When I first tried to get my head around a tune in 7/8, I was mystified. The tune was Bulgarian and, whilst the music sounded amazing, the notes made no sense to me – having been over-exposed to 4/4 for all my life. The rhythm was driving and exciting, but where was the beat?
After much mental effort, I realised that the key to understanding this rhythm was to split it up into chunks that I could understand, namely 3s and 4s.
To explain, take the time signature 6/8. Each bar is made up of 6 quaver beats, or two chunks of three (the emphasised beats shown in bold):
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
This will make sense to anyone who has played a jig, (or knows the song Nellie the Elephant)
But in 7/8, there will be another quaver beat
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3
There are two groups of beats, but now one has four beats, while the other has three. The example above could be described as 4+3. Alternatively, the bar could be split up as 3+4 and counted as follows:
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4
Another way of looking at it:
Example 1 in 6/8
Example 2 in 7/8 – 4+3
Example 3 in 7/8 – 3+4
Extending this idea to other unusual rhythms:
9/8 is not unusual to our ears as the rhythm of slip-jigs:
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3
But, in East European music, it can be split up like this:
1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3
1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3
11/8 could be split into 4+3+4:
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4
So, the secret is to split the bars into smaller, manageable chunks. It’ll still take some getting used to, if you’re new to this, but it’s well worth the effort!