Ludwig Gone Odd

If you’d ever done time in the piano lesson torture chamber, you’ve experienced Für Elise. It’s safe to say that it’s one of humankind’s greatest melodies and precisely because of its simplicity and compactness – no fat, all taut muscle. It’s also contains volumes of the dynamic and dramatic and, according to this rendition, it’s rich ground for diddling whimsy.

Composed 210 years ago, when the master was 40 and still had a few years left of hearing. This melody will live on as long as civilization does.




A little something about 7/8 time: Also called septuple time – it’s an odd meter – it was a rhythm better known in Asia and the Middle East. Westerners may know it from Rush’s Tom Sawyer and Led Zeppelin’s The Ocean.

This guy offers up a simple explanation and good description of what it sounds like. (You can skip the proggy guitar lesson that follows.)