need help counting

ron s

Senior Member
Pat Travers - boom-boom-out go the lights..
My band is doing a private party and the host requested this song.
This is one reason (among many), that I dislike private party gigs.
Anyway- I am listening to the song for the first time and it seems like the stops in the verses are not even.
I am a very basic 4/4 drummer. Looking for a bit of help from the more technically proficient members in counting the song out. What time signature is it in, and how to count out the stops.

Thanks in advance, I am learning a lot from all who post here.
 
There are a couple of different ways you could count this. You can think of them as four bars with bar two being six beats long or five bars with bar three being two beats long. I would go with the four bars with bar two being six beats. That would put the hits during the breaks on beats 1 of the first measure, and beats 1 and 6 of the second measure. Then two bars of four leading back into the guitar.
 
Thanks Doug- I will try it tonight. I have a couple of weeks to get it down for the event.

So would this be a case of the time signature changing from 4/4 to something else and back again?- I'm trying to learn what makes it an odd count.....

I have to admit, I had heard the name Pat Travers- I think because Tommy Aldridge had played with him before Ozzy- but I had never heard this song before.
The guys said it was just a blues jam- I guess it is , but with an odd break timing.
 
It's all in 4/4, so no different time sigs. It's all about where to put your stops and stabs. Listen to it 10 x and you will have it. The stops and stabs all fall on quarter notes, not on the ands. Straight ahead. Just count 1,2,3,4 throughout and feel where they are.
 
One big issue is, will everyone in your band learn the breaks the correct way?

If after a few tries your band can't get those breaks, you guys might decide to do the song with standard type breaks.
And I'll bet if you do, no one in the audience, including the guy who requested the song, will know the difference.

.
 
Thanks all- What threw me was the third stop is on the 2 beat which is a bit odd.
I started counting 6 beats in the 2nd measure (thanks Doug) and after a few go-rounds I got the feel and went back to counting in 4's.(you were correct Larry)

Jim, I was thinking the same thing- the other guys may not be as serious about the time. We will find out on Wed if they did their "homework"

We usually play bars and clubs where we do our sets with maybe a few requests if we know the tunes, usually something we used to have in the sets but replaced with something new.
I don't like private parties- too much uncontrolled environment- booze and no bouncer. I always worry about having a level place to set up also. Usually on a sheet of plywood.
I did not vote to take this one, but we are getting more than our usual fee.
 
Private parties are usually great paying gigs.
Sometimes big tips too.
And more contacts and gigs can come from them.

.
 
I just listened to the first one but....8 count....

Stop on 1

Accent on 5

Accent on 2

start roll on 7

Note: It may not actually stop on the 1of the measure. That was just the logical place for me to start counting. You will notice that in my count, the roll goes into 7,8,1,2 so technically, the stop may be on 7,of the measure, then 3, 1 and the roll on 5. If I didn't transpose the math right, forgive me.


It's not that tough but everyone has to be on the same page and, you know how that can go.

If you guys are just learning it for one gig, you might want to consider just doing it in an easier fashion with simple 4 counts between the accents.
 
I'm torn between 4-4-6-4 and 4-6-4-4. I doubt it matters either way because the phrasing breaks up nicely for either method of counting that section.
 
Bart- I counted it 4-6-4-4 until I had the feel and switched to 4-4-4-4 with one of the stops coming on the 2 of the third bar.
Larry was right- I had to play it through a few times and listen to it a bunch to get the feel.

Jim- You are correct about the private parties paying more than the bar gigs, I guess I like the more controlled environment of a club. this gig is only $50 more per guy than our usual fee.

Thanks to all for the help!
 
Ha! One of my favorite blues-rockers of all time (the only Pat Travers tune I have on my iPad). But, yeah, it's just straight 4/4 with stops on some different beats...
 
It's all in 4/4, so no different time sigs. It's all about where to put your stops and stabs. Listen to it 10 x and you will have it. The stops and stabs all fall on quarter notes, not on the ands. Straight ahead. Just count 1,2,3,4 throughout and feel where they are.

I would disagree about it all being in 4/4. The second bar of the breaks has two extra beats. That happens twice in the song during the first and second verses. Two extra beats twice in the song would equal four beats, so theoretically you could count 4/4 all the way though and after the second bar of the second set of breaks, you would be back around on 1 through the rest of the song. The issue with doing it that way, is that if you count 4/4 all the way through, then the chord changes start happening on beats 3 of each measure at the end of the first set of breaks and then continue that way until the end of the second set of breaks where they flip back around to changing on beats 1. If you want to confuse the guitar player, you could try explaining that to him, but if you just count it using those two extra beats both times, then the chords always change on beat 1 of each measure.
 
Update-
I went to rehearsal last night, and the other guys had no idea how to count the stops...sigh....

I went over the 4-6-4-4 count and after we went through it a few times it smoothed out nicely. We came up with an ending, but we have to agree on the arrangement, since they were listening to a live version and I was working with a studio version.

We might throw it into our regular set list, since it is one of those songs that you can extend if the crowd is dancing. You can add as much "guitar solo" time as needed to keep the people on the dance floor for a while. Basically soloing in E and add some Boom-Boom 's to let the well lubricated yell "out go the lights".

Thanks to all for the help-
 
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