There's no mystic experience resulting in solid odd meter playing. Play it. Practice it. Practice aligning short rhythmic fragments in the same place in the bar, bar after bar. Practice placing the same rhythmic fragment in all parts of the bar, -on 1, on the & of 1, on 2, etc. This can evolve to many places, -some of which are presented in the pages below.
Familiar Repertoire in Unfamiliar Places
The following educational pdf links are re-rhythmed phrases based on well-known pieces. Play them with mp3 play alongs. Approach initially awkward placement with patience and diligence. Just as not all 4/4 pieces have melodies with march-like melodic regularity, odd meter playing also may breath and phrase over the barline and mid-barline.
5/4 Etudes based on:
Juju
Nefertiti
26-2
Evidence
5/8 Etude based on:
Alice In Wonderland
7/4 Etude based on:
Beethoven Symphony #5, 3rd Mov't
7/8 Etude based on:
Prelude To A Kiss
13/8 Etude based on:
Sophisticated Lady
MP3 Play-Alongs
The MP3 sound files here are part of a re-creation of duo-practicing work Doug Johnson and I used to do in Jamaica Plain, MA, in the mid-nineties. He would play an ostinato while I worked on groove or soloing. We'd swap. Sometimes we would both play ostinati, one of which would have something particularly tricky, like a missing beat 1. This would go on for an hour or so. Then a tune or two. Back again for more of the same, week after week, year after year!
5/4 #1.mp3
This file may be used as an accompaniment to the 5/4 and 5/8 etudes below. Using this audio accompaniment, read the rhythms (using any pitches you like) notated in any of the 5/4 or 5/8 etudes below. Click here to email your request for alternate tempos.
5/4 Practicing Explanation #1, Scales in the Meter
5/4 #4 (funky, slow).mp3
7/4 #1.mp3
7/4 #2.mp3
11/8 #1.mp3
11/8 #2.mp3
11/8 #3.mp3
PDF Etudes
This ensures downbeat familiarity by avoiding downbeats. Some of my most productive personal practicing took place when I led group practice sessions through material like this. An essential element is to have some of the group (or an mp3) lay down a groove.
This is a variation of #1. Some consider it more challenging.
Many of the pdf links above are examples from a series of 20 or so etudes written while teaching at Berklee College of Music in 2001.
Click here to request a free booklet of odd meter jazz standards:
Some files on this page may need to be saved to disk rather than opened directly. Click on the "Save to disk" option should that query arise when you click on the links above.
JD
August 2007