Understanding Middle Eastern Music
Knowing what rhythm is underlying your music will help you to determine what kind of dance, what types of moves and what emotions you should be expressing. There are a couple of pieces of information that will help you determine what rhythm you are dealing with. The first is the time signature of the rhythm. You can find a discussion of time signatures on the Basic Music Theory page.
Once you have your time signature, the next thing you need to determine is the structure of the rhythm. The number and placement of the doums is the first key, but sometimes you also need the relationship of the doums to the teks and kas. I have created pages for 2/4 rhythms, 4/4 rhythms, 8/4 rhythms and odd rhythms which includes the structure of common rhythms in each category as well as some basic information on the rhythm and a sound clip for many of them.
After you have looked around at the various sub-pages and listened to the rhythm tracks, you can test yourself with the below track.
Once you have your time signature, the next thing you need to determine is the structure of the rhythm. The number and placement of the doums is the first key, but sometimes you also need the relationship of the doums to the teks and kas. I have created pages for 2/4 rhythms, 4/4 rhythms, 8/4 rhythms and odd rhythms which includes the structure of common rhythms in each category as well as some basic information on the rhythm and a sound clip for many of them.
After you have looked around at the various sub-pages and listened to the rhythm tracks, you can test yourself with the below track.
The music clip on this page is licensed through iLicensemusic.com.