help finding a type of music

Whistle
1

I recently had the opportunity to play my flute for some belly dancers. I improvised in Phrygian mode which sounds cool but it really got me interested in learning more of the type of music belly-dancers use.
Does anyone know what I would search for or what I’m actually looking for?

Thanks

2

someone might know in this topic http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=13149 (i heard daniel bingamon is a bellydancer himself on occasions)

3

Thanks. I checked out the Ahava Rabba whistle site. Interesting. I think there are many more variations on that so it appears I’ll be hunting for awhile.

4

Belly Dancer? Not quite - I do need to loose little bit of waistline though.

You guys will say anything to get a rise out someone.

5

Well Dan, ignoring the image of belly dancing, After listening to the Ahava Rabba scale it appears that if you start with a major scale and flatten the 2nd 6th and 7th you get the AR scale.
Or easier still play a phrygian mode and flatten the third.

In other words the intervals for a Phrygian scale are:

half,whole,whole,whole,half,whole,whole

For AR it is

half,whole,whole,half,whole,whole,whole.

Does that sound about right?

6

Uh…I am a belly dancer and if you want a more general description of the type of music we dance to, I would say it’s of course almost anything from the countries commonly known as the Middle East (no suprise there). You might look for Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Armenian, Greek, and Turkish music. Also, many dancers like North African (Tunisia, Morroco, Algeria, etc) music and even some “cross-over” like Indian and even Asian fusion.

A coupe of the popular guys:
George Abdo
Omar Faruk Tekbilek

Almost any decent-sized music store will have Bellydance Compliation CD’s. The tip on buying them is–trust me on this–the more cheesy-looking the cover, the more authentic the music. You can also get “country” compliations–I personally think the North African stuff is fantastic to listen AND dance to.

I’m working on incorporation whistling my bellydancing act. I plan on playing the whistle in one hand, one pair of zills (finger cymbals) in the other while I dance. We’ll see if I can work it out!

7

i’m sure any experienced bellydancer won’t have anything like back trouble to cope with. muscles have to be very long, without any tension. it’s a far better excersize then bodybuilding (to much muscle compared to the rest of your body=inbalance).
or all of a sudden you realize your over 50 and you start jogging, with a face like you can drop dead every minute :boggle: :laughing: .harmony=health :slight_smile:

8

Thanks Kar.

I’ll probably go look for some CDs in a day or so.
I have done some searching on middle east music and various country names. I just wondered if there were a particular term associated with it like there is for Zydeco or Blues.
The type of music seems to be broader then I at first expected.