Gnawa music from Morocco!

Hi everyone!

This is the second post following the introduction post I did about a week ago.
In this post I want to talk about one of my passion - Ethnic music, especially Moroccan music.
I'm myself half Moroccan from my mother side.
Though I was born in Israel & never set foot in Morocco yet, I very much love the tradition & music.
There are many different styles in Morocco. in Israel must of the people are familiar with the Jewish traditional Moroccan music.
You would normally hear it in the big event at the end of Passover called "Mimouna".
The Mimouna is long time tradition of the Jewish Moroccan people in Israel that evolved to a nation wide thing.
The traditional instruments & time signature in Jewish Moroccan music is different from the Gnawa traditional Moroccan music although that sometimes you can find similar lines.
In this post I'm going to talk about the Gnawa music.
The Gnawa are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco & Algeria in the Magherb. They are mainly inhabiting the outskirt of Morocco and the vast region of the Sahara desert.
The Gnawa music tend to be more rhythmic oriented by nature. The melodic part of it mainly based on the singer melody throughout the song.
The main instruments in the Gnawa tradition are the Qarkabeb (Moroccan hand cymbals), the Gimbri (Moroccan Bass), hand clapping & singing.
The Gimbri also know as Sintir & Hijhouj is 3 string skin covered bass instrument used by the Gnawa people.
Here is some pictures of my Gimbri :-)

The Qarkabeb is the traditional Moroccan hand cymbals used mainly by the Gnawa people.

some Pictures of the Qarkabeb:

Tribute video of the traditional Gnawa music I did not long ago. I play the Gimbri, Qarkabeb & hand Clapping.
For best quality press HD

Video lesson on the Qarkabeb I did.
For best quality press HD

Enjoy