Syncopated Rhythms in Middle Eastern Percussion for Drummers and Dancers, Arabic drum, darbuka, doumbek, tabla

Description

In Syncopated Rhythms in Middle Eastern Percussion for Drummers and Dancers, Marshall Bodiker analyzes structure and teaches percussion techniques for four different odd time signature rhythms most popular in the traditional music of the Middle East and North Africa: Moroccan Chaabi (Aklal), Karsilama, Samai and Jurjuna. Marshall opens his program with a review of basic percussion techniques and strokes for doumbek and bendir, and proceeds with rudimentary exercises as a warmup and technique refresher. In the Rhythms section of the video, Marshall breaks down the structure of each of the four rhythms, demonstrates the playing techniques stroke by stroke and leads a practice session including playing the basic bare structure of the rhythm at a slow tempo, and then filling it with rolls and embellishments. Marshall teaches the technique for each rhythm decoration he introduces, and also provides information on the origins of each rhythm and variations in its performance. For dancers, Marshall offers a beautiful performance vignette for each rhythm where he is joined by belly dance star performer and instructor Shahrzad. Shahrzad gives examples of dance moves typically performed with chaabi, karsilama, samai and jurjuna.