In this instructional video, J. Anthony Allen explains how changing musical meter can create tension and how resolving back to a steady 4/4 meter provides a satisfying sense of release. He frames the discussion around listener expectation: deviating from the expected 4/4 pattern generates uncertainty, while returning to it fulfills that expectation. Allen demonstrates the concept with an excerpt from his own electronic piece, "Circadian," highlighting how the opening sections shift meter constantly, making it difficult to count in 4/4 and producing a feeling of rhythmic instability. He then shows the music snapping into a clear 4/4 groove, which he describes as a comforting resolution akin to juggling many balls before they finally settle. The video serves as a practical illustration of meter manipulation, setting up a follow‑up lesson that will cover stylistic concerns and a formal definition of the 4/4 pattern.
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Okay, let's move on to talking about meter and how we can use changing meter to create a sense of tension and release. Now, what we're really talking about here is expectation. We can mess with expectations by adjusting the meter in different ways. We can also give a really satisfying sense of resolution by giving them. By giving the audience finally what they expect, right? So you change the meter, it's not quite what they expect. And then you finally give it to them and it feels comfortable. It feels like home. It's a great resolution. So we're going to talk more about expectation in just a second. I thought we'd start this section with. I want to go back and play. I'll just. I'm just going to play one of my tracks, one of my Something I wrote, and I think this is the song I played in the intro, actually. This is an electronic piece of mine called Circadian. Now I'm going to do the thing I hate, which is talk over it, just to point out some meter things. Okay, so it starts off with this bell thing. Now, if you counted this and you tried to count it in 4, 4, you would have a really hard time. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four. 1, 2, 3, Four. See, we're already off. It's in. It's in a shifting meter here, but that's not the point I want to make. So this synth is about to come in and it's also in a shifting meter, this. So if you counted the pattern in four, starting at the beginning, which is right here. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four, one. See, nothing's lining up on a beat. Now we get a steady eighth note, so we at least know where that is. But again, it's not going to line up in a 4, 4 pattern. 4, 4 is always what people expect. So it's this. There's this tension made right now from this. This odd meter, and we don't know where it is. If you tried to dance to this, you'd be falling all over the place because the meter is just shifting around. It's actually changing every bar. And you can't. You don't really feel it that way, but that's what's happening. In order to create this uncertainty, it keeps going longer and longer. Okay, here comes the resolution now. After all that, everything's gonna quantize into four, four, and you'll be able to count one, two, three, four. And it feels really satisfying. Two, three, four. One, two, three, four. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2. So everything that was jerky and in different meters suddenly snapped into 44 there. And it made sense. I had to change the music to do it to make it work. But it gives this great feeling of like. It's like you're juggling 10 balls in the beginning is what it feels like. And then it gets to that beat and it's just like, ah, okay, I get it. Like, everything fell into a pattern. We like patterns. It's comfortable. There's a sense of resolution there, and it feels really good. So that's how meter can influence this tension release thing. So remember, when I talk about 4 4, what we really want is this. We want to be able to count one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. So let's go into that a little bit more in the next video. In this one, I just wanted to kind of give you this example. In the next video, we're going to talk about stylistic concerns. We'll also do a little bit of definition on what that 44 pattern is.
