Yes No Maybe

Would you do me a favor?

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If you ask a member of the general public to picture a belly dancer, I will bet you 10 bucks that what they’re picturing is a woman playing zils. Finger cymbals are an iconic part of belly dance, and this goes back to our foremothers, the Ghawazee and Awalim of Egypt and the Çengi of Turkey, who all played zils and other hand percussion constantly. Besides being an important demonstration of their artistry, it was just a smart business move. That’s one fewer musician that they had to pay. Until about 20 years ago, finger cymbals were an absolute requirement. If you couldn’t play, you weren’t qualified for most public gigs. Even when I started dancing at student nights 15 years ago, that was part of the vetting process. The booking dancer, even though you were a student, would not let you into the show unless you could play at least somewhat.

More recently, this has been loosened and zils have become kind of an extra rather than a requirement, but they’re still worth adding. For one thing, they add another layer to the music, just like they have traditionally. In today’s days, where we often have more recorded music and less live music, adding on finger cymbals can bring back some of that live energy. Playing is a way to connect with the music and to connect with your audience through an action and gestures that they can understand, but now that these rules have changed, how do you decided when and how much to play?

Well, a lot of that will depend on your personal taste, and your current skill level. It gets a little bit more complicated when it comes to what section of the show or genre you’re in, though. Let’s break this down into times when you should definitely play, probably play, definitely not play, and maybe not play. I always recommend that you play finger cymbals during your introduction, finale, and any audience participation segments. This is really important because those segments of the show need more energy and more interest.

During the introduction, the audience is not ready to register all of the complicated things you’re doing with your body and so there’s no point in doing anything particularly complex, but adding that extra layer of zils helps set that energetic, celebratory tone without you having to waste a lot of energy on complicated body movements. In your finale, you’re probably tired and so adding extra energy through what your fingers are playing is a big help for you. During audience participation, it gives you the opportunity to add something that the entire room can appreciate, even if you’re visiting individual audience members at their tables.

Now, there are some sections where I think you should probably play. I think zils are perfect for any folkloric or earthy-flavored sections of the show, but if you’re doing an actual named folk dance, so something that’s specific to a particular people, place, time, then you really want to do your research. Some of these dances are appropriate for zils because people might have known how to play in a social context, but for others, it would just seem out of place. If you’re doing kind of a folkloric/oriental fusion or folkloric-flavored oriental dance, go ahead and play. It adds a lot, but definitely do your research if you’re trying to do something more ethnographic.

The only time when I recommend that you definitely don’t play is when you’re dancing to a standalone taqsim. This is when one musician is playing an instrumental solo, and the rest of the band is quiet. In that situation, don’t play. For one thing, there’s no rhythm for you to anchor your playing to, so it wouldn’t make sense, but also, it’s rude. The soloist is the only person playing. This is their moment. Just let them shine.

This brings me to some of the gray areas. One is instrumental solos while the rest of the band is maintaining the rhythm. This is a common feature in the middle of a song or in the chiftetelli song genre, where the whole band is maintaining the rhythm. “Duh duh-duh duh-duh, duh duh duh” while one instrument is soloing on top of it. In this situation, you have a couple of decisions to make. One option is that you can stop playing entirely and let the soloist shine, and that is never the wrong answer. It’s respectful, it costs less of your attention, so it always works, but you do miss out on some of the benefits of adding zils. If you do want to play, think of your playing as switching into a backup role. You could play simply, quietly, and try and blend in with the rest of the band. You can think of yourself like a backup singer while the soloist is singing the lead.

How do you decide which of those two is the best option? Well, if you feel like you can play in a way that feels like you’re lifting up the soloist rather than trying to upstage them, then that’s probably a good choice. It also helps to think about how well you know that particular musician. If you haven’t been dancing with them for a while, just ask them what they prefer. In general, people like being consulted. When in doubt, either don’t play or just play a little bit here and there and see how the band responds. You can ask them afterwards what they thought, or just try and pay attention to their expression and their body language when you do it.

Another situation is a drum solo and zils during a drum solo are amazing if they’re done respectfully. One structure that you’ll see sometimes is the drummer and finger cymbal duet, where the two musicians, you and the drummer, take on a call and response pattern, playing off of each other. Now, this takes a lot of experience, and it really helps if you have a relationship with the drummer. When it works, it is freaking amazing. Another way that you can play with a drum solo is to get into that backup singer role. For example, you might chime in on some important accents rather than playing in a call and response pattern throughout the piece. For example, a common drum solo riff is, “Dum tek tek, Dum tek tek, Dum tek tek, dum dum tek.” Maybe you just chime in on that final “dum dum tek.” You might play exactly, “buh buh buh,” or something a little fancier, like, “bah ti dah ti dah.”

There’s another point in drum solos that happens pretty often where the drummer, instead of playing lots of different riffs that repeat four times, will switch to a steady rhythm with variations played over it. Most often, that would be Maqsum, “dum tek tek, dum tek”, Beledi, “dum dum tek-a-tek, dum tek-a-tek,” or Saidi, “dum tek, dum dum tek.” This happens most often about halfway or two-thirds of the way through the song, but it will vary from drummer to drummer.

In that situation, it’s your opportunity to play a simple pattern that goes with that rhythm. You might play the rhythm straight, “I like chicken wings, not chicken legs,” “dum dum tek-a-tek, dum tek-a-tek,” or you might play a simple pattern that harmonizes with it, “duh duh duh, duh duh duh, duh duh duh, duh duh duh.” This creates a “bring it on home” kind of moment, so if it’s a section of the drum solo where the audience starts clapping along, that’s your cue.

The reason this works is because in that mode, you are setting yourself up as the backup member of the rhythm section. Just like when you have a drum solo with two drummers, typically one of them is playing the basic rhythm while the other one solos. You’re taking on the role of that second drummer, but just like with any other solo situation, it’s always best to ask. Some drummers love it when you participate with your finger cymbals. Others would prefer to have their moment, and feel upstaged, and still more of them are okay with it, but only if they have a sense of how well you’re going to do it or whether you’re going to be considerate and interact with them as opposed to try and play over them. Have that discussion or just try a little bit and check in with them and see how it went.