Odd-Meter Improvisation Study — Morgan Ågren (Mats/Morgan Band) Drum Lick | MetalForge
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Learn the Odd-Meter Improvisation Study drum lick by Morgan Ågren of Mats/Morgan Band. From Drum Set Improvisation (ArtOfDrumming Clinic (2021)). Morgan Ågren's approach to odd-meter improvisation is one of the most instructive examples in contem...
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1. Morgan Ågren's Signature Licks — Morgan Ågren's approach to odd-meter improvisation is one of the most instructive examples in contemporary drumming of how to make unconventional time signatures feel musical rather than academic. In this ArtOfDrumming clinic performance, Ågren improvises through a series of odd meters — 7/8, 9/8, and 11/8 among them — treating them not as puzzles to be solved but as rhythmic characters with their own feel and momentum. This is a fundamentally different relationship to odd time than the counting-based approach most drummers learn first: rather than parsing 7/8 as 3+4 or 4+3 and counting through it, Ågren feels the group as a single rhythmic unit that has its own internal weight distribution. This capacity comes from decades of playing with pianist Mats Öberg in the Mats/Morgan Band, where odd meters are the compositional norm rather than the exception, and from the influence of Frank Zappa's rigorously metered compositional style, which Ågren engaged with directly during the Zappa Universe projects in the 1990s. What the clinic performance reveals is how Ågren maintains a conversation with the groove even inside the odd groupings: the hi-hats and ride keep a musical statement going rather than just marking the meter, and fills resolve in ways that feel inevitable rather than arbitrary. For drummers, the exercise is to learn each odd grouping as a bodily feeling — a 7 has a different physical weight from an 8 or a 9 — and then practise switching between them while keeping the music moving. Ågren's improvisations make this look effortless, which is the result of years of making odd meters the default rather than the exception.2. Morgan Ågren Profile — Feel each odd grouping as a bodily unit rather than counting subdivisions — a 7/8 should have a single internal weight distribution Keep the hi-hat or ride making a musical statement rather than just marking the meter through odd bars Practise moving between 7/8, 9/8, and 11/8 with a constant eighth-note reference so the transitions feel continuous Resolve fills to the downbeat of the new grouping rather than the old one to make the meter change feel inevitable Play odd-meter patterns daily until they feel as natural as 4/4 — fluency comes from habituation, not calculation
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