Workshop Review: Karim Nagi - Day 2
Here is the long promised picture of me and Karim, taken on the second day of the workshop, Nov 8, 2009.
The day's topics were finger cymbals in the morning, and drum in the afternoon. I feel a little unqualified to write this review, since I am the most musical-instrument-dysfunctional person alive. It's not that I don't have rhythm, since I certainly do while I'm dancing... I just don't think like a musician, and it shows. I don't feel too bad about it, since I can't be good at everything. I know the rhythms, and I can dance to them, and that's the most valuable thing for dancing.
Organization
Like the day before, the workshop was held on the campus of SIU in Carbondale.
Karim has prepared handouts for each of his classes, and emailed them to everyone who provided their addresses, about a week after the workshop.
Also like the previous day's workshops, the classes were only two hours long. for me, this was less of an issue for the music classes than the dance classes, since after about two hours, my brain was full, and I was simply no longer able to process new information about playing the instruments. For someone like me, who struggles so much with musical instruments, these classes were *hard*, but I simply can't judge the difficulty for someone who has more musical skill.
Sunday Morning - Sagat (finger cymbals)
Lesson number one: "Zills" is the Turkish word, "Sagat" is the name used in Egypt. I knew this in the abstract, but since i am studying Egyptian-style dance, it makes more sense to use Egyptian vocabulary.
Karim's finger cymbal technique is like nothing I have ever seen before. Not in videos, not in workshops, nowhere. It's a revelation. I'm not going to even try to explain it, because if you're going to learn it you should learn it from him. In short, he teaches 4 sounds to make with the sagat, then has us play them, but not in the rigid, alternating hands patterns most of us have learned, but in a way that is much more organic.
He tied the playing of the sagat to the topics he covered in the musicality workshop the day before, which really helped
Sunday Afternoon - Arabic Drumming
I can't make what is going on in my head come out through my hands. I think, "Doum, doum, tek" and by the time the impulse gets to my hand, it's gone. I made a bit of a fool of myself in class, missing the stopping point, and making us start over more than once (I blushed 18 shades of red at that point!)Never mind the fact that I was tired, and having to work so hard to concentrate, Karim caught me staring stupidly at him and his drum several times.
It was a valuable workshop for sure, but I found myself wondering if there was any hope for me when it comes to the drum. I doubt it.
