Thread: Steady music for drills in class

Ok, I`ll add to the "favorite"-threads by asking for your favourite music to drill in class! It seems whatever music I like, it always has a section of "something" in it, a solo, a drum section, anything that will throw students off the beat in what they were already doing. I need something really steady that just goes more or less the same from beginning to end as I am getting a bit tired of the constant saidi and drum tracks I use now ,r:;

Anyone has any suggestions?

My favourites right now are "el baston", "ya helou zein" and "turbo tabla 4".

What about the bellydance music CDs from Ron Wagner? I can't remember exactly what they are called, except something like The Best of Bellydance - Fast and then there is one that is for slow music. Those CDs are pretty consistent.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Belly-Dance-Practice-Music/dp/B002NM2YPM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1264019027&sr=8-2]Amazon.com: Belly Dance Practice Music: Ron Perovich: MP3 Downloads[/ame]
Ron Perovich - Belly Dance Practice Music. This is good for class.

Very Cairo vol 4 is great for drills and practising sagat.
it even has a couple of tracks with accents on different beats which is great. I use it a lot.
It was designed for use in class,

I love the 4 Eternal Rhythms CDs that I ordered from from Lark in the Morning. Same rhythm for 15 minutes - with good non synthetic instrumentation.

Hoss-Hoss is 5 minutes and 9 seconds of fun predictability!

I love that song, and it is VERY repetitive and consistent.

I recommend Mary Ellen Donald's "Practice Music for Drummers and Dancers". See Recordings Designed for Extended Practice


I often use Mary Ellen's drum rhythm CD's (also at the above link) for drilling, because it helps students become familiar with what Middle Eastern rhythms sound like, without the distraction of the melody.

If I want to get away from the drums or the "practice music" CD I mentioned above, I'll often choose pop music. The one that works best for me is Sabri Alil by Sherin because it has a steady beat from beginning to end.

Another good choice is folkloric music - that's usually a steady, predictable beat. I like Dyati Mali by Metkal Kenawi for a good strong beat for drilling stuff like hip drops, hip bumps, hip lifts, etc.

For the more fluid moves, my favorites are Bir Demet Yasemen (I like the version on John Bilezikjian's CD titled {Sirocco), Erev Shel Shoshanim (there's a nice version on Mary Ellen Donald's Gems of the Middle East series), and a track called "Bagdad" on Eddie Kochak's volume 1 CD that's actually a medley of El Fen, Cleopatra, and Bir Demet Yasemen.

On one of the Solace CD's there is a beledi that has a few accented sections, but mostly it's the same thing for about 5 minutes. I'll look at it when I get home.

Okay, I recently just revamped my beginner class and through trial and error have come up with a series of songs that my students seem to like, I can live with, and just plain work. It's taking me years to come up with these songs. A couple of weeks ago I tried to change a few songs here and there and it just didn't work. I have to keep remembering I''m teaching BEGINNERS WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO MOVE!

This is a progressive 10 week class, based on fitness and cardio so every week I add on, but it's still pretty aggressive for a beginner class.

1. Alo Alo by Waleed Toufik -Warm up -Basic "walking" steps, grapevine, etc. Anything to get the arms and legs moving.

2. Either Taksim Ney from Katia's Youm El Farrah or. Dance El Malek, (Dance of The Kings by George Abdo). I use this for neck rolls, rib cage circles, ab tucks, shoulder rolls...

3. I wanna see you belly dance-Suhaila's glute exercise! I start out with slow contractions then eventually glute to the beat.

4. Lylet Hob by Belly Dance Orient Beats - A drill for moving all parts of the body...hips, abs, shoulder... to the beat.

5. Hebbeyna - by Souhel Debes - hip drops -4 variations.

6. Neqsim el amar -by Waleed Toufic - saidi steps

7. Drum solo music -changes with class, basic hip work, cardio.

8. Miserlou -George Abdo -Side to side figure 8's and variations

9. Enta Arfa ('Dr. Samy Farag - Fatouma)- umis, hip circles, slow stuff. Cool Down

10. Stretching... Majesty of Dawn..Gitano -Arabe Suite.. Dancer's Odyssey

I would have to say that my biggest music challenge was with the hip drop music. So much music works but through trial and error I discovered that music that I found simple was difficult to break down to beginners.

That particular version of Habbeyna, while boring to me, just works as a teaching tool because I can start them out REAL SLOW, then bring them up to tempo once they become familar with the moves.

Lots of suggestions for music for drills on the "Class Lists" pages on BellydanceDownloads.com - Class Lists. I'm adding two more class lists tomorrow, so check it again tomorrow night.

Hossam Ramsy's "The Best of Farid Al Atrash" has some nice long songs that stay consistent. It has a great masmoudi taqsim that's 8 minutes, I use that in my taqsim workshops

Some of the songs on my list might work for you - Kiyaana's Bellydance Fitness Classes.

Solace's Rhythm of the Dance works pretty good for me and Hossam Ramzy has a CD of beginner beats on it - I forget the name, but it's something like 'Drum Rhythms for Beginners'.

My list of what I call "Steady Beats" are listed on Kiyaana's Belly Dance Downloads Website: Andalee Belly Dance Classes

My favourite drilling track for classes at the moment is Baladi Unplugged from Itneen Tribal Dance/Tribal Drums by Helm (and me an Egyptian girl! *shaking head*).

The utterly brilliant thing about it is that it has sections that get progressively faster, so you can practice the same combination/move slowly and gradually build up the speed.

Originally Posted by beafarhana

My favourite drilling track for classes at the moment is Baladi Unplugged from Itneen Tribal Dance/Tribal Drums by Helm (and me an Egyptian girl! *shaking head*).

The utterly brilliant thing about it is that it has sections that get progressively faster, so you can practice the same combination/move slowly and gradually build up the speed.

Yes! This is great to do simple drills, keep repeating but faster & faster, less repetitions per side, etc! I use this with beginners, and we all collapse giggling after if I have sped it up TOO much sometimes, kinda breaks the ice for newbies. Also great learning tool to demonstrate what happens if you go too fast, how you don't have to hit every single beat.

We use an excellent old tune by Mostafa Sax for shimmy drills in class because it's not too fast and goes on FOR-EV-VER. Very steady saidi beat. Raqa el-Khail... get past the intro and you have a good medium speed tune.

My favorite music for drilling finger cymbals and movements in class is Suhaila Salimpour's Remix. It has 2 very long songs on the CD (one is 20ish minutes long and the other is close to that) that do not change tempo and have a very obvious beat.