Rhythm in Turkish music
Rhythm in Turkish music centers on usul, a repeating rhythmic cycle that goes with the melody and helps shape the music. An usul can be as short as two beats or as long as 128 beats. It’s similar to a meter, but not exactly the same: both are repeating patterns with strong and light beats of different lengths.
In the traditional meşk learning method, students feel the rhythm physically by striking their knees with their hands, then sing or play the music while keeping the usul. This helps them memorize both the piece and its rhythm. Usul patterns use syllables like düm, dü-üm, tek, tekkyaa, teke, te-ek. Düm and dü-üm indicate strong, low beats; tek, tekkya, teke, te-ek indicate lighter beats of various durations.
Long usuls (for example 28/4, 32/4, 120/4) are longer cycles that cover bigger sections of music. In Ottoman times, drums carried the usul, though in most modern performances drums are not used, except in Mevlevi ceremonies where drummers play embellished (velveleli) versions. Improvisations (taksim) and vocal improvisations (gazel, mersiye, etc.) are usually performed in free rhythm, without a fixed usul.
The melodic system that goes with usul is makam. A similar concept in Indian music is tala.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 02:55 (CET).