4/4 has four quarter-note beats in each bar, counted 1, 2, 3, 4. It is the most common meter in the chants.

The pulse can be played as straight eighths, or, at a slower tempo, in a double feel, so the accompaniment still has life while the melody stays unhurried. The Harmonium & Vocal Aptitudes for Leading Kirtan Guide notes this for leaders, and the Aptitudes Guide lists double-feel rhythms as an advanced skill for percussion.

Many 4/4 chants are straightforward from start to finish. Others are in 4/4 but have an asymmetric feel because of the form, not the meter. Today My Mind Has Dived is “16 bars in 4/4, but it has an asymmetric feel: A is sung twice at the beginning, but only once when it returns in the second half.” Count a steady 4/4, and watch the form so you are not caught repeating A the second time.

3/4 has three quarter-note beats in each bar, counted 1, 2, 3, with a gentle three-beat sway. I Am the Sky is in 3/4 throughout: 22 bars, with an asymmetric feel because the last line, C, stretches “frozen sky” over 6 bars. Keep counting through those long held notes so the group comes back to A together.

The Cymbal & Bell Patterns Guide notes that Pattern 5 fits “the 3/4 section of O Thou Blue Sky,” among other 3/4 chants. Use that Guide for the actual strokes; the point here is to feel three even beats, with the weight on 1.

6/8 has six eighth-note beats, often felt as two groups of three: 1-&-a, 2-&-a, or two dotted-quarter pulses per bar. It has a rolling, compound feel, different from the three even quarter notes of 3/4.

Who Is in My Temple is in 6/8 throughout: each section is 4 bars, and the form is 24 bars in 6/8. I Am the Bubble, Make Me the Sea is also in 6/8: each line is 2 bars, and the form is 24 bars.

6/4 has six quarter-note beats in each bar. In Dawn Chant, line A is in 4/4, line B shifts to 6/4 for “Wake, My children, wake!,” and lines C and D return to 4/4. The extra two beats in B are easy to clip, or to treat as another bar of 4/4. Count all six beats in that line so the return to 4/4 lands together.

Some chants change time signature as they go. These mixed meters are where a group is most likely to drift apart.

Dawn Chant moves from 4/4 to 6/4 and back to 4/4, as above.

O Thou Blue Sky needs a skilled percussion group, as its own Notes say. A is in 3/4 and has one short 2/4 bar on the second ending; B and C are in 4/4 with an eighth-note feel and a short 2/4 bar on “heart of hearts.” The chant begins with a one-beat pickup on “O thou.” When you return to the top, that pickup completes the last short bar.

He Who Knows is 3 bars in mixed meter: 5/4, 3/4, 5/4. Cosmic Chants marks it Free, but it is sung in time, slowly. The Notes on that page offer a helpful way to count it for percussion: as 3/4, 3/4, 4/4, 3/4, which has the same number of beats and fits the lyrics well.

The Percussionist Aptitudes for Kirtan Accompaniment Guide also lists other odd-meter chants to study with the leader. In brief:

• Blue Lotus Feet (Cosmic Chants p. 6) shifts often among 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4. Its Song Form notes that it can also be conceived as 6/4, 7/8, and 6/8.

• In the Land Beyond My Dreams (Cosmic Chants pp. 72–74) shifts often among 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 5/4.

• No Birth, No Death (Cosmic Chants p. 27) alternates 3/4 and 4/4: it opens in 3/4, and the refrain “I am He…” is in 4/4.

• What Lightning Flash (Cosmic Chants pp. 64–65) is mixed throughout. The in-time verse moves among 6/8, 3/8, 5/8, and 4/8; a free-time verse follows; the pre-chorus alternates 6/8 and 4/8; and in the chorus, A and A′ are a slow 3/4, while B and B′ can be counted as 9/8 and 10/8.

Before a mixed-meter chant, take a moment with the other players.

• Read the Song Form and the meter line together, then the Notes (see How to Read a Song Form). Agree how you will count any odd or short bars.

• Speak or clap the form once without the melody, especially the bars that change length.

• Watch the leader’s introduction for the tempo and feel, then join rather than pushing or dragging, as the Aptitudes Guide describes.

• Decide in advance whether you will stay with the standard form or use a sub-form loop, such as the B and C loop in O Thou Blue Sky, or the C and D loop in Dawn Chant. A loop is easier if everyone knows when it starts and how it ends.

• Keep the pattern simple at the meter changes. Flourishes and fills belong in the stable bars, once the new grouping is settled.

If you are unsure of a chant’s meter, look at the meter line on the chant page, and listen to an SRF recording in the Listen section with the Song Form in front of you. Count along quietly before you play.