Belly Dance Lessons with Sahira | Finger Cymbals – The Open Beladi

Today I’d like to share with you a zill lesson aimed to help you understand the beauty that is opened to us when we begin to use more than one sound with our zilling.

We’re diving into one of our most popular Arab rhythms used in belly dance, the Beladi. Literally meaning “of my country” it is more accurately named the Masmoudi Saghir (or small Masmoudi), especially when speaking to musicians of Arab descent.

While this was one of the first rhythms I was ever introduced to as a baby belly dancer two decades ago, I was not shown how to play it like a drummer until I started studying with musicians in the community, most notably Karim Nagi and Lauren Checchio. They taught me the importance of using a variety of sounds in my cymbals to create rhythms in order to actually be able to differentiate between rhythms in the dance.

So let’s learn to play the “Open Beladi” – this is the essential framework that makes the Beladi what it is and what is retained no matter how we move on to embellish it.

We’ll be using two zill strokes – The Basic and the Clack and working ambidextrously! ?

Are you ready? Let’s do it!

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Ready to dive in and learn to really rock your zills! I invite you to check out my FREE zill jump start course to get the foundations you need for great zill playing.

SahiraBellyDances.com/ZillStar

And if you’ve nailed the basics and are looking for the next part of your adventure, you’ll definitely want to join my signature zill course “More Zillicious Zills” an in-depth exploration of finger cymbals, advanced sounds, patterns, and musicality with zills!

SahiraBellyDances.com/MoreZillicious