Although utilized for many years in jazz and other styles, odd meters has become an essential part of today’s jazz. The uses of odd meters are many: As a phrasing device enabling a player to solo and comp over the bar line in 4/4 time. As an effect to utilize in one’s original compositions and to create fresh arrangements of standards and much more!
Once the 5/4 and 7/4 common rhythmic patterns are examined and practiced, soloing and comping can feel as natural as it does in 4/4.

In this masterclass we’ll be looking at the many useful rhythmic patterns in odd meters and applying them to 4/4 tunes as well as standards arranged in 5/4 and 7/4.  Pairing these rhythmic concepts with melodic/harmonic concepts will be stressed to enable the musician to more rapidly integrate odd meters on their instrument. An example of this would be arpeggiating diatonic 9th chords in an even stream of 8th notes. The 9th chords contain 5 notes that will give a 5/8 phrasing to the line. Take one triad and its neighboring diatonic7th chord and you have 7 notes that will yield 7/8 phrasing. This is one of many exercises that will be in the written examples accompanying the class. Other examples will include:

Applying odd meters to solo guitar, arranging standards in odd meter, pattern picking odd meters, comping and soloing with odd meters and more.

Take your playing into the future with rhythmic assuredness and confidence!

View clip from this class