Please know that drumming is an artistic, creative process, each of these “rules” will have exceptions and you may meet a drummer who likes to “break the rules”. These are a good starting point, but nothing beats experience… 1, Watch their hands! Assuming your drummer has a regular goblet drum or frame drum, they are hitting Dums in the center and Taks on the outer edges. If their fingers come off the skin quickly , you will get reverberation, if they stay on the skin you will get no reverberation. You might also notice how far they pull back their arm, how they change their posture, even breathing patterns. All body language gives us clues as to what is coming next. 2, Find the first beat of the bar (the “1”). Not only will that help you keep beat, but they are likely to always hit the one, so you can start each bar with a dance hit and stay in time with the music. Keep it simple. If you only do a hit (hip drop, lift, side shift, shoulder drop, chest drop, shrug, nod…) to the fist beat of the bar, you are still dancing in time. Anything more is icing on the cake ! 3, Study your drummer. Watch videos, listen to their music, go see them play live. Every drummer has quirks, personality in their playing, themes, favorite patterns they return to, time and again…. The better you know them and their music, the quicker you will tune in and know what they are going to play. Just as you know the chorus from your favorite band, after your first listen, so you will come to know what comes next with your favorite drummer, even if they don’t know for sure yet! 4, Make friends. Even if you only have two seconds to smile before your music begins, be sure to make eye contact and smile. If you have a chat before your performance, tell them about your experience and preferences. Its ok to say “This is my first drum solo, please take things slow for me.” A nice drummer will do just that. Dancing with a drummer to a high standard takes commitment by both of you. Dance to a new drummer “for fun”. If you are charging money, you need rehearsals and to really know each other. Otherwise its just two people on stage doing their own thing. The better your friendship the better the performance. Do the best with the time you have. 5, We have a limited shared vocab, but use what we do have to your advantage. Know your MENAHT drum patterns, by name, and also be able to “sing” them. Know three or four famous classics, know their names in multiple languages and be able to hmm them. Dance to every version of them you can find, fast and slow, because you don’t know the version your musician loves. Remember your drummer cant give you a melody ;/. Even if you have time to prepare ahead of time, be ready for improvisation, a replacement drummer, a new version of a classic tune or a tempo you were not expecting. 6, Pick who you watch and follow. If you are lucky enough to have multiple musicians, pick who you want to follow and focus on them. There may be a drummer who keeps the beat for the other musicians. This drummer will give you clear and clean patterns that are predictable. It’s a good idea to return to dancing to this drummer each time you feel like you are losing your way. There might be someone who is easy to see, who is standing, or simply sitting within your eyeline. The star musician may even stand up to let everyone know that its time to focus on them. 7, Remember it is a performance. If you have an audience, make sure they feel included and entertained. Keep any struggles lighthearted. If you don’t get to show your best moves, or travel in the way you wanted, that’s ok. Be cool, relaxed, and entertaining. Eyes go between your musician, your audience, your moves and an upward eyeline (exit sign, religious belief, celebration of those who came before….). If in doubt, go for a walk, lighten the mood, smile at your audience and set yourself up with a better sight line to see whats happening with the musicians. 8, Work on your shimmies. Have shimmies for everyone occasion. Use different parts of your body, change the intensity, add bounces, change posture, shift weight, change arms, travel... Always have somewhere to go with your next shimmy. And breath ! 9, Your drummer is counting in bars of 4. At easy level, they will repeat the same thing four times: 135789-135789-135789-135789 DttDt – DttDt- DttDt- DttDt Sometimes they like to “do something interesting” on the fourth repeat: DDDDDtD - DDDDDtD - DDDDDtD – DDDDDtdtd Or “something interesting” on the third repeat: DDtat Dtatt - DDtat Dtatt- DD DDDD - DDtat Dtatt- And sometimes the pattern will be alternating: TaTa Tdd -TTT TTT - TaTa Tdd -TTT TTT – Again, know your drummer, know the patterns they love, and where and when they like to throw in their “interesting” drumming. 10, Finish with a spin and drop. Or don’t! A spin and drop was the “traditional” way to finish a drum solo. You spin on the spot for a long time and drop to the floor in a back bend, Turkish drop, or just a graceful slam into the floor. These days we care more for our knees. Decide ahead of time if you are going to signal your drummer of if they are going to signal you, when its time to be done. A not so subtle “head nod” works as long as you are making lots of eye contact. You can choose to spin (keep in mind this might take some time and get faster and faster), or you might pick a walk of the room with occasional turns, an arm move that spins, or a turning foot pattern. Get the audience clapping in time, up the expectations and then watch for the “big hit” on the drum. Catch that beat with a signature pose. Don’t forget to take your applause and then focus your audience’s attention on your musicians. Thank them, show your appreciation and exit the stage. Again, connect with them later to let them know how much you enjoyed the experience. Bonus…… Shhhush. This one is our secret. Sometimes drummers are not very good. Just like dancers, some have more experience than others. Some say they know how to play for dancers when they don’t. Some think it will be easy, that there is no skill involved. Some are selfish and don’t know or care to interact with the dancer. Some play in a way that is impossible for even the most advanced dancer to keep up. Some are boring and play the same thing for 5 minutes, leaving you to do all the creative work. Some don’t know how to interact, how to read the dancers’ energy and ability. Some have only ever played for one dancer and don’t know how to play for anyone else. Sometimes it’s not you its them. Don’t quit after one bad experience. Follow my suggestions, be a good audience member, watch the drummers who other dancers love, who interact, who play differently for dancers of different levels, buy them coffee, see if they are the drummer for you. On the flip side, if you see a drummer on the beach, or at your local non belly dance venue, have some fun, play around. Who knows, they might be your long term drummer hiding in plain sight! DANCERS !If you would like 1001 other ideas and hints on how to improve your stagecraft, check out "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage" - the stagecraft handbook for all belly dancers ! BECOMING A BELLY DANCER ON AMAZON If you like this blog, go back to my blog page and check out some others like: Teacher Knows Best Dealing with Difficult Students I'm Perfect for Belly Dance (and so are you) Why Belly Dancers need to Walk the Line Teaching Belly Dance: Making Corrections Being Part of the Solution Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer.
She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and levels. Both are available on Amazon.Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer.
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