Further to yesterday's discussion of meter, and conducting as a way to better hear it - here are two interesting (and well-known) rock songs that use the unusual 7/4 time signature: Pink Floyd's "Money", and Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill". In this meter, a good conducting pattern is a measure of three and then a measure of four or vice versa (see yesterday's post for instructions for conducting in both three and four). Try them both with the two songs, and see which fits better for each. Also, at certain points the time shifts back to straight 4/4 - see if you can figure out where. (The answers are available in the songs' Wikipedia entries.)

Another interesting technique used by composers is the concept of "disguising one", wherein it is not easy to determine where the count begins. Two Radiohead songs come immediately to mind: the first is "Let Down" from OK Computer, which could be thought of as beginning with a bar of 23/4 - not exactly the traditional "One Two Three Four!" of rock and roll. (Thanks to Ethan Iverson's great Do The Math blog for this, by the way.) The other is "Videotape" from In Rainbows, where the band itself had a lengthy discussion regarding the location of one. There are plenty more examples from their repertoire that are worthy of discussion, and over time I hope to get to more of them.