Moroccan ‘Roll 2
By Simon Webster

Perfect timing. There I was, thinking about what I was going to write in this article while flicking through a magazine. And there it was…a review of Robert Plant’s new album The mighty ReArranger, plus an interview with him. I read on to discover the apparently big Moroccan/North African influence on this album. Plant’s and Led zep’s interest in North African and Middle Eastern music is well-known but this seemed to be an album with more than just a nod to these cultures. And it is. 

   The album starts with a funky ‘bendir’ groove from the Berber culture in Southern Morocco and there’s a traditional 12/8 groove which we’ll be looking at in later issues, and my favourite track which is based around a 9/8 pulse, again started on the bendir. The bendir is the frame drum played all over North Africa. It’s like a bohran but with a snare and is not played with a beater but with the open hand. It’s a drum kit all on its own! The 9/8 track rocks with a beefy guitar riff joining the bendir, followed by classic Plant vocals and a slamming, Bonham sounding drum beat rounding it all off! 

   The album in general is great and the ’fusion’ parts work really well. It’s an example of what these articles are getting at… exploring other cultures and also creating a real fusion with our own.

 Now back to gnawa 

   Let’s add the classic ‘t’bel’ bass line to our qarqabat grove that we looked at in the last issue. ‘T’bel’ is the gnawa bass drum which is played slung over one shoulder. It replaces the ‘guimbri’ (bass-lute) when playing outside or at the beginning of a show or ceremony. Example 1 shows the two together. Notice how the two bass beats fall either side of the 2^nd pulse and how there’s nothing on the the 1^st beat! This is typical of Moroccan 6/8 and 12/8 rhythms and is the basis of so many of their beats. It’s very strange to play to start with but great fun once you can play it and it really has a different feeling to rock or Western beats. It’s especially important to feel it as a 6/8 and not to be tempted to turn it into a ¾. A ¾ feel would mean that our bass drum beats are ‘on the beat’ (the 2^nd and 3^rd beats) as in Example 2. What we want is the bubble and energy of having syncopated, or ‘in the air’ bass drum beats as in the 6/8 

   To help us internalise this, we can transfer the hi-hat line to the snare drum and play the hi-hats with the left foot on the two pulses. Kick stays the same of course. Doing this really helps adjust to this different style and feel, as well as being where the hand-claps would be played. Lastly, try swapping between Examples 1 and 2. 

   But, most importantly as with samba swing, the feet have to follow the swing that the hands are playing. This means that our two bass drum beats really have to lock in with the hands. Check were they fall in relation to your hands and the swing. For example, the 1^st bass drum falls on the 3^rd triplet, which we know to be anticipated and so should be anticipated in the same way. 

   Again, as with the samba, you really feel the difference when your triplets are ‘swinging’ and the energy that comes from the bass drum beats locking in and pushing the rhythm relentlessly forwards. Now, to complete our drum kit groove, transfer the hi-hat beat on the 1^st beat of the rhythm to the snare and then play the rest of the figure as before. See Example 3. This gives us a kind of reverse beat with the snare on the 1 and the bass drum on the 2^nd (and 3^rd) beat compared to the classic rock beat that we know and love. 

   This concept of ‘reverse’ beats is very common to Moroccan music and is a recurring theme in World Music beats that we will coming back to in future articles. 

   In the mean time, have a go at this beat, try and find some examples to listen to and play along to, and most importantly check out those fusion opportunities…