Killer Ziller Progress Thus Far

This is what Bellydance math looks like.

*UPDATED - The DVD in this post is Killer Ziller by Cheeky Girls Productions. These BD videos are very well produced (by dancers) and are reasonably priced. I have 4 of them and like them all.*

Well, I'm not a "Killer Ziller" yet but I am making progress. I started by only using the Killer Ziller video's drill section. This is 15+ minutes of straight zill drills of 13 different rhythm patterns. To other beginners I recommend moving your arms in and out of your standard BD arm poses, circles, etc. while drilling patterns. I was temped to hold my hands close to my body facing each other just like the video. Once I started moving my arms I began missing beats and getting sloppy sounds. Changing the position of your arms changes the position of your hands. Which in turn changes the way you strike the zills together. Think of it like when you first learned to shimmy standing in place. Hooray! Then you tried to walk and shimmy and it all went to hell in a hand basket. Yeah, something like that.

Once the drills got boring I started drilling the patterns in the combination section without dancing. Just zills. This gave me continually changing zill patterns to practice instead of the same one over and over. I've now moved onto learning the dance combos and zilling at the same time. My brain is slowly starting to multitask the two together.

I was told once it is best to learn dance/zill combos at the same time. I was also told to stay away from dance/zill combos and just zill what feels natural and not be robotic. I see the wisdom of both. This first way forces you to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time until your brain adapts. The second way lets you do what is well, natural. I've also been told to play using the dominate hand more, such as R-L-R  R-L-R. While others have told me to alternate between hands, R-L-R  L-R-L, because it is faster and makes for nimble hands.

For me, I need the combos and to play with a dominate hand. I noticed after learning the first Killer Ziller combo I can kind of zone out and not think about zilling or dancing but actually listen to the music. I'm not having to count 3-1-3-1-3 or 3-3-7 in my head. I've started with the combo and now it is turning into the more natural thing. I perfer playing with a dominate hand because when I would alternate, and miss a beat, I would get confused as to which hand I hand left off on and have to start all over.

On a side note, I've tried doing basic triplets to my Greek music and done nothing but Big Fat Greek FAIL all over that. My hands don't have the endurance to go at the fast paced speeds of the livelier party music. All of the practice music in Killer Ziller is slow to medium paced. It would have been nice to have a set of drills for endurance. I guess I can work that out on my own.

~N

Now watching: Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam
Today's quote: ""Very very good. A complimentary victory lift has been activated in the main chamber." - GLaDOS