Mixed Meter

In my Intro to Rock and Roll class, we discussed the idea of mixed meter. A basic explanation for mixed meter is when the count changes throughout the song. Normally, you can count "1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4" or "1 2 3, 1 2 3," all the way through a song. In mixed meter, this changes and you might find "1 2 3 4, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 4."

Here are some of my favorite songs featuring mixed meter:

• All You Need is Love by The Beatles. This one is a mixed-meter standard. They usually alternate between 3/4 and 4/4 time, but sometimes they fake you out. Listen to it and try to count along!
• Barracuda by Heart. This song is mostly in 4/4 time, but especially in the second half the Heart sisters throw in bars of 3/4 time. Very cool!
• Blue Rondo A La Turk by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Masters of rhythm and timing, these guys have a real excersice in time signatures on this one. This song has three bars of 9/8 time grouped into four beats (2+2+2+3) followed by one measure of 9/8 grouped into three beats (3+3+3). Cool stuff.
• Zombie Woof by Frank Zappa. I have absolutley no idea what's going on in the intro to this song, but I deffinitely suggest listening to it and appreciating how coordinated the musicians are!
• Africa by Toto. This one is a little harder to catch - subtle, if you will. Each time the reoccuring musical statement is played throughout the song, there's a bar of 2/4. If you're counting, you should count something like this: 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4