Now is this a lively funky drum solo or what?

I always knew of Jillina’s “original” drum solo video, but just happened not to have bothered with it. Until I saw this clip on youtube. I immediately decided I was going to learn it. I was about to try and learn it straight from the clip when a sensible person from the bellydance video group told me I’d miss most of the layering. She was right. I did end up learning the drum solo, but from the DVD – an award winning one, incidentally – and recently performed it for the little gathering we had on my father’s eightieth birthday. I also recently performed it for my video camera and as usual was pretty disgusted with the results, but that’s another story.

Jillina has since come out with many more videos, but this one, Drum Solo with Jillina, produced by IAMED, is still a winner. It’s probably part of most bellydancers’ video collections.

To teach this cute drum solo, Jillina begins with a demo of the whole choreography. Not in costume. She then goes into selected exercises that you must add to your own warm up. These are very specific stretches for the muscle work you’ll need to do. And then it’s on to a Technique section.

This is not a beginners’ instructional video. The absolute basics are not taken up here. But the foundation and explanation of specific moves that will feature in the drum solo are taught so that the learner can do them the same way Jillina does. The Egyptian shimmy, the camel, the omi, a lock down move and the Hagalla step are some of the moves. A lot of time isn’t spent on each move, but whatever time is spent is very focused. All through this video, a “One More Time” format is followed in which an entire segment is repeated for practice. This is a format IAMED has given up but this video was made a few years ago.

The drum solo is in 9 combinations. Instruction now moves rapidly, so you have to be on your toes for this one. Each combination is quickly but clearly gone through without the music, for one repetition, and then with the music. Each subsequent combination is added to the ones before it until you reach combination 5. From here on, each combination is added the previous ones, excluding 1 to 4. Talking-through is done for the combination that’s been just taught. One problem is that you can’t get to the combo-with-music parts separately. Finally, you run through the whole choreography with music. No vocal cues. And you’re done.

You can now watch some performances from Jillina. An Egyptian style performance to, I think, Tamra Henna. The drum solo we just learnt is also performed live at a restaurant. Some filming bloopers end the video.

So, how easy was it learning this drum solo? Not very! I won’t say it’s an outright advanced difficult drum solo of the category that Sadie does on her video, but neither is it simplistic. You do have to do some layering of shimmies, you have to be active and perky with the moves, you have to be super quick with mayas and reverse undulations (at torso level), you have to have to be able to do stomach pops. I actually have left out some nuances for now. One of these is keeping a shimmy going in the hips while doing stomach pops. Sorry. That ain’t happenin yet! Also camel with a shimmy going on in the hips. I haven’t practiced that yet. I’m managing all the rest, but managing is the key word. I can perform it for a non-knowledgeable audience. From the video taping I just did, I see that I need to keep every move sharply distinct from the next. Each sequence must end nice and abruptly and not try and flow into the next. I also need to work on suppressing some bounciness again. Ouch. My Egyptian shimmy also needs to be made distinct from the “regular” shimmy. This one is prominently knee-driven and must have a totally different look.

All in all though, it’s been immensely fun learning this solo and it continues to be fun performing and practicing it now. It’s too lively not to get a great reaction from an audience. It’s got a nice collection of moves that add an amazing amount to one’s repertoire. I plan to continue polishing it until I get it right! Hopefully some day!

Oh, a final point on the most recent drum solo video by Jillina. This is part of a 3-DVD set that hit the shelves a few months ago. Now this one is not an IAMED video and has a different format. Here there’s a very nice short warm up that I’m itching to try out. Jillina is looking wonderful and fit in this warm up.I love warm ups. The drum solo is infinitely more advanced than this one and is overflowing with shimmies and rhythms and detail and stomach work. But that’s another story…. J