Several years ago, I was lucky and blessed to join master musician my “musical hero” and a friend, Omar Faruk Tekbilek on a short concert tour. I needed to have a frame drum with zills (cymbals, jingles) for one of the songs. I had to be very “compact” while travelling and that challenge led to the invention of the Zilzil. The Zilzil is a device that holds multiple small cymbals (“zills” and many other sound makers including bells and shakers..) that produce an endless variety of sounds. Zilzil is an innovative concept of an instrument and an accessory that will transform any instrument it attaches to in seconds, creating a new and richer instrument. To my knowledge, there is nothing like the Zilzil in the entire world.
Easy on/off
The ZILZIL simply slides on a frame drum.
Change sounds easily
The rubber tip can be taken on/off with a simple turn & push/pull motion, in order to change to variety of sizes & sounds of zills.
When the rubber tip is pushed all in – leaves a very small space for the zills for more controlled and dry, muffled sound. When pulled and leaves more space for the zills to “dance” & ring with higher pitch & overtones.
The rubber tip has one end that promotes muted, warm, muffled sound and the other end has a metal ring which promotes a higher pitch, more “ring” & overtones".
When rubber tip is pulled far out you can fit more than 1 pair of zills.
Zilzil can be played like SHAKER or GANZA holding one zilzil in each hand.
Zilzil can be added to a frame drum & played like a combination of Frame Drum and Riq (Middle Eastern classical tambourine) which we call DUFRIQ.
Zilzil can be played as a stand alone hand held instruments –RIQ style.
