The Al-Samri singers sit in two lines facing each other; each line is separated by a wide space reserved for dancers. The Al-Samri has various melodies but only one basic beat, and poems in any meter can be sung to fit this beat.
In order to establish the melody, one group will sing a verse and the other will repeat it. The singers then move on to the next verse and sing it in the same fashion.
Drumming begins with the second verse with drummers maintaining a steady beat. Among the large number of people enjoying the music, only those who have mastered the beat and the elaborate swaying, side-to-side and up and down movement of the upper body, are allowed to dance.
Historians disagree on the origins of Al-Samri with many Arab historians saying it first appeared during the 3rd Century Hijra.
North African historians say it first appeared during the middle of the 12th Century Hijra and its founder was a poet known as Abdul Mohsen bin Osman Al-Hazzani who lived in Najd at the time.
A third group of historians claim the first man who composed and sang the Al-Samri melodies was the famous poet Muhammad bin Laaboun who as born in 1790 and died in 1831.