Finger Cymbal Patterns for Beginners,
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Video PLAYLIST how-to play Finger Cymbals for Beginners |
Zaghareet! Magazine
(Sep/Oct 2009)
FOR BEGINNERS
by Anthea (Kawakib)
As I'm writing this,
it’s hard getting my brain back to work after vacation
(Pennsic), and the hard work of our annual Recital the week
before that, so I asked a few of my lovely students for help
me with material on learning finger cymbals. Here they relate
their thoughts and experiences on that topic, and it will give
us a little more insight into how different methods work for
different people, and that’s helpful to me as a teacher
too.
It’s been years since
I had to teach finger cymbals the way I’m doing it in the
“how-to” series I have on Youtube (youtube.com/DanceEternal)
and I sure don’t miss that method at all. It was really not
the easiest way for students to learn, but for many of you
(especially Oriental dancers, as compared to Tribal Improv
dancers) I know that’s how you’re learning, through drills and
exercises.
Pick a few dance combinations or travel steps from my video
clips to practise with your cymbal patterns until they become
comfortable for you. It’s important to develop muscle memory
by repeating the dance steps so that you can “keep an ear” on
your cymbal playing.
These days when it’s time for my students to learn finger
cymbals I incorporate the patterns one by one (starting with
the easiest of course) as my students dance in our group
improv style, Tribal Odyssey. So while they are dancing, they
know “this pattern goes with this combination”, but they don’t
have to play continuously. It’s also a plus that they
get to hear other students (and myself) playing while we’re
dancing together, before they even pick up any cymbals.
Even so, one student, Al-'Anqa, says she does use my
YouYube clips to practise with at home:
“I’ve actually been using the online “how to videos” and I’ve found that they help me get the basic pattern down in my body so then when I go back to hearing them in class, I have an easier time applying them to the music. I needed the visual instruction. The way the videos break down each pattern was really helpful. Reading the patterns in the (Tribal Odyssey) handbook and having what they should sound like memorized in my head wasn’t enough for me to be able to play them.”She says the Triples pattern gave her the most issues out of all the patterns she’s learned so far. What pattern do you find the hardest?
“Learning to play finger cymbals for (Tribal Odyssey) was an excellent way to learn how to dance and play at the same time. As we knew at least the basic seven T.O. dance combinations, I could dance using muscle memory while I focused on playing the patterns. In order for me to become comfortable moving and playing at the same time, I practiced at home with non-class music. Music that I liked to just bop around to in general. I think all dancers should know how to play finger cymbals as they are a useful accent instrument plus they come in handy if your recorded music ever dies!”That’s a good point! My students and I have been in a couple of performances together and had our music drop out unexpectedly.... but we kept dancing to our own finger cymbals! It’s happened to me as a soloist a couple of times as well - and finger cymbals help immensely in that situation.
“My point of view is that I love playing the zills in tribal. it's hard to do tribal w/out them now. but I do remember way back before we used zills and whenever you and (Yaalini) would play zills in our non-zill class, I loved it - thought it helped w/the dancing. same goes for drumming. music is great, but when you add zills and/or drums, the dancing comes easier.”Naida and I also discussed how hard it was for her to play in class when others, even one person, is off-tempo...somehow it can drag the whole group off. If I turned the music up all the way we would be disturbing others in the building - and the sound level of a group of danceers playing finger cymbals is very high!