BRAVO! This rhythm has been a puzzle for me for such a long time. And, although still somewhat challending to play, this makes absolute sense. Thanks for sharing!
I appreciate that explanation. It's especially helpful because the sheet music I've seen is even more jacked up. I knew there was a logical explanation out there somewhere.
I literally just looked up "black dog 9/8", before finding this! I just transcribed it a few weeks ago, for a bass-player-friend's band that's trying to get it down... I'm having trouble trying to explain the way it works to him, so I finally just learned how each 4 measures sounds in-and-of-itself to the 3*(9/8)+5/8 riff. I could already play it just fine on guitar over the straight beat. But now when I play it, I can emphasize the down beats so much better, and keep it so much tighter. I just sent him the link, so my friend can get another perspective, to reinforce what I'm saying.
thanks for that expanation, i am sure you meant at the end the drummer is playing 4/4 over 9/8 not as you said 9/16. i hope thats coreect or i am lost again. i used to be a bassist in a semi pro band covering this song, very tricky to play correctly when you have a drummer playing a different rhythm
Hi John! I should really say that the band is playing groupings of 9 16ths over a 4/4 pulse, and not imply that there's a "separate" time signature or whatever. There are simply weirdly-grouped phrases of 16ths, arranged periodically, which make the listener think that the time signature must have changed. The true masters of the "odd phrasing, disguised as periodicity, but it's really just 4/4" in rock and/or metal are Meshuggah, who make "Black Dog" look like "Hot Cross Buns"
@@julikun724 thanks so much for making the effort to respond. At least i understand it now I can play it but it's hard to concentrate when it strays. Cool thank you
This makes no sense and even if it did, it does not address getting in and out of the a cappella sections, which is the difficult part of figuring out how to count this song. The part you’re talking about obviously fits over a 4/4 back beat. I’ve always thought it’s just a fermata on beat two before the vocals enter, since it doesn’t seem to be the same each time, and there must have been a visual cue after a second rest fermata at the end of the vocal phrase. When they performed it live, they omitted the fermata (or 5/4 bar, or whatever it is) and just played it in 4/4. The biggest clue I’ve found is that there is a stick click before each reentry after what I still think is a fermata rest (not a 5/4 bar as claimed on Wikipedia). It was probably just too difficult to reliably hear the stick click in a live setting, so they did it without the fermata live.
I always wonder if the 5/4 measure after "hey hey mama" came about because Plant only had Bonham's stick clicks in his headphones, not a count as well, and didn't know where 1 was, and came in a beat early!
Fantastico!
BRAVO! This rhythm has been a puzzle for me for such a long time. And, although still somewhat challending to play, this makes absolute sense. Thanks for sharing!
JPJ: "Hey Jimmy here's one that will have toobers confused for decades to come!" JP: "Right, let's get Bonzo in here!"
And toobers didn't even exist when this was written. Only tubers.
This has baffled me for years. Thanks.
I appreciate that explanation. It's especially helpful because the sheet music I've seen is even more jacked up. I knew there was a logical explanation out there somewhere.
Thank you for this because no one understands how to explain what I'm hearing
Yeah really, WTF was that? LOL!
As a guitarist I looooove the whole explanation and your last comment 1000x times even more :D Hillarious!
So let’s see if I have this right ( I’m a guitarist btw )
it’s nine ba na nas over fore drum skins 😮😮
I keep watching this, but goddamn that song is still mystical!
Well explained, this cleared up the confusion the other videos on Black Dog brought up hahaha
Can we all appreciate that it took nearly 50 years to figure this out? Meanwhile... Page and Jones are watching. "Yeah... like duh."
this was literally a 50 year mystery for me
Demystified it still sounds badass
I literally just looked up "black dog 9/8", before finding this! I just transcribed it a few weeks ago, for a bass-player-friend's band that's trying to get it down... I'm having trouble trying to explain the way it works to him, so I finally just learned how each 4 measures sounds in-and-of-itself to the 3*(9/8)+5/8 riff. I could already play it just fine on guitar over the straight beat. But now when I play it, I can emphasize the down beats so much better, and keep it so much tighter. I just sent him the link, so my friend can get another perspective, to reinforce what I'm saying.
Great explanation sir!
Thank you for this.
Thank you 🥁😎
1:33 Cool Down please !!! 😂🤣😂🤣
...but i still don't understand that darn song !! 😫😫😫😭😭😭
Oh that’s fun!
The most interesting about it is, that I don't know how much bananas i have to count before ;-)
It's bananas all the way down
All I know is it sounds so backwards but in a good way.
thanks for that expanation, i am sure you meant at the end the drummer is playing 4/4 over 9/8 not as you said 9/16. i hope thats coreect or i am lost again. i used to be a bassist in a semi pro band covering this song, very tricky to play correctly when you have a drummer playing a different rhythm
Hi John! I should really say that the band is playing groupings of 9 16ths over a 4/4 pulse, and not imply that there's a "separate" time signature or whatever. There are simply weirdly-grouped phrases of 16ths, arranged periodically, which make the listener think that the time signature must have changed. The true masters of the "odd phrasing, disguised as periodicity, but it's really just 4/4" in rock and/or metal are Meshuggah, who make "Black Dog" look like "Hot Cross Buns"
@@julikun724 thanks so much for making the effort to respond. At least i understand it now
I can play it but it's hard to concentrate when it strays. Cool thank you
This makes no sense and even if it did, it does not address getting in and out of the a cappella sections, which is the difficult part of figuring out how to count this song. The part you’re talking about obviously fits over a 4/4 back beat. I’ve always thought it’s just a fermata on beat two before the vocals enter, since it doesn’t seem to be the same each time, and there must have been a visual cue after a second rest fermata at the end of the vocal phrase. When they performed it live, they omitted the fermata (or 5/4 bar, or whatever it is) and just played it in 4/4. The biggest clue I’ve found is that there is a stick click before each reentry after what I still think is a fermata rest (not a 5/4 bar as claimed on Wikipedia). It was probably just too difficult to reliably hear the stick click in a live setting, so they did it without the fermata live.
I always wonder if the 5/4 measure after "hey hey mama" came about because Plant only had Bonham's stick clicks in his headphones, not a count as well, and didn't know where 1 was, and came in a beat early!
Math
Rumer has it that it was done to make it harder to cover the song.
True
Info you need only to win a Jeopardy question. It still hits the ears wrong now matter how you explain it... Thanks though.
This makes no sense whatsoever.