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Playing the Cymbals

St. PachomSt. Pachom
edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
Hey everyone this is especially directed to other deacons. I'm having trouble learning to play the cymbals. There are 2 Problems.
1) The one method I've learned sounds weird when played with a hymn
2) I'm really bad at playing and chanting. I either lose track of the tune(playing) or forget the words (chanting). Please Help!
PS I haven't played in a church service yet because I'm scared.

Comments

  • minatasgeelminatasgeel
    i have a solution. simply don't play.
  • geomike
    Hey Pachom, totally disregard mina's response. It was blunt, rude, and unhelpful.

    My advice is to keep practicing at home until you can competently chant and play at the same time. When I taught myself how to play the cymbals years back, I kept practicing and practicing at home until the playing of the cymbals was second nature. You just practice the motion for a week or so and then slowly start chanting hymns and play the cymbals with it after that. Everybody is different, but it took me three weeks of practice to be able to play while chanting and not thinking about the cymbals while chanting. I then kept saying a hymn a day with the cymbals at home and I continued doing that for two to three months and then I started playing in church.

    Remember that the cymbals are only for keeping speed and not showing off or making hymns sound better.

    I wish you well
  • minatasgeelminatasgeel
    I don't see any issues with what i said. deacons do not NEED to know how to play the cymbals. that is simple to understand. If you don't know how or you are not picking it up....simply stop and concentrate on what you can do best. say, if you are good at learning alhan...go ahead and learn more alhan. be better then those who do know alhan and play the deff. if you can 'maybe' play the deff but can't sing in the same time, then also DON'T because you are not benefiting yourself. do you know how many cantors and great deacons i know who can't play the deff? MANY!!!
  • George_Mina_Awad
    I thought I was hopeless to learn, but these videos helped me a lot (although I still have a long way to go). I found basic method 2 to be a lot easier. What I did was follow the video with cymbals in my hand and I did exactly as the guy in the video did, pausing multiple times.

    Basic Method 1

    Basic Method 2
  • geomike
    [quote author=minatasgeel link=topic=14524.msg165358#msg165358 date=1373072131]
    I don't see any issues with what i said. deacons do not NEED to know how to play the cymbals. that is simple to understand. If you don't know how or you are not picking it up....simply stop and concentrate on what you can do best. say, if you are good at learning alhan...go ahead and learn more alhan. be better then those who do know alhan and play the deff. if you can 'maybe' play the deff but can't sing in the same time, then also DON'T because you are not benefiting yourself. do you know how many cantors and great deacons i know who can't play the deff? MANY!!!


    Your answer was rude. He was asking for help and you said, "i have a solution. simply don't play".

    Just because you don't know how to do something and you aren't good at it at first doesn't mean you don't do it. You don't have to learn how to tie your shoe, and when you do you don't stop because you can't get the loops right, you keep trying until you get good at it.

    Every deacon can know how to play the def, nobody is at a better advantage to learn how to play the def. It is just keeping a beat, anybody can do that and everybody can certainly learn.

    Your suggestion to not play it was rude and it won't help him. He obviously has made the effort to learn and is looking for advice on how to better himself, therefore he deserves a constructive answer not a destructive answer.

    You apparently can't capitalize the first letter of the first word of each sentence, but I wouldn't tell you to stop trying to write in correct form.

    I don't know if you seriously meant it or it was just an honest mistake, either way I just wanted you to know because these kinds of posts hurt people. You could have at least explained to him why you would say to stop playing, it's common decency.
  • geomike
    [quote author=George_Mina link=topic=14524.msg165359#msg165359 date=1373072978]
    I thought I was hopeless to learn, but these videos helped me a lot (although I still have a long way to go). I found basic method 2 to be a lot easier. What I did was follow the video with cymbals in my hand and I did exactly as the guy in the video did, pausing multiple times.

    Basic Method 1

    Basic Method 2


    Thanks for the suggestions, I hope Pachom finds them helpful like you did.
  • St. PachomSt. Pachom
    [quote author=George_Mina link=topic=14524.msg165359#msg165359 date=1373072978]
    I thought I was hopeless to learn, but these videos helped me a lot (although I still have a long way to go). I found basic method 2 to be a lot easier. What I did was follow the video with cymbals in my hand and I did exactly as the guy in the video did, pausing multiple times.

    Basic Method 1

    Basic Method 2

    [quote author=geomike link=topic=14524.msg165362#msg165362 date=1373081786]
    [quote author=George_Mina link=topic=14524.msg165359#msg165359 date=1373072978]
    I thought I was hopeless to learn, but these videos helped me a lot (although I still have a long way to go). I found basic method 2 to be a lot easier. What I did was follow the video with cymbals in my hand and I did exactly as the guy in the video did, pausing multiple times.

    Basic Method 1

    Basic Method 2


    Thanks for the suggestions, I hope Pachom finds them helpful like you did.

    I can do basic method 1 but not 2. and it's a need in my church for wednesday and saturday liturgies due to low attendance and the lack of fervency in younger deacons. so learning then teaching is needed. i think basic method 2 is hard to learn from the video due to the speed they play
  • St. PachomSt. Pachom
    i can do method 2 but only the perpendicular one not the parallel
  • BeshoyFanous23BeshoyFanous23
    Hey Pachom here's a link on how to play

    Anyways, I learned how to play from this vid, and in my opinion I think you should learn how to play first and get any recording from any cantor deacon bishop etc. and try to play the daff while listening to the recording. After you've felt comfortable with playing along then try chanting and playing at the same time :D
  • minatasgeelminatasgeel
    I think everyone should learn hymns first and then worry about the deff later :-)
  • BeshoyFanous23BeshoyFanous23
    okay that's a great opinion, but the guy wants a solution, and by a solution I mean a way to solve a problem not say I have a solution and thats not play at all.
  • minatasgeelminatasgeel
    edited January 2015
    You miss understood me. I didn't say, not play at all. I said learn hymns and then play. And if you end up not playing, then that's fine. That won't make you any less of a deacon. It's disrespectful to the rank for someone to play the deff while not being able to chant too.
  • BeshoyFanous23BeshoyFanous23
    That's true.....

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