Songs Guitar Players Can't Count

[catness]

I'm compiling a list of songs that guitar players (and other musicians) I've worked with consistently cannot count. It starts like this

Comments

[gilana]

Huh, I was thinking Tell Me Something Good shouldn't be that hard -- I'm not much of a musician, but it just sounds like 2/2 to me -- but there is an extra beat in there a few times. Nifty :) Now I want to see the sheet music for these!

[catness]

Tell Me Something Good is actually in 4/4, and there are no extra beats. It just starts on the "and" of the 4th beat.

So if you count a measure like this:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

The intro to this song into the first verse goes like this:

and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
You ain't got no kind of feeling inside...

The count throughout the rest of the song is straight 4/4 until the end.

[gilana]

Thanks for explaining! That's pretty cool. Now I can laugh at guitarists, too :)

Love that funk

[drwex]

I'm not a musician so I can't comment on why guitar players do/don't get it, though.

[steam]

It's funny: when dancing I can feel the beat and count almost every song.....and then I run into one which makes me realize how all the folks who can't feel it or count it feel.

I recall one time my pro partner just stopped me and said, "what music are YOU listening to?"

Ooops.

[catness]

Heheh! I wonder about that a lot, too. There are so many things I hear in music that I know other people don't hear. So I am dying to know what things are there that I don't get... if I listen more will I get it? If I study more will I get it? Should I try to go to college again to learn it?

It's delicious, really. :)