ShakeEmUp Bellydance Drum Solos
Carmine Guida
Reviewed by Johona Gamble
CD Cover - ShakeEmUp
When Carmine came out with his ShakeEmUp Bellydance Drum Solos DVD I was thrilled. It is clear he worked diligently to put together a drum solo DVD and with several talents from New York including Autumn Ward and Sarah Skinner. What I was even more thrilled with was the CD that came out as an accompaniment. This 14-track album is jammed with lots of quick drum solos and is really user friendly. A dancer’s best friend.
Since I am always looking for drum solo CDs that sound like drum solos…what I mean by this is CDs that have multiple drum solos on the album and separated from the main music by a break (and a number on the CD listing). They don’t sound like someone just programmed the drum machine on their synthesizer. This CD easily met my needs and put a smile on my face repeatedly as I worked out to it over a couple of weeks.
What I found greatest though, when I first picked it up, was that the rhythms for the tracks were listed along with the times and titles on the back of the CD. This is valuable in particular to the dancer trying to become more familiar with not only the rhythms, but the names of those rhythms as well. The CD also included several slow start or just plain slow drum solos (so everything is not in high speed).
Though a bit heavy on the echo (this gives the CD an “in the room with the band” sound vs. a studio hush), this CD easily fits into my older albums as well as my most recent purchases.
Thank you Carmine for making your drum solos available on CD as well as DVD.
DVD Cover - ShakeEmUp
www.ShakeEmUp.net
