North African, Nubian and 6/8 Rhythms
Moroccan and Maghrebi grooves, chaabi, 3/4 and 6/8, haggalla, Nubian rhythms, and the long classical iqa’at.
14 questions answered
RHY-063 What is samai darij / vals (3/4)? #
It’s the Arabic waltz rhythm: D - T - T - (8ths), or filled as D - k - T - k - T - k - (16ths). There’s a faster 3/8 version too, samai saghir. Baba Yaga notes that the real difference between the 3/8 and 3/4 versions is simply speed.
RHY-064 What is yürük semai (6/8)? #
It’s a lively 6-pulse rhythm, felt as two groups of three. A common form is D - T D T - (8ths), and Baba Yaga lists variants starting D - D - or D - T -. Its usual job is to close the Ottoman/Arabic instrumental samai, after the 10/8 samai thaqil sections.
RHY-065 What rhythms are used in Moroccan and Maghrebi music? #
North African music leans heavily on 6/8 and 3/4, with polyrhythms layered up by several percussionists at once. Baba Yaga gives a “Moroccan 6” as D k k T k k (8ths). It accents two groups of three against three groups of two, and that hemiola is what gives Maghrebi music its rolling, swaying feel. A “Maghrebi” variant is T - - T D -. Moroccan chaabi (the urban-folk party music of markets and weddings) is typically fast 6/8 or 12/8, driven by darbuka, bendir, taarija, qraqeb and handclaps. No method-book pattern has been published, but a drummer’s forum description (Foro Flamenco) sketches it across two 6/8 bars: low strokes on pulses 5 and 10, high strokes on 3 and 8, i.e. - - T - D - - T - D - - (8ths, 12 pulses). Francis’s drumming blog agrees that the groove starts on the high sound, and says it can also be written in 4/4. Both say beat 1 is hard for Western ears to find and matters little in chaabi. Take it as a sketch and check it against recordings.
RHY-066 How do I feel the “3 against 2” in 6/8 Maghrebi rhythms? #
Count six pulses and clap on 1 and 4, which gives you two big beats. Then clap on 1, 3 and 5, which gives you three. North African grooves shift between those two feels, so you want both of them in your body. Practise the darbuka pattern while tapping your foot on 1 and 4.
RHY-092 If haggalla has no standard drum chart, what is the music actually built on? #
On clapping and voices. A line of men (the keffafeen, or kasshakin in Libyan usage) claps and chants while the veiled dancer moves in front of them. Toboulib notes that the clapping gets harder as the dancer’s movement intensifies, sometimes to the point of frenzy. The Libyan form opens with ‘alam songs followed by shettawa. If a drum is there at all, it supports the clapping rather than leading it. So when you drum haggalla, keep it simple, fast and duple, and leave room for those claps.
RHY-093 What rhythm do dance teachers use for the haggala step? #
Usually fallahi, D T - T D - T - (16ths). Several teachers teach the haggala step as a move done to fallahi. Mahmoud Reda’s stage choreography of haggala, inspired by a dancer he saw in Marsa Matrouh, also popularised it on the folkloric stage. Remember what that is, though: a stage and teaching convention, not evidence of a distinct haggalla stroke pattern.
RHY-094 What are the traditional Nubian rhythm names? #
Al Jazeera’s article on Nubian arts names Konbenkash, Ski, Najrashad, Tandak and Bilonsh, with Arageed as the joyful group dance. Art of Nubia counts six basic rhythms, extending to 11 and up to 21 variants. None of the sources consulted notated them, so treat “Nubian rhythm” on a darbuka chart (jerk and its relatives) as an Egyptian-pop adaptation, not as one of these named rhythms.
RHY-095 How is Nubian rhythm played traditionally? #
On the tar (daff frame drum), usually by three players at once. Art of Nubia describes one player holding the main rhythm while the other two add ornaments called nagrishat. Al Jazeera describes the tar’s dum (centre) and tak (edge), and a fingertip “kharkhasha” playing style. Patterned group handclapping (kaf), spaced in different ways, matters as much as the drums do. On darbuka, go for the texture rather than a chart: a steady low pulse, light rolling fills, and clapped backbeats.
RHY-096 What does the Moroccan chaabi groove sound like on darbuka? #
A forum description (Foro Flamenco) spans two bars of 6/8 and gives - - T - D - - T - D - - (8ths), with the lows on pulses 5 and 10 and the highs on 3 and 8. Around that, the bendir (frame drum with snares) and qraqeb (iron castanets) fill in a constant 16th-note pulse (Francis’s drumming blog). Again, that’s a forum-level sketch rather than a method-book pattern.
RHY-097 Why can’t I find “beat 1” in chaabi? #
Both chaabi sources say the same thing: the groove starts on the high sound, the bass lands late in the cycle, and Western listeners struggle to hear where the bar begins. Moroccan players don’t treat “one” as important in the first place. So stop hunting for a downbeat. Lock onto the low strokes as your anchor and let the highs float around them.
RHY-098 Why does Darbuka Planet call its “Arabic 6/8” really a 12/8? #
Because the pattern only completes over 12 pulses. Their spoken version runs “dum, taka taka, slap, taka taka, dum dum dum, slap, taka taka”. Many North African 6/8 grooves are really two-bar phrases, with the second bar answering the first, so writing them as 12/8 shows you the whole cycle instead of half of it.
RHY-099 What is dakka marrakchia? #
It’s a Marrakech street and festival percussion genre, not a single darbuka groove. The descriptions agree on three phases that get faster and faster, driven by clay ta’rija drums, tar frame drums, qarqaba (qraqeb) and precise group handclaps, with the nfir trumpet arriving in the frenzied final phase (afus, “hand”). No source consulted gave a beat grouping, so none is given here.
RHY-100 Why is murabba’ (“squared”) a 13-beat rhythm? #
It isn’t: the name has nothing to do with the meter. Maqamworld notes explicitly that murabba’ means “squared” or “based on four”, and that this is unrelated to its 13/4 time signature. Plenty of classical iqa’ names work like that. They’re historical labels, not descriptions of the count.
RHY-101 What other long classical iqa’at exist that I’ll never hear in belly-dance classes? #
Quite a few. Maqamworld’s index includes thurayya (5/8), sudasi (6/4), nawakht (7/4), katakufti (8/8), mudawwar shami (10/4), ‘awis (11/8), mudawwar masri (12/4), dharafat (13/8; Jas’s FAQ calls it sama’i zarafat), murabba’ (13/4), muhajjar (14/4), nawakht hindi and mukhammas (16/4), khosh rang (17/8), awfar masri (19/4), fakhit (20/4), and sittatu ‘ashar masri and warshan ‘arabi (both 32/4). They live almost entirely in muwashshah and classical vocal music.