Finger cymbals are know by several names. Zills, Zagats, Manjira, Manzira, Sunouj, Zangs, Sagats, Castanets. Many countries in the Middle East have their own name for them. Castanets are the wooden version that you find in Flamenco Dancing (a descendant of Middle Eastern Dance). There are many various sizes, colors and sounds of finger cymbals. The size of the zills will determine it's pitch and tone. If you have a small set of zills they will probably be high pitched and the sound will travel only short distances. Medium sized zills will have a lower pitch than small zills and the sound will travel further than small zills. Large sized zills will have a much lower pitch and their sound will travel much further. Large zills are usually best for restaurants where they easily travel over voices. Small zills are usually best for a) small hands and b) practicing (nothing like waking up your neighbors to the loud sounds of zills at night, they really appreciate it... don't they?). Other things to look for when your looking for zills is the type of holes they have. Generally, zills have two types of holes; circular holes and two slot holes. The one holers tend to be cheaper but, they are often harder to work with since they like to roll around on your fingers. The two slot zills tend to stay in place better but cost more. When your practicing at home and you don't want to disturb others with the noise(especially important for people in apartments) you can use zill mufflers. You can purchase zill mufflers at various Internet sites or you can easily make your own. You can make them either by cutting off the toes of old socks and sewing elastic around the edge so they fit snuggly around the zill or you can cut out a piece of fabric that is slightly bigger then the circumference of the zills and then attach the elastic to the edge of the fabric and make sure it fits snuggly around the zill. Remember that the elastic in your zills may need to be changed from time to time. You may wish to keep your zills shiny and new looking in which case you will have to find out how to care for them. If you like them to look "antiqued" then you only have to worry if the sound quality starts to fade. When the quality of sound starts to fade, I've heard you have two choices a) Throw them out and buy a new pair or b) Bake them. I would recommend you only try baking them if you already plan to throw them out... just in case you don't like the results. You wear zills by putting one on the middle finger and the thumb of each hand. They usually work and feel best when the are just under the place where your nail starts; some people wear them lower and some higher. It's up to you to find out were they feel comfortable. When you put elastic in your one hole zills there isn't a whole lot of choice as to how you do it. You stick two ends of the elastic through the hole and tie a knot. With the slotted zills you tick one end of the elastic trough one slot and the other end through the other slot. You then have a choice of tying a knot or sewing it together. I find sewing the elastic usually is more comfortable to wear because the elastic isn't twisted and just lies flat. I also think you have better sound quality when your zills don't have a big knot in the middle of them. There are no clips of this instrument as they don't tend to get very many solos but, zills can be heard in the background of many songs.
