Thread: What's your favorite shimmy drill song?

I've decided to make an effort to drill my shimmies more regularly. I'd like to put a couple tunes on a CD I can just throw in the player in the morning and drill to. Do you have a favorite song you like to drill your shimmies to? My teacher uses an 8 minute long track that I've never found anywhere... and I'd kind of like to have something different anyway. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Usually I am not much for practicing to non middle eastern music but my teacher once put this on for the shimmy drill and I thought it was so cool.
You have to wait until 0:43 for it to pick up.

My shimmy drill playlist is rather short:
Boom Boom (from one of the Mezdeke CDs)
Alaoui (from a rather cheesy CD I picked up at a French Supermarket once, Oriental Party, but also on Arabesque (Momo))
Nagua's Tabla from Amar 14 (Jalilah's Raks Sharki vol 2)
El Tablaa (from Delta Festival Vol 2, yet another cheeseriffic cd)

I look forward to adding more tracks to my playlist, based on everyone else's suggestions.

Here are mine:
http://www.bellydancedownloads.com/i...&id=210#shimmy

Raks Africa is super played out, but it will always be my favorite. ,r:;

Anything by Dick Dale...Surf Music with a Middle Eastern "twist". Super fast guitar riffs with plenty of slide and octave changes.

My shimmy songs are on BellydanceDownloads now too, thanks to Kiyaana: http://www.bellydancedownloads.com/i...article&id=225

My go-to song on there for class is "Show Dance" (iTunes) because it's so steady, but if you're drilling on your own I'd suggest looking for some high-energy drum solos. It's good practice to stop & start shimmies, and with these you can practice hitting the accents and then going from 0 to Shimmy in a split second. Plus it's just plain fun! :)

Originally Posted by anala

Anything by Dick Dale...Surf Music with a Middle Eastern "twist". Super fast guitar riffs with plenty of slide and octave changes.

Fun!!

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

Here are mine:
http://www.bellydancedownloads.com/i...&id=210#shimmy

Raks Africa is super played out, but it will always be my favorite. ,r:;

I'm with you on Raks Africa... don't know if I could watch yet another performance to it, but a great song!

I've got Essential Bellydance here on my iPod... now I need to go hide in the rest room with it a minute and try out your shimmy picks... ..g.: Thanks!

I currently have a shimmy playlist of 12 songs, including for example Fast Hips by Paul Dinletir, Nour iZen by Turbo Tabla and Tribalicious by Ruben van Rompaey.

When I was at RAKS in Belgium this summer I think it was Khalida who used a version of Tamra Henna for a shimmy drill and it was brilliant!

We use the song Quadukka al-mayyas by Jesse Cook in class ..g.:

Originally Posted by anala

Anything by Dick Dale...Surf Music with a Middle Eastern "twist". Super fast guitar riffs with plenty of slide and octave changes.

I second this. Dick Dale's Miserlou and Hava Nagila are great fun to shimmy to.

Cairo Trip Hop Underground, Michael Cox (Zahra Zuhair's husband) has 2 tracks I love for shimmy drill: "Eshta" & "Hipnotik" drum solo.

"Chicky" by Oojami. Totally overplayed but it's hard not to shimmy to that song.

The track Rhythm from "Reference In Bellydance: Traditional Arab Dances - Nadia Gamal. it is 7:32 mins so you get a good shimmy workout

Move by Said Mrad.

I have a 6 & 7 min version, and my students can't get enough of that song! They want it
all the time.

There's also a song by Chantal Chamndy named "You Want Me"
released on a cd called "You Want me Remixes" with 4 or 5 different remix versions
of the song, of different lengths. Excellent for shimmy drills, and you can pick the
one that works best for you! (Don't ask me where I found it, I don't remember )

Taking the Dick Dale one step further: Pump It by the Black Eyed Peas is a GREAT 3 1/2 minute shimmy song! I know, not traditional, but it samples Miserlou and is a ton of fun!

TigerB, I believe I used it in my layering workshop at Northern Lights Festival that you were at. ..g.:

Originally Posted by mihri

Taking the Dick Dale one step further: Pump It by the Black Eyed Peas is a GREAT 3 1/2 minute shimmy song! I know, not traditional, but it samples Miserlou and is a ton of fun!

TigerB, I believe I used it in my layering workshop at Northern Lights Festival that you were at. ..g.:

You DID, which is partially why I'm trying to drill my shimmy... never before has Pump It seemed so LONG...

I did this one year as a joke when my intermeadiate class fell on April Fools Day and it is now hands down the most requested shimmy drills song, especially when everyone is having one of "those" weeks. Totally not bellydance in any way shape or form but still fun to do shimmy drills to.....Hampster Dance. And no we don't use it all the time but I do throw it in the mix at random with no warning every so often just because they do love it.

For teaching, I love Percumania. It starts out slow, picks up steadily, and is around eight minutes long.

I'm cheesy as hell but
http://www.mtv.com/videos/metro-stat...shake-it.jhtml

Originally Posted by Viv

I did this one year as a joke when my intermeadiate class fell on April Fools Day and it is now hands down the most requested shimmy drills song, especially when everyone is having one of "those" weeks. Totally not bellydance in any way shape or form but still fun to do shimmy drills to.....Hampster Dance. And no we don't use it all the time but I do throw it in the mix at random with no warning every so often just because they do love it.

I love that!

My shimmy drill songs are mostly chosen for their length.

Short (2:40) Sahara Saidi, BDSS1
Medium (4 min) Malkoum, Now Dance Arabia 2008 and Zaratou, Arabia: the Essential Album
Long (6 min) Laiel El Ashekin, Arabia: the Essential Album

Originally Posted by roguepen

"Chicky" by Oojami. Totally overplayed but it's hard not to shimmy to that song.

Ooh. ITA. That song just makes me want to move.

For myself:
Besma by Hanan
Certain remixes by Tarkan (though I also like the originals): Unut Beni (Simarik), and Beni Anlama (Bu Gece)

For my students I use:
Schizo Sherzo by Light Rain

Originally Posted by anala

Anything by Dick Dale...Surf Music with a Middle Eastern "twist". Super fast guitar riffs with plenty of slide and octave changes.

Totally! "Hava Nagila" is my fave

Not my only favorite, but certainly one of them:

"Dragon and Sword" by Solace. One of my teacher used this, just had to go up afterwards to find out what that song was!

Forgot my all time go to shimmy song: Ray Charles' "What I'd Say!" (duh!!)

There are 18 pieces of music in my shimmy playlist since I teach a lot of shimmy workshops

Unfortunately this is out of print, maybe you can find a copy somewhere:
Stamina, CD Fate by Susu Pampanin - 21:18 min long!!!

I use this at the end of the workshops to show how different shimmies can be used to interpret music:
Hobbik Feyya Haram (Your Love For Me Is Forbidden), CD Source of Fire by Hossam Ramzy - 8:35 min.

Also a nice one for shimmy taqsim:
Layali Ramadan (Ramadam Evenings), CD Best of Mohammed Abdul Wahab by Hossam Ramzy - 5:35

More qanun!
Kanoun Mood, CD Jalilah's Raks Sharki 6 - In A Beirut Mood by Ihsan Al-Mounzer - 4:48 min.

Drummmmmmmms.....
Shimmy 1 / Shimmy 2, CD Oriental Grooves vol. 1 by Sayed Balaha - 4:08 min.
on the same CD I use Small Masmoudi in 3 different speeds to build up shimmies from slow to fast

And I have collected shorter qanun pieces from various CDs or cut them out of longer songs.
There's a longer version of Aziza (11:57) that contains taqsims of oud, qanun and saz. Unfortunately I don't know who it is from, I got it on a sampler CD.

Happy shimmying!

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by gisela

Usually I am not much for practicing to non middle eastern music but my teacher once put this on for the shimmy drill and I thought it was so cool.
You have to wait until 0:43 for it to pick up.

LOL I used to use that for shimmy drills all the time! My teacher had it. Love that track, should buy it really.

I just found another one.... Wine and Alchemy's cover of Dick Dale's "The Victor" from their "What Dreams May Come" CD is a GREAT shimmy song! This may be blasphemy, but I think I like it better than the original. ..l;,