Yshai’s Journal

A teacher’s field notes: on the craft, the practice, and the living art of Middle Eastern percussion.

The Journal

These aren’t lessons, and they aren’t a textbook. They’re the things I find myself saying to students, written down: on how to practise, on the small mistakes that quietly hold a player back, and on the deeper reasons we pick up a drum at all.

Read them in any order, or wander in by subject.

Latest · Performance & Musicianship

The Breath of the Performing Arts

Every performance lives in time, so it must rise and fall. The breath of dynamics, subdivision, scale and harmony. And the one muscle worth training above all: building a climax out of any idea.

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Browse by subject
Practice 7 Rhythm & Language 4 Performance & Musicianship 4 Technique 4 Philosophy 8

Practice

7 notes
New
On Practice
Off the Page
Reading music is a gift; depending on it to play is a cage. On the oral tradition, memory, and playing the music the way you speak.
4 min read →
On Practice
Discipline Is a Skill
Not genetics. And here's the method that builds it, fifteen minutes at a time.
5 min read →
On Practice
Six Mistakes That Cost You Years
The most common traps in learning percussion, and how to avoid each one.
4 min read →
On Practice
The Invisible Roots
Fast early progress always slows into a plateau. Why the most important growth is the kind you can't see.
4 min read →
New
On Practice
Same Destination, Different Paths
Deep musicianship demands mileage: absorbed inside a culture, or built alone through the practice ceremony. The paths, the traps, and the teacher along the way.
5 min read →
New
On Practice
Choose the Right Leader for Your Path
Serious study asks for consistency; the psyche delivers a rollercoaster. Two ways to answer the conflict, and who should hold the keys.
4 min read →
New
On Practice
The Invisible Athlete
Practice doesn’t look like sport, and your muscles disagree. Five habits that keep a player’s hands healthy for decades.
4 min read →

Rhythm & Language

4 notes
New
On Grooves
The Second Dancer
The meter counts the beats; the groove is your dance partner. On claves, orientation, and what dies when you practice with a click alone.
4 min read →
The Method
Poetry Over Speed
Why phrasing, not technique, is the whole work, and what every student who chases hollow speed needs to hear.
3 min read →
New
The Method
Beyond the One
Every beat in the bar is a door. The grid, the "center of gravity," and becoming free inside a groove.
4 min read →
New
On Ghost Notes
The River That Carries the Melody
Ghost notes are the stream that turns isolated accents into a flowing phrase: the carriers, the fingering, the colour, and the golden ratio.
5 min read →

Performance & Musicianship

4 notes
New
On Stage Fright
The Danger That Isn’t There
Stage panic, and the small cracks that let the present back in: five ways to ground yourself.
4 min read →
On Expression
The Embrace
How to make your playing personal, and why a drum can tell whether you've truly arrived.
3 min read →
On Improvisation
Choosing Your First Word
The fear of the empty solo, and five things that turn improvisation into a story you want to tell.
5 min read →
New
On Listening
Hearing, and Listening
The difference between hearing and listening, and the one clear rule about how loud to play.
4 min read →

Technique

4 notes
New
The Darbuka
The Hand That Hangs Free
Five common darbuka mistakes: the locked wrist, stiff fingers, tense thumbs, a raised elbow; and the relaxed foundations that keep you fast and pain-free.
5 min read →
New
The Frame Drum
The Wrist Was Never the Engine
Six common split-hand mistakes, and the one idea that fixes most: the movement is born at the elbow.
4 min read →
The Frame Drum
The Snapping Roll
Three mistakes that cap your speed and thin your tone, and the golden exercise that fixes them.
3 min read →
Hands & Health
The Palm Never Lies
The one spot in the hand that reveals hidden tension, and how keeping it soft protects your longevity.
2 min read →

Philosophy & Inspiration

9 notes
New
On Self-Worth
The Judge
Devotion builds your musicianship, and quietly, a judge beside it. On the demons that follow a musician into the room, and the forest that never needed a king.
5 min read →
New
On Studying
The Student's Responsibility
Asking for help is not weakness. On the honesty you owe yourself, the teacher you must not compromise on, and the lineage you join.
5 min read →
New
On the Path
Fear Speaks Louder Than Faith
“You’re too old.” “You are not talented enough.” On the voice that lists every reason not to begin, why we are obsessed with achieving and underestimate experiencing, and dancing with a dream.
5 min read →
New
On the Path
Forever a Student
The day of finally “knowing” never comes: music is infinite. On living at your own edge, the decay inside the comfort zone, and the finite committing to the infinite.
4 min read →
New
On Musicianship
The University and the Forest
Some play only from the heart; others trust only theory. Why both are half right, and how to hold both, and let the heart decide.
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New
On Teaching
The Teacher's Responsibility
A student hands you their dream and their years. On the honesty and the generosity that trust demands.
6 min read →
On Creativity
The Tyranny of Better
Perfectionism is not a high standard: it's the endless search for a better idea, and why so much music never gets made.
4 min read →
On Creativity
The Creative Ceremony
Why waiting for inspiration is a mistake, and the choice to begin that almost all my music was built on.
4 min read →
On the Path
The Dream That Was Never Mine
On knowing who you are, and who you are not. The freedom in letting a dream go.
5 min read →