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music via the internet have greatly affected Raks Sharki performances in the U.S. Raks Sharki
dancers increasingly use pop music from around the world, including everything from Egyptian
Shabbi to Indian Bhangra, and Algerian Rai to Turkish techno. Some of this pop music
incorporates traditional rhythms; some does not.
The dancer's understanding and interpretation of the music has always been a crucial element of
Raks Sharki performance. Rhythmic structures has always been crucial to Middle Eastern music.
The very movements of Raks Sharki are tied to rhythms. It is certainly possible to perform Raks
Sharki beautifully to western rhythms in fusion dance, but Raks Sharki conforms most naturally to
traditional middle eastern rhythms.
patterns with names such as maqsum, baladi, sai'idi, and karsilama. However, the patterns and names often vary
depending on the source, particularly if the source is not American.
An Egyptian drummer will instruct you to play ciftetelli in a certain way, recognizing several variations and guidelines for
acceptable improvisation within those patterns. But if you are in Turkey, ciftetelli is played quite differently, and in fact
there are two quite distinct ciftetellis (fast and slow). Moreover, "Ciftetelli" is the name of a region in Turkey and
"tsiftetelli" is one of the names of Raks Sharki in Greece.
It is not the case that there is only one correct "ciftetelli". This does not mean that any cifte is fine! Within the context of
Egyptian music, there is one correct ciftetelli (with its range of acceptable variants); within the context of Turkish music,
there are two correct ciftetellis.
creole drum language. When I played my generic American maqsum
for an Egyptian drummer in Cairo, he started the lesson by telling me
what the correct maqsum is (and told me there are four correct
maqsums, and my American maqsum was not one of them).
- creole: a well-defined and stable language that
originated from a non-trivial combination of
two or more languages, typically with many
distinctive features that are not inherited from
either parent.
information would be available to us. However, the creole drum language is actually extremely useful. The creole is
standardized enough that instructional materials form all over the U.S. use the same pattenrs. Consequently, U.S. dancers
and drummers can communicate quickly and effectively about rhythms. Without the standardized creole, everyone would
have to learn vastly more material - and most people don't have the time for that - which is one of the reasons why we
have a creole that persists.
In light of all this, I will present below a handful of the most common Middle Eastern rhythms in the U.S. creole.
Knowledge of these rhythms will serve dancers well: in the U.S., most Raks Sharki folks speak this drum language, and
elsewhere, the drum language is close enough that you can get by. I will also present a handful of notes about "errors" in
the creole (they are only errors if we claim the creole is correct outside its own context).
D = Doum, the bass of the drum, struck with the dominant hand
t = tek, striking the rim of the drum with the dominant hand
k = ka, striking the rim of the drum with the non-dominant hand
T = Tek, a tek with emphasis or a slap (sometimes spoken "pah")
K = Ka, a ka with emphasis
. = rest, just an empty space.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
D D k T D k T .
D D k T D k T tk
DkD k T D k T tk
D D tkT D tkT tk
with a different kind of collar. He asked another vendor to bring some, speaking quickly in Arabic, and the only word I
recognized was "baladi". Evidently the style that my friend liked was stylish in the countryside, not in urban Cairo.
"Baladi" is not a rhythm in the Middle East. The rhythmic pattern we call "baladi" is a form of maqsum, sometimes called
"masmoudi seghir" for "little masmoudi" since both "baladi" and masmoudi have two doum's at the beginning of the phrase.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
D T . D D . T .
D T . D D tkT tk
T D . D D tkT tk
TkD tkD D tkT tk
used for Raks Assaya, the cane dance, which often calls for a certain Upper
Egyptian feel. The third and fourth lines that I have given have a
particularly funky feeling, as heard in Omar Faruk Tekbilek's famous
recording of Shashkin, and work well with this riff:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
D T . T D . T .
D T k T D k T tk
D k T k D k T kk ("walking maqsum")
D T tkT D tkT tk
and sai'idi. In Egypt, this is really not the case: sai'idi and maqsum can
have various combinations of doum's. They are distinguished by other
pattern elements, as well as by the emphasis and the feel.
Maqsum is probably the most common rhythm, both in American Raks
Sharki and in many places in the Middle East.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 -
D . . T . . T . D . D . T . . .
D . k T . k T . D . D . T . t k
D . k D . k T k D . D . T . t k
D tkt T tkt T tkD . D . T tkt t
very slow, emotive veil pieces. The third line is close to the fast Turkish
ciftetelli, played with a bit of a swing feel. With slow ciftetellis, more and
more tek's and ka's can be added; the fourth line is almost, but not quite,
full.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 -
D . . . T . . . D . . . T . T . . .
D . t k T . t k D . t k T . T . t k
D . . . D . . . T . . . . . T . . .
D . . . D . . . T . t k t . T . t k
rhythm, but this rhythmic pattern is extremely common in both
Turkish and Romani (gypsy) music. The emphasis in the Romani
and in the Turkish Oriental Dance versions of "karsilama" is on
the 8th beat. When playing karsilama, emphasis the 8th beat, as
this is where a lot of dance steps place hits or jumps.
urban Sule Kule (inner city Istanbul). The patterns occur frequently as riffs or variations within the fast 9/8 as well.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
D . . T . . T .
D . k T . k T .
D k k T k k T k
D k t K t k T k
Line three is, as near as I can tell, correct within Egyptian drumming (though the T is often
played as a slap or half-slap in the center of the drum, and the names of the syllables are
different). Line four was taught to me by Sidqi, who I suspect picked it up from Seido, as
an easier way to play malfuf blisteringly fast.
Ayuub, often heard fast and as the basis of a drum solo, or else slow and in particular for the Zar dance
Masmoudi, an 8/4 rhythm common in Egypt but not Turkey, and particularly useful as a slow alternative to ciftetelli
Karatchi, the only Egyptian rhythm I know of that begins with a tek rather than a doum, and unsurprisingly it's not
originally native to Egypt.
Zaffa, the marching rhythm heard in Egyptian processionals (including weddings).
Samai, a 10/8 rhythm used in classical music throughout the Middle East
Laz, a 2:2:3 form 7/8 often used in Greece and northern Turkey. Laz is actually a region and language in the
Caucauses, and is used as a descriptor of the dance and music of the Black Sea region of Turkey.
Kalamatieno, a 3:2:2 form 7/8 named for a port city in Greece.
The absolute best web resource for Middle Eastern rhythms is Jas' Middle Eastern Rhythms FAQ. The page has
notational information, cultural information, and a huge number of rhythms. Best of all, there's a MIDI rhythm
generator so you can hear all of the rhythms, with variants, at various tempos. It is a little disorienting to see so many
rhythms, and not know which ones are most important to learn; that is one reason that I provided the above list for
starting out.
Mas'ud al-Sha'ir's Quick and Dirty Guide to Doumbek Rhythms is less extensive in scope, but has several of the most
common rhythms and their common variations.
There are various books, DVDs, and cd's out there. I don't have enough of the DVD's or books to give good
recommendations; as for the cd's, any of the "so and so presents the 25 or 30 common middle eastern rhythms" is
good. Obviously, some of the 25 or 30 are more common than others, but typically the cds present a nice variety
including things like a Moroccan 6/8 or a Saudi Khaleegi.
As with any other study project, don't take one source as authoritative: check out as many different sources as
possible. I've found that many web sources and cd's have at least a couple errors.