If Palestinian music comes up in your exam you might get asked to list typical features for this style of music.  If you get this question, the following features are ideal answers.  

TOP TIP: you will not have to explain these features in your exam.  Single worded answers are fine for this type of question.

TOP TIP: if you are asked to list features of a style of music, there is usually a maximum of two marks for just identifying instruments.  It wont say this on the exam paper but it usually says it in the mark scheme, so you need to list musical features not just instrument names.

Instruments

Palestinian music is usually performed by small ensembles, so there are not many instruments, which is good news for you because it means there are less to remember!

• Oud - a small pear shaped string instrument, played in a similar way to a Guitar (do not call it a Guitar in your exam).  A typical Oud will have 11 strings; 5 pairs of strings and 1 drone string.  The Oud is both an accompaniment and melodic instrument.  Click here to see an Oud being played and to see what it looks like.  Playing techniques on the Oud might include fast runs (scalic), glissandos, hammer ons and pull offs and tremolo.

• Doumbek - this is the same instrument that is used in Greek music.  A goblet shaped drum, used to play the rhythmic pattern.  There are lots of different percussion instruments used in Arabic and Palestinian music, but we can't learn them all!  So we will stick with the Doumbek for your exam.  Click here to see a Doumbek being performed and to hear what it sounds like.

Melody (The Maqam)

The melody in Palestinian music is based on a musical scale know as the Maqam.  This works in a very similar way to the Raga in Indian Classical Music.  The Maqam is a series of notes (like a scale); these notes are used to create the main melody, which is heavily improvised.  This is usually performed on the Oud.

Rhythmic Pattern (The Wazn)

The rhythmic pattern in Palestinian music is called the Wazn.  This is performed on percussion instruments (such as the Doumbek) and is very similar to the Tala in Indian Classical Music.  There are 100s of Wazn rhythmic patterns of varying lengths and with different time signatures.  Time signatures in Palestinian music are much more straight forward than they are with Greek music.  Common time signatures include 2/4, 4/4 and 6/8.

Vocals

The singing is Palestinian music is often very decorative with lots of melisma to add expression.  The vocals in Palestinian music are normally sung in Arabic.

Harmony

There is no harmony in Palestinian music!  This means there are no chords!  It is just melody and percussion.  This is an important feature of Palestinian music.

Texture

This can be difficult to identify as there are no chords or harmony.  However, there can be multiple percussion instruments performing different rhythms at the same time.  When this happens (multiple different rhythms being performed at the same) this is called polyrhythmic (polyrhythm).

You can listen to more examples of Palestinian music by pressing play on the YouTube videos