I've been watching my copy -- just came in the mail yesterday -- while I finish taking down the tree and packing away ornaments.
For me, this is a good overall video for dancers who want to learn to play or improve/vary their zilling. If a beginner, one would need to back up/back up/back up -- but Elsa has good breakdowns with clear shots of her hands. She explains not only what she's doing, but why.
Pros and Cons:
Cons -- and there were darn few:
No warm up (not a con for me -- but I know some of you want the warm up on the vid)
She recommends learning the patterns by just standing/sitting and playing them first, then starting to move with them. She starts with just standing, adds some arms and then some movement. A con for me, because I believe when you are learning to zill (unless you plan to play only with the band and not while you're dancing) one should always be moving, even if it's just walking around in a circle.
She moves along pretty fast, so there would be a lot of rewinding for beginners.
She calls masmoudi saghir 'baladi.'
My instant rage button.
Probably not a problem for anyone else!
Pros -- about everything else.
The video opens with a section on rhythms. Raquy and Brian demo the rhythm on drum; Elsa then demos it on zill and finally they all play it together. Good definition of each rhythm covered (baladi [grrr], saidi, maksoum, masmoudi [kabir -- more grrrrr], chifti telli [slow Arabic style and fast Turkish style], karsilama [9/8--standard Turkish and a gypsy style].
Second, she discusses zilling -- from patterns to rhythms, and how to play (leading hand or alternating, etc.)
She then starts with each rhythm, going over the patterns she wants to incorporate, adding arm movements, then basic movements and then some simple combinations for each.
Ending is a performance with zills. One thing I liked very much about the performance was that she demonstrated playing the zills throughout the music -- but not constantly. She would use them as accents sometimes, play as though accompanying herself/with the melody at others, as though mimicing drum at others. She also played them in the drum solo, which I think is harder to do well than playing with the music (at least for me
).
Unless you are already an accomplished zillist, this is a good video to help you improve. If you are an instructor, you might find (as I did!
) some great ideas to incorporate into my classes.
Great content, great price. What more could you want?
Amazon.com: Bellydance with Zils: DVD: Zils 
Linear Mode
