19/8
Hear the rhythms
Ellis counted long meters as chains of twos and threes. Pick a pattern, press play, and tap along.
The bright cells mark where each group begins, which is where the band leans. These three come straight from the transcriptions in my dissertation; each line says which example it follows. They are teaching patterns, not recordings.
Meter player
pulses per minute
No sound on a phone? Check the volume and the silent switch.
The patterns, written out
- Strawberry Soup: 9/8 as 3+2+2+2. Dissertation, Ex. 10: two bars of 9/8, each subdivided 3+2+2+2, superimposed on 9/4. Try tapping two of these in a row.
- “33 222 1 222”: 19/8 as 3+3+2+2+2+1+2+2+2. The title spells the grouping. Dissertation, Ex. 8: the bass ostinato that opened Ellis’s debut at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival. Note the lone “1”.
- 5/4 Getaway: five straight beats. Dissertation, Ex. 1: “straight ahead” five, with every beat equal and no subdivision into twos and threes.
Hear one in context
Strawberry Soup, from Tears of Joy (1971)
For Ellis’s own system, see his book Rhythm. For a teacher’s view of odd meters, see Hank Levy’s odd-meter player.