Metric superimposition is the trick of implying a different meter on top of the meter you're actually in. The bar is still 4/4. The band is still in 4/4. But you play a phrase whose natural length is 5 beats, and you keep repeating it. The phrase moves through the bar — its accents land on different counts each time around — and only after several bars does it line up with the downbeat again. That's the "wheel".
This is not the same as being lost. The bar of 4/4 is still ground truth. You are aware of where 1 is on every bar, but you are choosing to play a 5-beat melody on top of it, the way Elvin Jones chose to phrase quarter-note triplets across a 12/8 swing or Vinnie Colaiuta would loop a 5-stroke pattern across a 4/4 fusion groove. The ear hears the disagreement and the resolution.
The math
- 5 over 4: a 5-beat phrase repeats every 5 beats. The 4/4 bar is 4 beats. They reconcile every 5 bars (20 beats = 4×5 = 5×4). The phrase rotates through the bar.
- 7 over 4: a 7-beat phrase reconciles every 7 bars (28 beats). Slower wheel, more disorientation.
- 3 over 2: a 3-beat phrase against a 2-beat bar (or half a 4/4 bar) reconciles every 6 beats — the cleanest rotation.
How to keep your place
Plant the bar with your feet. Kick on 1 and 3, hat on 2 and 4. Your hands play the implied phrase. As long as the feet hold the truth, the hands can wander and you won't get lost.
Exercises
The accented snare on beat 1 is the start of a 5-quarter-note phrase. Loop the bar; the next accent falls on the &-of-2 of bar 2, then on beat 4 of bar 3, then on the &-of-1 of bar 4, then on beat 3 of bar 5. After bar 5 the accent returns to beat 1. Five bars of 4/4 = four loops of the 5-phrase. That's the wheel. Plant the kick on 1 and 3 so you don't lose the bar.
Same idea but the implied phrase is 7 quarters long. Wheel reconciles every 7 bars (28 beats). The accents fall at: bar 1 beat 1; bar 2 beat 4; bar 3 beat 3; bar 4 beat 2; bar 5 beat 1 (almost!); bar 6 beat 4; bar 7 beat 3 — then bar 8 returns to beat 1. Slow, deeply disorienting. Anchor on the kick.
Accents every three 8th notes — a dotted-quarter pulse — laid over a normal 4/4. In bar 1 the accents land on 1, &-of-2, and 4. Loop two more bars and the accents reset to beat 1. The 3-pulse is a quick, dance-like wheel; you'll often hear this in fusion choruses where the drummer is playing a normal 4/4 backbeat but accenting a 3-phrase on top.
The hands play a 5-sixteenth-note phrase (snare-snare-hi-tom-mid-tom-floor-tom) on a loop. Inside one bar of 4/4 (16 sixteenths) it fits three full times plus one note. Each successive bar the phrase shifts by one 16th relative to beat 1, and after five bars it returns to where it started. This is the canonical Vinnie/Weckl wheel. The kick on 1 and 3 is your lifeline — do not let it slip.