Advanced Technique & Soloing

Rolls, split-hand technique, slaps and snaps, speed, odd meters, improvisation and playing drum solos for belly dance.

149 questions answered

Questions and answers

Finger rolls and tremolos, the Egyptian “trrr”, why yours comes out lumpy, and how long a decent roll takes to build.

What Turkish split-hand technique is, who developed it, which fingers do what, and a first exercise to try.

Open and closed slaps, Turkish snaps, pops, flams, thumb Doums, pitch bends, muted Teks and the tokat.

Ghost notes and grace notes, ornamenting a plain rhythm, and dropping in a fill without losing the one.

How players get fast: building speed with a metronome, staying loose, and lasting through a long gig.

Paradiddles and other rudiments on the darbuka, finger-independence work, and bringing your weak hand up.

What aksak means, how to count and accent 9/8, practising odd meters, and handling a solo that speeds up.

How advanced darbuka gets written down, split-hand finger numbering and symbols, and why teachers’ systems disagree.

Starting to improvise, building phrases, using space, shaping a whole solo, and practising with loops and transcription.

Who leads, following a dancer, cues, hits and stops, finishing together, and what “three reps and a tag” means.

Stuck after a couple of years? How to structure advanced practice, and what to go deeper on instead of wider.

The players worth studying, and the books, courses and methods behind modern split-hand and solo playing.

Playing with a stick, two-drum setups, the doholla, crossing over to riq and frame drum, and standing up with a strap.