# Turkish — Karşılama, aksak 9/8 # Reference: Turkish Roman (Rom) dance repertoire, Thrace and Istanbul wedding # bands, the 9/8 usul of Ottoman classical music (Aksak Semai family). # Pairs with the makam scales in the Xen module — Hicaz, Uşşak and Hüseyni all # live in this metre. # # Aksak means "limping": the bar is nine 8th notes grouped 2+2+2+3, so three # short beats are followed by one long one. Dancers step on the four beats, not # on the nine 8ths — the long fourth beat is where the hip drop lands. # # Beat: 1 2 3 4 (long) # 8ths: 1 2 | 3 4 | 5 6 | 7 8 9 # 16th pos: 0-3 | 4-7 | 8-11 | 12-17 # # GM substitution: General MIDI has no darbuka, so low conga stands in for the # doum (bass stroke), muted high conga for the tek (rim slap) and high bongo for # the ka (weak-hand tek). Tambourine covers the def (frame drum) and the open # triangle the zil (finger cymbals). # GM notes: 64=low conga (doum), 62=mute hi conga (tek), 60=hi bongo (ka), # 54=tambourine (def), 81=open triangle (zil), 36=kick, 38=snare, # 42=closed HH, 49=crash # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution 18 = eighteen 16th notes = nine 8th notes in 9/8. # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Beat positions — 9/8 at resolution 18 (one char per 16th note): # pos 0 1 2 3 | 4 5 6 7 | 8 9 10 11 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 # 8th 1 2 | 3 4 | 5 6 | 7 8 9 # beat └─ 1 ──────┘└─ 2 ───────┘└─ 3 ───────┘└──── 4 (long) ────┘ # # Swing / feel: straight — an aksak bar is already uneven; adding swing on top # of it blurs the 2+2+2+3 grouping the dance depends on. # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Karşılama (9/8) family: turkish bpm_range: [110, 180] time_signature: [9, 8] resolution: 18 feel: straight instruments: doum: { note: 64, base_velocity: 110, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.14 } tek: { note: 62, base_velocity: 94, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.07 } ka: { note: 60, base_velocity: 72, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.05 } def: { note: 54, base_velocity: 76, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.07 } zil: { note: 81, base_velocity: 68, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.10 } kick: { note: 36, base_velocity: 104, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.14 } snare: { note: 38, base_velocity: 96, velocity_range: 14, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.10 } hihat: { note: 42, base_velocity: 70, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.06 } crash: { note: 49, base_velocity: 96, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.24 } humanization: timing_jitter: 0.012 velocity_jitter: 12 velocity_drift: 0.05 sections: # Nine evenly-spaced clicks across the bar — one per 8th note, so the player # hears the full 9 before the 2+2+2+3 grouping starts. intro: type: count_in hits: 9 note: 62 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: karsilama weight: 4 # The dance rhythm. Doum on beats 1 and 3 (pos 0, 8), tek on beat 2 # (pos 4) and then three teks filling the long fourth beat (pos 12, 14, # 16) — that triple stroke is what tells the dancer the bar is ending. doum: "X.......X........." tek: "....X.......X.X.X." ka: "..g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g." def: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: roman_havasi weight: 3 # Turkish Roman 9/8 — the clarinet-and-darbuka wedding version. All three # short beats get a doum, the tek waits until the second half of beat 2 # (pos 6), and the zil marks the start of beats 2 and 4 so the whole # ensemble hears where the long beat begins. doum: "X...X...X........." tek: "......X.....X.X.X." ka: ".g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g.g" def: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." zil: "....x.......x...x." - name: agir_aksak weight: 2 # Ağır aksak — the slow, heavy reading used for songs rather than dance. # Doum on all four beat heads including the long one (pos 12), tek only # on the second 8th of each short beat. Much more space. doum: "X...X...X...X....." tek: "..x...x...x.....x." def: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: kit_9_8 weight: 2 # Drum-kit reading for a band with no percussionist: kick on beats 1 and # 3, snare where the tek was. The hi-hat stays on 8ths throughout so the # nine is countable from the kit alone. kick: "X.......X........." snare: "....X.......X.X.X." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: darbuka_burst # Straight 16ths across the whole bar — the darbuka roll that Roman # bands use to hand the tune back to the clarinet. doum: "X................." tek: "XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx" - name: long_beat_accent # The four beat heads accented, then the long beat broken into its three # 8ths (pos 12, 14, 16) so the grouping is unmistakable before the repeat. doum: "X...X...X...X.X.X." tek: "..x...x...x......." def: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: standard crash: "X................." doum: "X.......X........." tek: "....X.......X.X.X." def: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." structure: fill_every: 8 break_every: 0 break_length: 1 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: false