The pattern
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Beat 2 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Beat 3 | Step 10 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 4 | Step 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
| Snare | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest |
| Closed hi-hat | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest |
| High tom | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
Aksak (“limping” in Turkish) refers to asymmetric meters that alternate binary and ternary cells. This is the 2+2+3 7/8 of the Bulgarian račenica (in Turkish, Devr-i Turan); the reverse, 3+2+2, is the Macedonian lesnoto and the Greek kalamatianos. Grid: 14 steps = one bar of 7/8 in sixteenths (2 steps per eighth), BPM referring to the eighth note (the dance račenica is fast: 250–350 eighths per minute, i.e. about 70–100 bars; indicative value). “Long” and “short” pulses: 1 (short), 2 (short), 3 (LONG) → steps 1, 5, 9. Roles transposed from the tapan (large two-headed drum): kick = the low mallet hit (kukuda) on 1 and on the long pulse; snare = the dry hit on the middle pulse and the final “pick-up”; chh = the thin stick (pračka) in eighths; tomh = fills. For the 3+2+2 variant move the long pulse to the start (kick on steps 1, 7, 11). Other common aksak meters: 9/8 2+2+2+3 (daychovo, čoček “in nine”), 11/8 2+2+3+2+2 (gankino/kopanica). Typical mistake: counting 7/8 as a “shortened” 4/4: you have to feel the uneven pulses, not the eighths.