Timing in this song.

[jalapejoe]

Can someone tell me the count for the drums in this song. Its at 2:13 of the song.
Black Hearted Women - Blue Murder (Tony Franklin Bass, Carmine Appice Drums)


Thanks,
Joey

 

[elgecko]

It stays in 4/4 throughout the 8-bar section.

It doesn't feel like it because of where the hits fall but it's really just a repeated 4-bar phrase. If you were notating it, you could call it 2-bars of 6/8, followed by a bar of 4/8, followed by a...etc, but that's silly since it adds up to 8-bars of 4/4. Occam's Razor.

 

[Bob_Ross]

If you were notating it, you could call it 2-bars of 6/8, followed by a bar of 4/8, followed by a...etc, but that's silly since it adds up to 8-bars of 4/4. Occam's Razor.

First off, I agree that the example from the OP is definitely 4/4. The implied 6/8 syncopation is such a common device that there'd be no reason to make it any more clear than it already is.

But as a matter of principle, I think it's important to note that just because a passage might add up to 8 bars of 4/4 (or N bars of X/Y) it's not always simpler to notate it as such. Remember that musical notation is designed to convey information concisely...and sometimes the information that's most important to know is how a passage is subdivided, and/or where the strong versus weak beats should occur, and/or whether or not any of that coincides or conflicts with the prevailing metric environment. Sometimes it is indeed simpler to leave everything in a single meter and add additional articulation, phrasing, and dynamic markings; but other times it is simpler to convey this via changing meters.

Context is everything.

 

[elgecko]

Yeah. Mixed meter would be the way to go in an academic sense but I tend to favor simplicity for the sake of practicality/readibility.

Having said that, I'm not sure if I'd prefer reading this in 9/8 or alternating bars of 6/8 and 3/8.