I find that I'm not the only instructor to rail against undeveloped ensemble practices. From a discussion elsewhere about ensemble playing:
"And for ensemble drumming for bellydance, what do you expect the dancer to do if there are several people trying to lead at the same time? She gonna dedicate a knee to one drum line, a shoulder to another, her stomach to a third?"
That leads nicely to something else for folks to try out: arranged leads and trading solos.
As touched on before, there are many roles involved in a ME ensemble. That's not to say that only one person can play each role at a time. Indeed, several players can take each role when playing. While all those playing the base rhythm can easily figure out what to play and sound unified, things are a bit different for playing lead.
Using an arranged lead works in the same fashion. As mentioned before, there are multiple fill variations possible when playing lead. Everybody playing lead can settle in on one and play it in unison and make for a better experience for playing, dancing, and listening.
So, using masmoudi ( D--- D--- ---- T---- / D--- ---- T--- ---- ) as an example:
The first time played, the lead can be : D-tk D-k- t-k- T-k- / D-tk t-k- T-k- t-k-
The next time played, it can be: D-tk D-k- T-tk t-k- / D-tk tkT- tkt- t-k- (saucy!)
But what about the folks who want to solo?
Well, that works into the whole scheme easily. Playing in phrases, it's easy to pair a phrase of arranged lead and a phrase of solo lead. During the solo lead phrases, the lead players not soloing simply place the base rhythm along with the dohola and def and so forth. Find out who wants to solo ahead of time, decide how many phrases of arranged lead between solo leads, and then switch back and forth. Everybody who wants to gets to play lead, everybody who wants to solo gets to solo, and the whole thing is much easier to dance to.
Note that solo leads aren't locked into playing the skeleton of the rhythm, either. A solo doesn't have to consist of just a different filled version of the rhythm. A soloist is free to accent (or not) freely during the solo--to develop a musical thought over the backdrop of the rhythm.
"And for ensemble drumming for bellydance, what do you expect the dancer to do if there are several people trying to lead at the same time? She gonna dedicate a knee to one drum line, a shoulder to another, her stomach to a third?"
That leads nicely to something else for folks to try out: arranged leads and trading solos.
As touched on before, there are many roles involved in a ME ensemble. That's not to say that only one person can play each role at a time. Indeed, several players can take each role when playing. While all those playing the base rhythm can easily figure out what to play and sound unified, things are a bit different for playing lead.
Using an arranged lead works in the same fashion. As mentioned before, there are multiple fill variations possible when playing lead. Everybody playing lead can settle in on one and play it in unison and make for a better experience for playing, dancing, and listening.
So, using masmoudi ( D--- D--- ---- T---- / D--- ---- T--- ---- ) as an example:
The first time played, the lead can be : D-tk D-k- t-k- T-k- / D-tk t-k- T-k- t-k-
The next time played, it can be: D-tk D-k- T-tk t-k- / D-tk tkT- tkt- t-k- (saucy!)
But what about the folks who want to solo?
Well, that works into the whole scheme easily. Playing in phrases, it's easy to pair a phrase of arranged lead and a phrase of solo lead. During the solo lead phrases, the lead players not soloing simply place the base rhythm along with the dohola and def and so forth. Find out who wants to solo ahead of time, decide how many phrases of arranged lead between solo leads, and then switch back and forth. Everybody who wants to gets to play lead, everybody who wants to solo gets to solo, and the whole thing is much easier to dance to.
Note that solo leads aren't locked into playing the skeleton of the rhythm, either. A solo doesn't have to consist of just a different filled version of the rhythm. A soloist is free to accent (or not) freely during the solo--to develop a musical thought over the backdrop of the rhythm.
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Kansas
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