Egypt tried to screw me over one more time before I could get home...but such is the nature of Egypt. But, il'humd'il'allah I was able to get a flight to be back in the states on Christmas Eve!!!

Merry Christmas everyone and may your holiday be warm, joyful, and full of family and friends...hope to catch you in the new year!

Oh, and totally not my picture of the pyramids, I wish I were that cool :)

Salam aleikum min el Qahira!

This past semester I’ve learned so much about Arabic music. I really don’t want to loose what I’ve learned, so I’d like to see if anyone in the Atlanta area is interested in coming to weekly music rehearsals/ jam sessions/ learning sessions about Arabic music. I would like to be able to share what I’ve learned so I can practice and not forget it! Any instrument would be welcome, just keep in mind that quartertones are harder to play on some instruments than others.

I have some sheet music from this semester in Cairo, but I’m open to learning things by ear as well, which is how it really is done. The sheet music is all in C as I play the violin, so any of you b flat player be prepared to transpose the music if you want to play it.

We could hold it at different locations in the Atlanta area or agree to have it at a central place. I don’t profess in any shape, form, or fashion to be an expert in Middle Eastern music, just a student who wants to grow her skills with en ensemble! I would like this to be very low key and fun and hopefully a way to grow a handful of students and musicians that appreciate and want to perform Middle Eastern music, especially so that when the big names come in town, we can really benefit from their instruction.

So, who is interested?

These are notes from one of my Arabic music theory classes - we had two guest artist come to class and talk about Arab music percussion. I think what was very interesting was their explanation of dom, tek, and es...I guess we've been doin' it wrong (or different) for a while now!! Oh and the pic above is from a bedouin dinner I attended in August.

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Last Monday two guests artists, Met’hat Mamdua and Khaled Abu Higazzi came to my Arabic music theory class class to give a lecture on Arabic percussive instruments. Mr. Met’hat is a very accomplished tabla player, who plays for Arabic singers all around Egypt - including Amr Diab! He also is involved in a Turkish band that recently played at the Sakia el Sawy this month. Mr. Khaled, who gave most of the lecture, specializes in the riqq and also performs regularly with ensembles and Arabic singers. After the lecture, which is summarized below, both musicians accompanied the class for rehearsal for our concert next Thursday.

Khaled started off the lecture by introducing the main percussive instruments of Arabic music. There are three main instruments, the tabla, the duff, and the riqq. The tabla is a goblet shaped hand drum that can come in up to four different sizes. The largest size is called a dahola, and the smallest is played by acclaimed percussionist Raquy Danziger. The standard Egyptian tabla weighs about six to seven kilos. The drum head, or the ra’ima as it is referred to, used to be made of fish skin, but now is made from synthetic materials. The reason for this change was the constant hassle of retuning the fish skin head as the material would stretch. Drummers would have to heat up their drums on heating pads to make sure the drum head would not stretch to be out of tune. Now, with the synthetic head, drummers do not have to have that hassle or worry about temperature change as much as in the past.

Players lay the tabla on their lap with the head of the drum facing in towards the opposite knee. The doum, or the strong beat, is normally played with the right hand giving an even base tone. The tak, or the weak beat, can be played by both the left or the right hand and in many different styles that include the normal tak sound on the very edge of the drum, or within rolls, pops, and snaps. The third type of sound is ‘es’. Es is the filling of silence between the doums and teks, or the heartbeat of a darb (darb is Arabic for rhythm).

The next instrument Khaled introduced was the riqq. The riqq, or the Arabic tambourine as it is sometimes called, is a small frame drum played upright with two hands. The doum and tek are opposite of the tabla as the doum is played on the edge of the drum frame, and the tek is caught in the middle of the drum. The es is mostly emphasized by the galagel, the five groups of four sets of cymbals set around the frame of the riqq. Like the tabla, the riqq used to have a ra\ima made of fish skin, but now it is synthetic. Another interesting feature of the riqq is that its frame is tunable. Players may tune a riqq higher or lower for different sounds throughout a piece.

The third instrument introduced was the duff. The duff is a large frame drum that keeps the heart beat of a darb. Duff players do not play ‘es’, rather they play the doums and teks of a darb whilst the tabla and riqq players elaborate. The duff is mostly recognized with the zeffa, a wedding procession in which a distinct darb is played for the bride and groom as they walk together through family and friends being presented as newly weds. A cousin to the duff, the maz’har is a duff with cymbals. The maz’har is slightly smaller than the duff, but both are considerably bigger than the riqq.

Arabic percussive sections change according to the type of ensemble. The two most popular ensembles are the takht and the firqa. A takht is a small chamber ensemble that consists of a qanoon (similar to a zither), kamanga (violin), ney (wind instrument), oud (the grandfather to the lute), and percussion instrument, most often the riqq. In these ensembles and smaller firqas the riqq is the lead percussion. When in larger ensembles, such as a firqa, the tabla becomes the lead instrument for the percussion section. In addition to this, the riqq is usually featured in pieces with longer darbs, while tablas are mainly used for shorter darbs and solos.

Pic taken from the minaret of Ibn Tulun mosque in Said el Zayeb

Being in Egypt for so long has made me realize some things about dance and music. The first is that I am so glad I came back to music, back to being a musician. Making the music instead of dancing is just as satisfying to me as it is to interpret the music through my body. I missed it. It’s the core of any dancer, and I firmly believe any dancer should study music to further their musical interpretation and ear, especially those who are diving into the world of Middle Eastern dance. Arabic music is breathtakingly beautiful, take the time to sit down one day and look up the lyrics of a song you want to dance to. Currently, I can't get this song out of my head...probably because its played on the radio and t.v. all the time...everywhere...so I'll link the video clips with English subtitles so it will get stuck in your head too, mwh ha ha ha!

www.youtube.com/watch

Updates to ma blog, majidacairo.blogspot.com

The last couple of blog posts are pics from my trips to Dubai, Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, and the Citadel in Islamic Cairo. I will be going to Sharm el Sheikh this weekend, a city on the Sinai Peninsula, pictures to follow insh'allah next week. December 4th my Arabic ensemble will have a concert on campus. We will be performing 12 songs, some new, some old, some original works, all Arabic! Hopefully I will be able to post some video of the concert, it will be my debut playing the qanoon!