The use of cymbals actually affixed to the thumbs and middle fingers of dancers' hands was recorded as early as 500 A.D. Today, Finger Cymbals (Arabic-"Sagat" or "Sunouj," Turkish-"Zills", Persian-"Zang") are popularly played by dancers on both the cabaret and the concert stage. The intricate musical patterns they create and their sparkling sound quality make the cymbals indispensable to Middle Eastern music.
Sagat come in many qualities and sizes. There are several well known brands that can be found on the internet, Saroyan being the most well known. Click on the image to access their excellent site which offers the widest range of finger cymbals on the internet.
Finger cymbals usually come in brass or silver finish.
It is widely believed that solid brass zills can be baked in a slow oven to regenerate them as the bell like tone becomes flat after prolonged use or when the metal is cold. However,Saroyan states that:
"Since
we age our cymbals with a special process, we don't have a problem
of
losing the tones regardless how long you use them. One of the main reasons
that our cymbals are considered to be one of the finest, is they never
lose their tones because of our aging process, unless you take a hammer
and literally pound on them. So the above does not apply to our cymbals.
Mr. Saroyan (who is also a metallurgist) said, that he does not believe
in that application of baking cymbals in an oven. We don't know where
that practice came from, as we heard it here in the United States too,
but we also heard that baking them simply does not work."
Marge Perkins
Customer Service,
Saroyan Mastercrafts
Never practice your zills sitting down, always move around. You must get used to playing the cymbals and moving your body at the same time. Though it is easier to start off by practising seated, it will be harder in the long run to play and then try to dance when you have been used to playing them immobile.
