a couple years ago my grandparents gave me this t-shirt for christmas these are difficult times true in more ways than one but these they're not so bad 11 16 is a little weird every musician struggles the first time they try to play something in 5 8 or 7 8 or 11 16 or any odd meter like that why is it so hard i think it's because as humans we physically psychologically don't like irregularity these meters are irregular or asymmetrical they can't be divided into equally spaced beats in a practical way our bodies and minds are conditioned to like regular patterns when you play music in 4-4 it's easy because it has a regular pulse in fact it's easy to the point where it can become passive you don't even have to think about it don't resign yourself too much though you should always know where one is stay in that pocket but when you play in these asymmetrical meters suddenly you have to think about it when you're counting them it's hard not to slip back into counting and feeling something that is regular and then you get lost and you've totally hosed yourself so how do you approach time signatures like this you have to do two things step one you have to conceptualize them step two you have to feel them you can approach any unfamiliar time signature this way feeling them is the goal but you have to have a solid understanding of how they work first one thing stays constant with any meter you can divide it into groups of two and groups of three in regular meters we're already used to feeling groups of twos and threes four four time usually divides into groups of two eighth notes one and two and three and four and six eight time usually divides into groups of three eighth notes one bend a two and a one and a two and uh we're just mixing them together in these odd meters take seven eight as an example seven eight is often very quick and you can't just be counting to seven really fast that doesn't work a common way of dividing seven eight is two plus two plus three one two one two one two three one two one two one two you can also divide it into three plus two plus two one two three one two one two one two three one two one two or two plus three plus two one two one two three one two one two one two three one two five eight can be divided into two plus three or three plus two eleven sixteen can be divided into three plus three plus three plus two or three plus three plus two plus three or two plus two plus two plus two plus three et cetera regardless of the meter what you end up with is a combination of long and short beats the long beats are the groups of three the short beats are the groups of two let's take another one off the t-shirt 9 8 is traditionally a triple compound meter meaning it's felt in three and each beat is divided into a group of three eighth notes it doesn't have to be this way though dave brubeck's blue rondo alla turk uses an unusual division of nine eight the pattern is three measures of two plus two plus two plus three followed by one measure of three plus three plus three and the whole pattern repeats the story is that brubach heard this rhythm being performed by turkish street musicians and when he asked them about it they said something like this rhythm is to us what the blues is to you this idea of long and short beats is very present in the folk music of the balkan region we'll do one more example eight eight eight eight is the same as four four but it's divided into long and short beats three plus three plus two is by far the most common one two three one two three one two one two three one two three one two a more unusual division happens in the simpsons theme three plus two plus three one two three one two one two three one two three one two one two three one two three one people don't seem to notice that okay so that's how you conceptualize asymmetrical meters you gotta find the long and short b's if you're trying to puzzle out a time signature by ear you need to focus your attention on the rhythmic patterns and try to find where the patterns repeat listen for the accents it takes a bit of your training to get good at it but that's at least where you should focus your attention now how do you feel these time signatures this is the part you really need to practice whenever you're practicing some new technical thing it's always best to boil it down to something really basic so you can focus your attention on one thing at a time in this case the best thing would be to remove any notes from the equation don't even pick up your instrument set your metronome to an eighth note and clap the beat groups always accenting the first beat of the group one two one two one two three one two one two one two three over time you can pick up the pace and it'll start to feel more natural it should ultimately feel as natural as 4-4 it's got to be tight it's got a groove you want to put on your cargo pants get in that pocket [Music] [Music] thanks for watching and i'll see you next time