What Is Aksak Rhythm? How to Count 9/8 and 7/8
If your foot keeps missing a beat and the count won't settle, you're probably playing an aksak rhythm. The bar isn't made of even beats. It's built from groups of two and three sitting side by side, like 2+2+2+3. That last group of three gives the bar a slight limp. Hence the name: "aksak" is Turkish for limping.
We start a karşılama in rehearsal (a Turkish folk dance tune in nine). The drummer is counting it straight in his head, the guitar gets ahead on the second pass, the bass comes into the next bar early. Nobody's playing a wrong note.
Everyone's just counting from a different place.
Why does "aksak" mean two different things?
The Romanian ethnomusicologist Constantin Brăiloiu brought the term into Western musicology with his 1951 article "Le rythme aksak." Since then, aksak has been the general label for asymmetric rhythms built from groups of two and three. As ethnomusicologist Simha Arom describes it, these rhythms are usually played fast, the total count is usually an odd number, and the same pattern repeats without a break.
Arom adds that the asymmetry only really comes through at speed. Played slowly, it can sound like an ordinary bar.
In Turkish music theory, "aksak" is narrower. It's the name of one specific usul, a nine-beat pattern with six strokes, written as 9/8 or 9/4. It's made by joining a four-beat usul called sofyan with a five-beat one called Türk aksağı. So when someone says "this tune is aksak," they might mean an asymmetric rhythm in general, or that one particular usul.
Is an usul the same as a time signature?
No. And most of the confusion around aksak starts right here.
A time signature, like 9/8, tells you how many units are in the bar. An usul, in Turkish music, is a rhythmic cycle: a set order of strong strokes (düm), medium strokes and light strokes (tek). The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam's definition makes a key point: what separates two usuls with the same number of beats is the order of those strokes.
9/8 tells you there are nine eighth notes. It doesn't tell you which group is the long one. The usul does.
How do you count 9/8?
Counting nine eighths one by one falls apart at speed. You split them into groups and put an accent on the start of each. The version you'll run into most is 2+2+2+3:
one-two / one-two / one-two / one-two-three
Your foot hits the floor four times. Three short steps, one long one. The last step lasts one eighth longer, then the bar starts over.
In rehearsal we say it out loud first, no instruments: everyone counts "one-two one-two one-two one-two-three" together, then claps, then plays. It feels a bit like school, but it's the fastest way I know to get five people counting from the same spot.
The sheet music usually won't show the grouping. When you start a new tune, pencil 2+2+2+3 or 2+3+2+2 above the first bar. Half the arguments end right there.
Why does the same 9/8 feel different from tune to tune?
Because the group of three can land in different places in the bar. In Sibel Karaman's study of nine-beat usuls (in Turkish), that's exactly what separates them: where the long group sits.
| Grouping | Long group | Usul name | Mostly heard in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2+2+2+3 | At the end | Aksak, çifte sofyan (yürük aksak), evfer | Songs and folk songs; çifte sofyan mostly in köçekçe dance suites |
| 2+3+2+2 | Second | Raks aksağı | Mostly Bektashi hymns (nefes) |
| 3+2+2+2 | At the start | Oynak, ağır oynak | Ağır oynak: Aegean folk songs and zeybek dances |
Karaman also flags a problem. Plenty of pieces written down as "aksak" are really çifte sofyan or orta aksak. Because the beat count is the same, they all ended up under one name. If your chart says "aksak" but your ear hears something else, your ear might be right.
The practical fix is simple. Listen to a recording, follow the deepest drum stroke, and find where the long group falls. That spot matters more than the name.
Where does the count fall in 7/8 and 5/8?
The Turkish usul in seven is devr-i hindî. It's a three-beat semâî plus a four-beat sofyan, so the long group comes first:
one-two-three / one-two / one-two
Devr-i hindî turns up in songs, hymns, folk songs, köçekçe and a dance tune type called mandıra. But the 9/8 rule holds here too: not every tune marked 7/8 follows this grouping. The long group can sit at the end instead. Check by ear.
The five-beat Türk aksağı is a small usul with three strokes: strong, medium, light. Five eighths, counted as one group of two and one of three. You'll hear it in songs, folk songs, köçekçe, dance tunes, and in the fourth section of instrumental saz semai pieces.
Where will you hear aksak rhythms?
In Turkey, the easiest way in is the karşılama. According to Sinan Haşhaş's 2026 study, almost all karşılamas are in nine. In Eastern Thrace (the European corner of Turkey) the grouping is usually 2+2+2+3. In the eastern Black Sea region, around Ordu and Giresun, you'll also find 2+3+2+2. Same name, very different walk, depending on where the long group sits.
"Trakya Karşılaması" in the Turkish state broadcaster TRT's folk music repertoire (Rep. No 21) is 2+2+2+3. Very fast tunes are usually written in 9/16 in the archive. The grouping stays the same, the unit just gets smaller.
On the zeybek side there's ağır oynak: a slow nine-beat usul with the long group first. Nothing like a karşılama: instead of a running step, a heavy, deliberate one.
If you listen to jazz, you already know one. Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk," from the 1959 album Time Out, is in 9/8. Brubeck said he first heard the rhythm from street musicians in Istanbul.
The map is wide. Arom lists aksak rhythms across the Balkans (Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania), North and sub-Saharan Africa, and in Europe, Finland, Norway and Spain.
What do we do in rehearsal to lock it in?
Not from a textbook, just what works in our rehearsal room:
- Count out loud together first, then clap, then pick up the instruments.
- Set the metronome slow and hear every eighth. Once the groups sit, use the accent setting to bring out only the start of each group. I went through how we practise with one in the metronome post.
- On drums, the deepest stroke goes on the start of each group, especially the long one. Everyone finds their place from that.
- The bass holds the root through the long group. That extra eighth is where the bar breathes.
- On guitar, every group starts with a downstroke. For the group of three, down-up-down keeps the hand relaxed.
- We don't trust the chart until we've found the long group on the recording.
Thinking of playing these tunes on the bağlama, the Turkish long-necked lute? Which neck to start on is its own question: see short-neck vs long-neck bağlama.
Where does it usually go wrong?
The spots I see again and again in rehearsal:
- Cutting the long group short. The last "three" gets swallowed and the next bar comes in an eighth early.
- Tapping your foot on every eighth. The foot should land on the start of each group, or the limp disappears.
- Only ever practising slowly. At a slow tempo the asymmetry melts away and it sounds like a plain bar. Try the real tempo early.
- Seeing 9/8 on the chart and assuming the grouping.
- Half the band counting 2+2+2+3 and the other half 2+3+2+2. One count out loud before you start exposes it.
Curious how these folk rhythms met electric guitars and a rock kit? Next stop: Anatolian rock.