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1
Hey Ya!
Follow the strummed chords through the verse. One bar lasts only two beats, so the following chord comes racing in before the cycle gets back to its starting point. The guitar and drums keep moving through the short bar, which makes that little skip easy to dance through.
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Solsbury Hill
Steve Hunter’s picked guitar gives the song a light, repeating seven-beat stride. Follow that little turnaround as the singing comes in, then notice how the ends of the choruses have more room to settle. Those brief measures in four make the return to the guitar pattern feel especially buoyant.
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I Say a Little Prayer
Warwick sings each of the first three chorus phrases as a single flowing thought. Follow the bass and the words instead of clapping evenly. Each phrase has a short middle bar of three beats between bars of four, and her delivery makes that little adjustment feel like an ordinary part of saying the words.
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Blue Rondo a la Turk
Start with the piano’s three short groups and one longer one. After three trips through that pattern, the same nine eighth notes are grouped in three even threes. Brubeck lets you hear how much a set of accents can change the motion before the quartet opens up into a blues swing.
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From Eden
The little guitar figure has a swing to it, and that swing is already in place before Hozier starts singing. The opening five-beat pattern leaves his voice space to draw the ends of lines out. Try humming the guitar part through a verse to hear how naturally the two fit together.
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Golden Brown
The harpsichord offers an easy way into the rhythm. In its instrumental pattern, the tune makes three ordinary turns in three and then gives the fourth turn one extra beat. The sung verse settles into three, so you can feel the difference when the harpsichord takes the foreground again.
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Mission: Impossible
The low figure has two long steps and two quick ones. That repeating pattern carries the 5/4 while the brass gets to make its sharp entrances above it. Follow the low part and the theme’s sudden turns feel as predictable as a countdown.
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Seven Days
Vinnie Colaiuta makes this five-beat groove feel light on its feet. Pick out the bright hi-hat accents and notice how they move around in relation to the rest of the kit. The accents can suggest four while the underlying five keeps turning over, leaving Sting’s melody room to float.
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Money
Roger Waters’s bass riff makes its seven beats feel like the length of a sentence. The saxophone solo still rides that shape. When David Gilmour starts his guitar solo, the band switches to four, and you can hear the floor straighten out underneath him.
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15 Step
The opening electronic beat sets up the loop before the band fills it in. Hear how the clean guitar slides into spaces in that same five-beat pattern. The arrangement can grow busier without disturbing the bounce the song gives you at the start.
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Everything’s Alright
Elliman’s refrain is a good way to hear how gently five beats can rock back and forth. The accompaniment establishes the sway before the other characters challenge what Mary is doing. Pay attention to how settled her line sounds next to the urgency Gillan and Head bring.
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Jocko Homo
The verses have a clipped, insistent seven-beat movement. Mark Mothersbaugh delivers the lines in short bursts, so the emphases in his voice help you locate the return of the riff. That stiff little strut makes the rhythm part of the song’s character.
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Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
The busy opening has a five-beat lilt you can pick out by following the repeating piano. The notes keep tumbling forward even as the ensemble thickens around them. Following that figure gives you a foothold in an arrangement that has several other things asking for your attention.
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Turn It On Again
Mike Rutherford’s main riff comes round in thirteen eighth notes. Collins keeps the momentum strong enough that the riff still feels ready for a singalong. Follow where the guitar begins again and you can hear the slight hitch in a song that keeps inviting you to move.
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Spoonman
The verse riff has a seven-beat stomp, and the drums keep its blunt accents easy to follow. When the chorus shifts to four, Chris Cornell gets to stretch the vocal across a more even stride. Listen for the sharp change in the way the guitar pushes back when the verse returns.
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Indian Lady
The brass plays with such force and clarity that the five-beat groove feels like a dance step. Let the rhythm section carry you through the repeated figure while the horns throw accents across it. Choose the full album performance to hear that pulse survive the space the band gives its soloists.
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Schism
Justin Chancellor’s bass figure tells you when to expect the next accent. The part alternates groups of five and seven eighth notes, and each group starts with a quick climb. Focus on that repeated climb and the figure becomes easy to recognize even as the lengths alternate.
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Crystalline
The chiming gameleste figure in the verses runs in seventeen eighth notes. Follow Björk’s voice until the refrain settles into four and hear how much more squarely the melody lands. The song keeps returning to those two shapes before the rush of drums near the end.
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