The instruments and rhythms of Palestinian folk music
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Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can identify some key instruments and understand some key rhythms in Palestinian folk music.
Key learning points
- Arabic music has a long and complex history and is extremely varied.
- Two key instruments in Palestinian folk music are the doumbek and oud.
- The doumbek uses three sounds - doum (middle of the drum), tek (edge of the drum) and ka (ring finger on edge of drum).
- Palestinian folk music uses a wazn, a rhythmic cycle or pattern. Maqsum and saidi are two examples of this.
Keywords
Doumbek - a drum used in Arabic and Palestinian folk music; it is played with the hands and fingertips
Oud - a stringed instrument with 11 strings used in Arabic and Palestinian music; it is an early predecessor to the guitar
Wazn - a repeating rhythmic cycle or pattern that forms the rhythmic basis of a composition
Maqsum - a common wazn across the Middle East
Saidi - a specific upbeat wazn that uses fast rhythmic patterns
Common misconception
Hand drum technique is the same across the world.
Techniques are very different on different hand drums around the world. Tabla, doumbek and djembe all use very different techniques, for example, the doumbek technique uses fingertips in a way that djembe does not.
Teacher tip
Encourage pupils to explore different sounds on the drum, particularly when adding fills into the wazn. The key is to ensure that the main rhythmic pulse (doum and tek) stays constant, and to add creative fills around that.
Equipment
DAW, notation software or class set of hand drums.
Licence
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