Ashwin Lewis
The song How Do You Sleep by LCD Soundsystem has sparked discussions on Reddit about the time signature and instruments used. The song's synth arpeggio, with its slightly different tempo, creates a polyrhythm that doesn't align perfectly with the other instruments. This unique feature adds to the overall appeal of the song.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Time signature | 4/4 |
| Synth arpeggio tempo | Slightly different, creating a polyrhythm |
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String instruments
Native American, New Age, and Celtic music are also good choices for sleep inducement. The British Academy of Sound Therapy recommends "Weightless" by Marconi Union, an eight-minute song with no repeated melody, which prevents the brain from predicting the next sounds.
Spotify has found that Ed Sheeran is the most popular musician on their users' sleep playlists, with "Thinking Out Loud" being the most common song. Laszlo Harmat, a researcher in Germany, agrees that music with a slow tempo is good for sleep, and specifically recommends classical music with strings, as well as New Age or electronic music.
Playing certain musical instruments can also help with sleep disorders. For example, playing the didgeridoo is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, and playing double-reed woodwind instruments may lower the risk of OSA.
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Brass instruments
Twenty One Pilots' "Level of Concern" features trumpet player Jesse Blum. Blum also plays the trumpet on "Best I Can Do" from Misterwives' 2015 album, *Our Own House*, alongside Murphy on sax.
Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are" features a saxophone and is often used for father-daughter dances.
Grayscale's "Without You" features explosive saxophone work that flows in a smooth solo.
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Bass
John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" features Klaus Voormann on bass. Voormann, a friend of The Beatles from their time in Hamburg, also designed the cover art for their album Revolver. He was the only bass player on Lennon's 1971 album Imagine, which includes the song "How Do You Sleep?".
In addition to Voormann on bass, "How Do You Sleep?" features George Harrison on lead guitar. The song is known for its bitter lyrics, which are directed at Lennon's former bandmate Paul McCartney. The song is said to have been written as a response to the rivalry between Lennon and McCartney, with Lennon using his resentment towards McCartney as a source of creative inspiration.
The song also includes string overdubs handled by Jack Douglas, Roy Cicala, and Shelly Yakus at Record Plant Studio A. The string section's warm-up recordings were used at the beginning of the song. To create a more lively sound, the production team had to put plywood on the walls of the studio, which was known for being a "dead room".
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Recording and production
John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded at the artist's Ascot Sound Studios. The song went through three generations of tape, starting as an 8-track recorded at Ascot, then transferred to a 16-track, back to 8, and finally down to a 2-track. Quality loss between transfers was mitigated by running a Pultec EQ on the sync head.
The song features string overdubs handled by Jack Douglas, Roy Cicala, and Shelly Yakus at Record Plant Studio A. "How Do You Sleep?" begins with recordings of the string section warming up. Klaus Voormann, who designed the cover art for Revolver, played bass on the song and the entire album.
Lennon used his resentment toward Paul McCartney to write the song, drawing on their rivalry and history as former bandmates in The Beatles. In a 1980 interview with BBC Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles, Lennon recalled, "I used my resentment against Paul, that I have as a kind of sibling rivalry resentment from youth, to write a song. It was a creative rivalry... It was not a vicious vendetta… but I felt resentment, so I used that situation the same as I used withdrawing from heroin to write Cold Turkey; I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and the Beatles to write How Do You Sleep." McCartney later admitted that the song "got under his skin."
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Similar songs
While I cannot find a song called "How Do You Sleep" to base my search on, I can tell you about some songs that are scientifically proven to help people sleep.
In 2011, Marconi Union worked with the British Academy of Sound Therapy to create an 8-minute instrumental called "Weightless", designed to lull listeners to sleep. Another example is "Sleep", an 8-hour piece by modern composer and classical musician Max Richter, which is meant to be slept through. There is also a 1-hour version available for purchase.
In general, music that facilitates relaxation and sleep is usually slow, soft, and instrumental, with simple repetitive rhythms and melodies, small changes in dynamics, slow tempi (60-80bpm), no percussion, and minimal vocals. Classical music, especially with strings, is the most effective for sleep, according to German researcher Laszlo Harmat. Other genres that are good for sleep include rock, pop, acoustic, jazz, soundtrack, and ambient.
Spotify has a "Similar Songs Finder" feature that can help you find songs with similar characteristics to the ones mentioned above. You can filter songs by energy, danceability, instrumentalness, acousticness, happiness, popularity, BPM, or key.
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Frequently asked questions
The time signature of the song is 4/4.
The instruments used in the song include drums and synths.
Yes, there is a polyrhythm created by the synths and the rest of the instruments, which are in different tempos.
No, the time signature remains 4/4 even when the synth kicks in.
