I'm completely fascinated with the Gnawa rhythms and the ability they have to transform from one to another. As Arafa said, there are only two rhythms in Gnawa music: habari and kokucho. They have a magical way of blending into and complementing each other and both rhythms, when played fast vs. slow, also have the ability to transform into a different time signature.
Without dictating this on staff paper, it's hard to describe in words, but much like my experience in Ghana, the rhythms take on both a feel of 4/4 or 3/4, depending on speed, emphasis and particularly, the guimbri part. This happens especially with kokucho which can totally send my head into cramps one minute and bliss the next. Just like in Ghana, I can be listening to the rhythm and it will feel like it's in 4/4 then suddenly, there is just the slightest change and I am hearing it in 3/4, then back again. I intentionally try and switch back and forth between hearing it both ways at will. It totally reminds me of optical illusions where based on the way your eyes see something, you see either positive or negative space.
Did any of you see that optical illusion dancer thing that went around the email lists? It's this optical illusion of a woman spinning and based on how you look at it, you either see her turning right or turning left. I found this fascinating and practiced being able to change, at will, how I saw her turning, forcing my brain to switch gears.
I think the simplest way to explain these rhythms is that they are audio equivalent of these kind of illusions; it's often possible to hear two time signatures at any given moment.
I don't think Arafa is hearing them this way, though. I think my Western ear which so badly needs to hear where the "1" is, is trying to dissect these rhythms into parts so that I have a reference. But my theory is that for Arafa and many others who grow up hearing these rhythms, they don't have the same reference as we do and maybe they don't really have one at all. They just hear it without thinking of it in groups of 2 or 3.
This is the true test and goal for myself: to one day be able to just let go and play these rhythms without thinking in terms of timing, counting or where the downbeat is. Maybe it's like when you finally really learn a language and you aren't translating it back to your mother tongue constantly- you just speak it without thinking anything else.
