As much as I enjoy most music in 4/4 time, I absolutely love mixed meter and shifting meter. As musicians, we have most likely at some point in time come across a piece of music in 7/8 or 5/4, and maybe panicked just a little. With the on this post, it is my hope that you walk away feeling more comfortable with different types of meter.
I believe it is important to be comfortable with these meters so that we can broaden our musical palettes and make our music (compositions, improvisations, or anything else) more diverse and confident. Mixed meter is a very common convention in jazz music, and you have probably listened to songs not knowing that they had complicated meters to begin with.
Here are some examples of songs in different meters!
5/4-“Take Five”-Dave Brubeck
-“Mission Impossible Theme”-Lalo Schifrin
7/4-“Money”-Pink Floyd
9/8-“Blue Rondo A La Turk”-Dave Brubeck
10/4-“I Say a Little Prayer”-Burt Bacharach (in the verses: two measures of 4/4, one measure of 10/4, followed by two more measures of 4/4; in the chorus, 11/4)
11/8-“The Eleven”-Grateful Dead
15/8-“Nostalgia”-Andrew Huang
*The idea to use fruit names to teach mixed meter in the "Teaching Mixed Meter" video was based upon a lecture from Sharon Boyle, MM, MT-BC. Thanks Sharon!