson, but in this lessons I'm using the right time signature.
I read in www.shira.net about Baladi:
Baladi is the true dance of Egypt. The word means "of the country, my country, urbanised folk music, the dance of Egypt".
You said that this word means old fashion. I must confess that I am a little confused. Maybe you can say more about this?
Well...
baladi means my country
baladi means local
baladi means original
baladi means beautiful
baladi means old fashion
baladi means a name of rhythm
baladi means a kind of dance
baladi means a kind of dancers
baladi means a kind of weddings
baladi means a kind of singers
Baladi is a big word has many different meanings and uses, it depends on how you want to use it.
