Zema is the chant tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, an elaborate and highly structured body of liturgical music sung in Ge'ez, the church's classical liturgical language, that forms the core of the church's worship and is organized into a formal system of modes and melodic categories that trained chanters, the debtera, study for years to master. The tradition uses melekket, a specialized system of notation employing symbols written above the text to indicate melodic pattern and category rather than exact pitch in the manner of Western staff notation, a system that, like many other oral chant traditions, requires a chanter to already possess considerable memorized and orally transmitted knowledge of the repertoire to interpret correctly.
Zema performance is traditionally accompanied by the sistrum, a metal rattle-like instrument, and drums, along with a distinctive stylized rhythmic stepping and swaying movement performed by the chanting clergy, sometimes using a prayer staff for support during long standing services, giving Ethiopian Orthodox chant a visibly embodied, physically active character distinct from the stationary, unaccompanied chant traditions of Byzantine and Gregorian worship.