I run in fear! Actually, I didn't know that it was okay to try the different tones. I've always seen people play pretty much the same throughout. I knew I could get lots of sounds out of the cymbal, but now I have something more to try. I played percussion for several years, but finger cymbals still elude me. I can play the rhythms that I've been taught and keep tempo, but I have such a hard time of doing it while moving. My tempo lags, or I forget my moves. Once I get better, I would like to try coordinating with the dooms and the teks.

I'm working up to playing different sounds on my zills. I'm a firm convert to the "play zills like the tabla" method where you stick to your R and L cymbals like your R and L hands on the tabla, thus taking advantage of the fact that zilling naturally sounds a little different on the R and L hands (This has the added advantage that I no longer try to make both hands sound the same). Now I'm trying to add in different sounds, starting with just clacks for accents, and hoping to build up into the whole "zill-set".

Brilliant. We have several choreographies we do to zills and use different rings, but haven't done it to dums and teks. I'm going to try that for practice.

I admire people that can do different tones. For me, it is complicated enough to play them, and maybe even play a rhythm to them, and dance, let alone change how I hit them. I tend to hit them on their sides to get a good ring - I was taught to do that. I sometimes clap them still but trying to break that habit - doesn't sound as good. During soft parts, I do try to turn one completely on its side to dull the sound and make it soft.

I admire people who can so easily change their ring to a clank to a clap within a single rhythm! I have been learning about patience recently, so I tell myself - have patience, when I've been dancing as long as Shira has, perhaps I too will be able to do that.

It depends a lot on whether I am dancing and playing cymbals or playing them for someone else. I tell my students sagat are musical instruments, not a metronome. :-) I'm also a tap dancer so I appreciate the importance of having fun with rhythms, patterns and sounds (syncopations, volume changes, clicks, clacks, rings, tings, etc.). When dancing I play around as much as I can but when I'm not dancing and playing for someone else, I pull out all the stops.

I have enough trouble trying to move my feet and make some sort of noise to the beat! Perhaps when I get further along, I'll be able to work with this but for right now, on the beat is the best I can do.

Some of us are just musically backward. One of my crackpot theories says that one reason for my lmusical ineptitude lies in the fact that my parents almost never played music on the radio or whatever when I was a kid.

My real finger cymbals training pretty much started with a workshop and a demonstration by Mary Ellen Donald. Her performance was captivating and inspiring and above all it convinced me that finger cymbals ought to be treated as a musical instrument and not as a secondary prop that merely marks the beat or draws audience attention. Later I moved on to practice with Z-Helene's DVD, and her approach is the same. So I'm trying to vary between the basic sounds (open, clack and click), and use "special effects" for accents. After I started studying playing the doumbek I began incorporating the technique of the separation of hands, so each hand does its own thing. It's very similar to the concept of layering in dance. I just put online a video of my recent finger cymbals solo, where I attempt to incorporate all of the above. There is still a lot of practice ahead of me, which makes me very happy :)
www.youtube.com/watch

My instructor has been big lately on teaching us what she calls the "classical" style- you play rings on the doum and clacks on the tek. She says this is because you're matching the resonance level of the tabla, not necessarily the volume, if that makes sense.

To my ear it sounded kind of backward at the beginning because of the pitch level, but the resonance explanation makes sense to me.

Hi Shira,

There's a specific technique for finger cymbals, and the Arabic approach transcribes this...I wish I could show you how we read and write that musically...I'll probably have to scan something in as I won't be able to explain it. With regards to how a dancer holds the sagat, he or she can produce much texture so that even rlr rlr doesn't sound monotonous. A loose wrist is so important, and also the sagat shouldn't be facing each other flat. I've seen so many dancers hold them like that and play them like they were holding sock-puppets. By holding them at an angle, you can vary with staccato and ringing sounds because you're able to bring them together either on the edges or facing. Badia Masabni sometimes played holding them upwards but they were almost at a 90 degree angle to each other. Same goes if you play them face down. Also instead of thinking of doums as clacks or teks as rings or vice versa, the dancer should aim to play the doum with a more dominant strike so that you don't change the rhythm - look how all these 4/4 rhythms could potentially sound the same if the dancer can't convey the proper feeling through striking with impact and striking more softly

Example masmoudi sghir...doum doum teka tek doum teka tek teka

Katakofti...................................tek doum teka tek doum teka tek teka

maqsoum................................doum tek teka tek doum teka tek teka

I'd also say to dancers - don't feel you have to play all the way through!