Workshops

During the workshop I will focus on two instruments, riq and bendir.

Both of them are to be found in many cultures around the Mediterranean area, they are also called by several different names. They also have alternatives by culture – for example in Iran you can find the daf, which is a bendir with a chain inside. The technique to play the instrument however is quite different.

Bendir is to be found from the Balkans on throughout Turkey, the Arab world (including the Maghreb region), Israel, Persia (as mentioned), and is even known in India.

This is the most ancient drum known in the human history, basically due to its primitiveness – it’s a simple animal skin stretched over a wooden frame, without any additional components.

The size of the drum can be very different, ranging from 14” up to 22”. The smaller one are often called Tar. Depending on the size the playing style can vary, but basically these days two ways are the most known to play it – the lap style (putting the drum on the leg), and the upright position, holding it in our hands.

There are many techniques that are used to play on a bendir, during the workshop I am planning to give an introduction to them, explain very detailed how they work, the proper movements, exercises to improve the playing, guidelines for practicing, and small compositions to put things into perspective, while also understanding the musical background of these instruments.

The techniques I plan to cover are: the basic strokes, snapping (a technique borrowed from how drummers play the tombak in Persia), split hand (a technique borrowed from India, usually used to play the khanjira) and the split hand involving the left hand (also borrowed from India).

The riq has a fairly similar background, it’s also known in the same regions, mostly under the same name. It’s the tambourino of the Mediterranean area, equal to what pandeiro represents in Brasil, tamburello in Italy, or one can even put here the khanjira from India, however that’s maybe a too strong comparison.

The riq is basically a bendir with usually 5 pairs of jingles on both the front and the back of the instrument, with a fish skin, and the size is considerably smaller – 8” to 10”.

The techniques are different here, although some do overlap. The two ways to play the riq are playing on the skin or playing on the jingles. These are separate techniques, and one should be familiar with both and transparently change between them. During the workshop I plan to cover both techniques, using a similar method as described above with the bendir.

You can hear more of my music on my youtube profile.

Bio:

I was born in 1989 in Budapest, Hungary. Having both of my parents as musicians, I started playing the piano at the age of 5. I switched to the drums at the age of 12, which has been my main instrument ever since. I have played with some of the biggest names in Hungary from both the jazz and pop scene from a quite early age on, and at the age of 19 I have joined the internationally known balkan group, Besh o droM. At the age of 21 I started my studies at Codarts Academy of Music in Rotterdam, where I graduated summa cum laude in 2014. During my studies I picked up the riq and bendir, and have been getting more and more into merging drums with percussions ever since. Currently I live in Warsaw, working in several different projects both in and outside of Poland.

I have played with people and projects like Robert Szakcsi Lakatos, Nikoletta Szoke, Compact Disco, Abel Marcel Calderon, Stefan Lievestro, Dima Gorelik, Roni Eytan, Joszko Broda, Reinier Baas or Dagadana. I have also performed in places like Australia, Mexico, China, South-Korea, Dubai or India and on festivals such as Kolkata Jazz Fest, WOMADelaide, Shanghai World Music Festival, Sziget, Opener, Exit, Orange Warsaw and many more.