hotel??
I'm just over an hour from London, so including cross London travel, that's just under 4 hours if the connections are right!!
Because of this thread and the workshop, I have been trying to beat out rythms on table top whilst listening to music. having surprising amount of success with drum solos!!
Karena, God bless you! So many folks dismiss counting --or indeed any formal music knowledge--as "artificial," and it drives me insane. It's great to have someone say it's actually an okay thing to do! I've had an extensive background in Western dance forms in an academic setting, and having had some basic music theory as part of my training has only helped me. For some reason, many people are threatened by music theory, thinking it won't make them "feel" the music or will undermine the musical sensibility they already have. I could not disagree more; the more I learn about rhythm and music, the better my "ear" gets and the more I trust my own inherent musicality. I feel music more deeply when I understand the nuts and bolts of it structurally, and this helps me to "let go."
It drives me straight up a tree when I hear teachers say that the music is such an important part of this dance and that listening to it is the most important thing, and that you have to feel it and yada yada yada then (for example) can't answer the most basic question of what they're listening for in a specific passage. They say that "they don't want to confuse students with music theory." In my experience, two things confuse students:
1) Bad information. As in just plain wrong. (i.e. counting a 10/8 in 4/4 and trying to make students learn it that way, etc.)
2) Good information, very badly presented.
I'm not saying all teachers need formal academic training; I've had some wonderfully musical teaching influences who haven't have a day of instruction. They have, however, had lengthy and quality exposure to good music from master teachers and musicians throughout their training and careers.
Karena, God bless you! So many folks dismiss counting --or indeed any formal music knowledge--as "artificial," and it drives me insane. It's great to have someone say it's actually an okay thing to do! I've had an extensive background in Western dance forms in an academic setting, and having had some basic music theory as part of my training has only helped me. For some reason, many people are threatened by music theory, thinking it won't make them "feel" the music or will undermine the musical sensibility they already have. I could not disagree more; the more I learn about rhythm and music, the better my "ear" gets and the more I trust my own inherent musicality. I feel music more deeply when I understand the nuts and bolts of it structurally, and this helps me to "let go."
It drives me straight up a tree when I hear teachers say that the music is such an important part of this dance and that listening to it is the most important thing, and that you have to feel it and yada yada yada then (for example) can't answer the most basic question of what they're listening for in a specific passage. They say that "they don't want to confuse students with music theory." In my experience, two things confuse students:
1) Bad information. As in just plain wrong. (i.e. counting a 10/8 in 4/4 and trying to make students learn it that way, etc.)
2) Good information, very badly presented.
I'm not saying all teachers need formal academic training; I've had some wonderfully musical teaching influences who haven't have a day of instruction. They have, however, had lengthy and quality exposure to good music from master teachers and musicians throughout their training and careers.
The way I understand 2/4, 4/4, 8/4 etc is the number of beats before the rhythm is repeated
Fallahi is 2/4 DUM DUM TEK where the two DUMs fall on the beat (the one and the two) - and then you start over again, counting from one.
Maksoum is 4/4 DUM TEK TEK DUM TEK where the DUMs fall on beats one and three - so for this rhythm you basically count to four and then start over again.
The rhythm Semai is played over 10 beats so you basically have to count all the way to ten before starting the rhythm again.
I dont know if this helps anyone