{"id":43,"date":"2018-09-18T05:56:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T05:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshanin.com\/blog\/?p=43"},"modified":"2026-01-06T04:13:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:13:36","slug":"odd-meters-and-time-signatures-in-music-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshanin.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/18\/odd-meters-and-time-signatures-in-music-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 4: Feeling (and Understanding) the Odd Meters<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(Previous essay: \u201cPart 3: Identifying Odd Meters<\/a>\u201d)<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the world of music \u201cfeeling the music<\/i>\u201d means understanding the music with our \u201cinner ear<\/i>\u201d. Music uses an abstract language, however, understanding the musical language doesn\u2019t necessarily imply the intellectual understanding but rather the intuitive understanding by our \u201cinner ear<\/i>\u201d which is just another metaphor for the \u201cmusical<\/i>\u201d part of our brain. This intuitive understanding of music is what we call \u201cfeeling the music<\/i>\u201d.<\/p>\n

To easily explain the difference between hearing<\/i> and feeling<\/i> the music we can draw an analogy to the spoken language. Simply listening to some complex music piece whose language we are not familiar with would be the same as hearing a conversation in an unknown foreign language so that all the words would sound to us like a barrage of strange and meaningless sounds.<\/p>\n

The melodic, harmonic and rhythmic aspects of music are naturally understood and enjoyed on the intuitive level, however, music can sometimes get so complex that an extra effort and concentration is needed in order to understand and feel it. This is also the case with the more complex rhythms. A couple of good examples for these more complex rhythms are the polyrhythms<\/i> of West African traditional music and the odd meters<\/i> in Balkan traditional music.<\/p>\n

To unlock these mysterious complexities of the odd meters we will take a closer look into a 7\/8 meter:<\/p>\n

The two most common divisions, or groupings of the beats, in the 7\/8 meter are (3 + 2 + 2) and (2 + 2 + 3). The third possibility (2 + 3 +2) is very rarely used.<\/p>\n

For example, we would count the (2 + 2 + 3) meter as a collection of three consecutive segments:<\/p>\n

(1, 2) + (1, 2) + (1, 2, 3)<\/p>\n

with the emphasis on each division\u2019s downbeat (each number 1) and with the very first beat of the bar naturally receiving the most emphasis of all. In other words, the first beat of each segment is accented because it carries more importance than the following beats (or the so-called \u201cupbeats\u201d) such as in:<\/p>\n

(ONE<\/u>, two) + (ONE, two) + (ONE, two, three)<\/p>\n

Try to get the \u201cfeel\u201d for this meter by pronouncing all the numbers while keeping a steady pace and then start tapping the hand on<\/u>ly on downbeats<\/u> (the \u201cONEs\u201d). If a metronome is available, setting it to a comfortable tempo will help with keeping a steady pace. They key is in focusing your attention on the meter\u2019s characteristic uneven pulse created by the hand taps.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a good example for a 7\/8 meter to practice along with. This piece is based on the 3 + 2 + 2 variation, so you should count it as: (ONE, two, three) + (ONE, two) + (ONE, two)<\/p>\n

The music is slow enough and the pulse is steady so it should be quite easy to count along:<\/p>\n

\u201cTears of Joy<\/b><\/i> <\/b><\/i>[432Hz Edition]<\/b><\/i>\u201d – an original composition in 7<\/b>\/8<\/b>:<\/p>\n