11/8 Time Signature: How to Count It Without Counting to Eleven, and a Click to Practise With

What 11/8 time means

Eleven eighth notes fill the bar and eleven cannot be split into equal twos or threes, so 11/8 is an odd meter. What makes it feel long is not the count but the number of groups: a 7/8 bar has three groups, an 11/8 bar has four or five. The most straightforward grouping is 2+2+2+2+3, which is what this site and the Metro Gnome app default to for any irregular meter: twos, with a single three absorbing the leftover pulse. Music in 11/8 uses many others: 3+3+3+2 (the Allman Brothers' Whipping Post), 2+2+3+2+2 (the Bulgarian kopanitsa) and 4+4+3 (felt as two bars of 4/4 with a short bar of 3 tacked on).

That last description is the most useful one for anyone coming from rock or pop: 11/8 is very often just 4+4+3, a familiar eight followed by a three, and thinking of it that way turns an intimidating number into two things you already know how to play.

How to count 11/8

2+2+2+2+3: count ONE two ONE two ONE two ONE two ONE two three, accents on pulses 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. The tool defaults to this.

3+3+3+2: count ONE two three ONE two three ONE two three ONE two, accents on 1, 4, 7 and 10. Three rolling beats and a short one, the Whipping Post feel.

4+4+3: count ONE two three four ONE two three four ONE two three, accents on 1, 5 and 9. Two bars of four and a bar of three, the easiest way in for most players.

In every case the trick is the same: never count to eleven. Count the groups and let the eleven take care of itself.

What 11/8 feels like

11/8 feels like a groove that is always one step short of resolving. In 4+4+3 the ear settles into a rock feel for eight pulses and then the bar turns around early, which is unsettling the first time and addictive after that. In 3+3+3+2 it swings for three beats and then snaps shut. Balkan 11/8 (2+2+3+2+2) has its long step in the middle of the bar, giving the dance a distinctive hitch that dancers find before musicians do.

Songs and pieces in 11/8

• Kopanitsa (Bulgarian folk dance): the classic 11/8, grouped 2+2+3+2+2, with the long step in the middle of the bar.
• Whipping Post (intro) (The Allman Brothers Band): the opening bass riff is in 11/8, grouped 3+3+3+2; Gregg Allman said he did not know it was in eleven when he wrote it.
• The Eleven (Grateful Dead): named for its meter and built on an 11/8 jam.
• Eleven (Primus): another song named for its time signature, with the whole groove in 11/8.

How to practise 11/8 with a metronome

Pick the grouping that matches the song, then forget the number. Work out whether the piece is 4+4+3, 3+3+3+2 or the tool's default 2+2+2+2+3, put the accents there, and from then on count only the groups. Counting to eleven at tempo is not possible and not necessary.

Learn it as two familiar bars plus a short one. For 4+4+3, practise a bar of 4/4, a bar of 4/4 and a bar of 3/4 in a loop with the click. Once the turnaround feels natural, it is 11/8.

Keep the eighth-note pulse slow to start. The tool's BPM is the eighth note. Around 100 you can hear every pulse and place every accent; the Balkan dance tempo of 200-plus is where you are heading, not where you begin.

For the theory behind why the bottom number never changes a meter's class, and how simple, compound and odd meters relate, see Time Signatures Explained. For any meter not covered here, the odd meter metronome plays anything from 1 to 16 beats with its natural grouping.

Questions about 11/8