Music Lesson: odd meters, playing in 7/4

28 June 2011 by Bill Parsons | 1 Comment

a short repeating pattern.

In Black Cherry William Parker maintains an ostinato in 7/4 on the upright bass. His melodic phrase is broken into two groups, a 4 plus a 3.

The drummer, Hamid Drake, improvises, or plays off of William Parker’s bass line ostinato.
Have a listen.

TRY THIS

Clap on the downbeat, or beat one – it’s where the ostinato phrase starts.
Clap the downbeat and count in 7/4: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Clap the downbeat and count 4+3/4: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Which do you prefer?
Now try to count 3+4/4: 1 2 3 1 2 3 4
Does this feel awkward? What is the difference between 4+3/4 and 3 + 4/4?
With your instrument, play the bass line ostinato.
Now, try to improvise with them using the Abminor scale: Ab Bb Cb Db Eb Fb Gb
If you play a chordal instrument, like guitar, piano, accordion, etc. try playing Abm7 or Cbmaj or Bbm7 or Ebm7 over top of the ostinato.
Can you make a chord progression using these chords?

My name is Bill Parsons. I created mosaicland to share my musical perspective and to help guitar students become better musicians.

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