Archived Edition of Chromatic Musings

Meter Matters

I was thinking more about the meter of the drummer that Rich had brought out to play and why meter is so very important for musicians to have. And why it is a good thing for drummers to have it in copious quantities.

For starters, I should probably make mention about some musical terms like "meter", "tempo" and "rhythm". Music is charted in a structure (called a time signature) that lists the how many beats are allowed per measure over what kind of note should be considered one beat (i.e. 3/4 indicates that each measure will have three quarter notes per measure, whereas 7/8 says that there will be seven eighth notes per measure).

Rhythm is how the all of the notes and pauses are organized in a set pattern. Individual rhythms expressions can span measures or can be contained wholly within a measure and while the rhythmic patterns may or may not be repeated throughout a song, they typically are regularly repeated.

The tempo of a song is how many beats elapse in a given period of time. A typical measurement of tempo is beats per minute (bpm). A measure with a time signature of 4/4 (four quarter notes per measure) at a tempo of 120bpm should take 2 seconds and the same measure at 100bpm should take 1 and two-thirds seconds. While neither ones of those examples may not seem like a lot of time, songs are tend to consist quite a few measures (typically three digits worth).

Meter is the length of one measure of music. In the first example, about two seconds.

Hopefully, that should satisfy the sticklers for vocabulary. Technically, this particular piece of writing is more about tempo than meter, but it has been my experience that most of the musicians that I encounter have tended to use "tempo," "meter," and "time" interchangeably when talking about a musician's ability to play at a constant pace.

Some of the people I have played with call me the "Meter Nazi." Typically, it’s because I tend to point out exactly where in a song we either sped up or dragged behind. In fact, I used to think that I had good meter, until I started to study with Anthony. Then he sat me down with a metronome and had me play a few things, letting me know that I was pretty consistently rushing the 3rd beat of most measures that I was playing and most of the other beats in some of measures. My, that was humbling. Well, humiliating may be a more accurate way of putting it.

Anyway, bass guitar is a somewhat unusual instrument in music. It's both a rhythm and a melodic instrument, so it has to hold down the rhythm while supporting the rest of the instruments. While there are some musicians who seem to favor melody over rhythm and others who tend to focus on maintaining the rhythmic structure, both are essential for good grooving basslines. The ones who can do both are rightly fully considered to be masters of the instrument.

One of the things that I really appreciate about good drummers is how well they are able to hold down the meter. When a bass player has a solid drummer supporting the rhythms, it frees him up from having to do all the maintenance that is required to keep the rest of the band in time. Now, that doesn't mean that the bass player can just wander off into space, playing notes in whatever tempo happens to pop into his pretty little head, but a strong drummer can build out a tight pocket. And then the bass line can sit just a bit behind the beat or ahead of it, and that breathes depth into the music.

And here's a little observation that I have made over the years. Good drummers understand time, meter and rhythm. Great drummers understand that drums are not only a rhythm instrument, that they are melodic as well. From something simple as tuning the toms to minor 3rds for a darker sound to choosing an array of cymbals and using their different tonalities to color the sound (as opposed to hitting the whichever cymbal happens to be most convenient to the drummer's hand at the time), the drummers that I go out of my way to play with are the ones that have rock solid time and approach their instrument as more than just backbeats.

When the drummer is locked on to the tempo, she and the bass player can start to work together. Her pattern on the kick drum will set up the rhythmic choices for his bass line. He can double up the same pattern (which will bring a lot emphasis to the bass line and groove – check out this one hit wonder from the 80’s for an example), build on top of the pattern (accenting the doubled notes while growing the feel – the examples are too numerous to mention, but here’s one anyway), he can play against it (doing a counterpoint to add complexity to the overall song – the rhythmic intricacy of this song beggars the belief to start with: that Jamerson played the entire line with one finger while lying down on this back is just astounding) or the bass player can do a combination of these three techniques at the same time. The typical bass line tends to heavily favor the first two approaches, while almost all bass lines utilize all three combinations at one time or another.

Most of western music is built around a 4/4 meter. I can't speak that much to Eastern music -- as much as I have listened to it, I know that I'm only scratching the surface. For most of us, 4/4 time is deeply ingrained into our psyche. Turn on the radio and listen to almost any song. Find the beat and count it; there will almost certainly be four beats in between the first emphasized beat you hear and the equally emphasized beat.

Still, not all music is in 4/4. Waltzes are traditionally in 3/4 time (think of the Blue Danube from the scene in 2001 when the shuttle docks with the space station), flamenco is traditionally in 12/8 and Celtic music leans towards 7/8. And, of course, in American jazz, any time signature is up for grabs.

Counting out the meter can be an exercise all in itself. Speaking for myself, I don't like to count in my head much past five. Once I go past five, I break the count down into smaller numbers that add up the way I want. For example, a song in 11/8 might be counted as 4-4-3 (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3), 4-3-4, 3-4-4, 3-3-3-2, 4-2-3-2 or any other of the various pernumerations that would still produce 11.

The break down is important because it changes the way in which I approach the music. Playing 11/8 as 4-4-3 makes the song feel like a 4/4 groove with a truncated third measure. Playing it as 3-3-3-2 brings a strong triplet feel to the tune. And 3-4-4 takes the 4/4 groove and keeps it off balance from the outset.

Once the tempo and the feel have been decided and all the musicians are on the same page (or all in agreeance about the individual pages they are all on), the music can take shape. While it is possible for a song to be coherent with each musician playing a different meter (I can recall a jazz composition from years ago that had the drummer in 3/4, the bass line in 4/4, the keys in 5/4 and the guitar in 7/4, but that’s far and away the exception), in most circumstances, everyone starts and ends in the same frame of time. Each segment of the song needs to have at least one instrument holding down the tempo so the rest of the musicians can key off of that part. More often than not, it’s the drummer that everyone else uses as their reference point, but this is not always the case. When the drummer’s not holding down the fort, the role almost always falls to the bass line. But, most of the time, it’s the drummer hold keeps time for the entire group throughout the entire song.

Speaking for myself, I have played a number of shows with musicians of less than perfect time. When I was studying with Kai, I asked him pretty much point blank how he deals with other musicians that have meter issues. He commiserated with me, relating to me a few stories about how he has had to deal with it over the years. But basically, we both try to solve the same problem in a similar fashion: If other people are rushing, simplify the bass line and drive home the beat; if they drag, add in some more notes to make things feel faster. Do this for a while (like three or four measures) and if they don’t catch on, go with it as best you can for the song and then have a chat with the other musician(s) when you get a chance.

If the band is comprised of people with innate good meter, the tempo issue doesn’t automatically go away – each member of the band has to be able to listen to the other musicians to make sure the meter is in sync. When that happens one of the more critical housekeeping elements of making music takes care of itself. The more in tune each member of the group is to the shared tempo, the more relaxed everyone is and the more organic the music becomes. And that’s when the joy of playing begins to shine through.

Posted by Casper at January 5, 2004 03:15 PM