This month’s meta challenged solvers to find a famous song. The oversized grid (53 x 11, to be exact, which is more squares than an NYT Sunday puzzle!) contains several large chunks of black squares, as well as a large number of three-letter words. These normally undesirable grid characteristics serve a very specific purpose: The grid is in the shape of a piano keyboard.

The grid also has seven rebus squares, each containing the letters “NOTE.” These squares, ordered from top to bottom, are on the keys C-C-B-G-A-B-C. The spacing between the notes approximates the duration of the notes. When played, this sequence forms the melody of this month’s meta answer, Somewhere Over the Rainbow (or Over the Rainbow).

When Andrew first came up with this concept, I was skeptical that we could make it work. We gave it a go, and I’m pleased that by and large our solvers loved the puzzle and thought the juice was worth the squeeze of the extra-large grid.

Meta Song:

I dusted off some of the rust on my jazz piano chops to do this fun cover with friends Marcus Miller on sax and Grammy-winning Nicole Zuraitis on vocals. Enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments:

Superkipper   This might be, without exaggeration, the best meta I have ever seen.

Burak O’Drama   Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. That the skipped rows indicate how long the notes are is a beautiful touch.   I’m glad you noticed!

ryoustra   Wow! I was over the moon with this over the top construction. Inspired! And some delightful cluing throughout too – kudos!

PTJefe   That’s a new meta mechanism! Very cool and imaginative. I felt a little like Tom Hanks in “Big”!

Mrc242   Great encoding of the song! My girlfriend’s daughter who has perfect pitch sang the notes and didn’t recognize it while singing it, but we heard it instantly when she sang it.

FunkyPhD   In memory of Iz Kamakawiwo’ole, could you cover this, topless, in a swimming pool, while playing a ukulele? I’m asking for a friend.   No.

oldjudge   Pete–This is an unfair puzzle if you have never played an instrument.

gpagano   LOL @ the TECHNICOLOR entry on the far right.

Alexander S   Cool concept, but the grid itself was a slog to get through.

Trout Almondine   Okay, this is an absolute legend of a crossword. What a brilliant idea, perfectly executed. This one is quite literally a masterpiece.

Alternative Music Clues:

Evan was the only alternative cluer this month, with three good ones:

UNO = [Muse song with the lyric “You could have been number one”]
ARC = [“She’s so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of ___, or Aphrodite” (Tal Bachman lyric)]
LEIA = [“A Day to Celebrate” singer in “The Star Wars Holiday Special”]

Groaners:

mmurphy    Truly NOTEworthy.

Gezi   Made me think to myself: what a wonderful meta! (Apologies to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole).

Abide   This one should garland a lot of praise.

Mikey G   What an Oz-some puzzle!

Allan Patterson   It’s where I go to “weigh a pie.” Please don’t Oz-tracize me because of my puns.

Matthew   Well played.

Totals this month:

241 correct, 37 incorrect

Rating: 4.52 out of 5 stars

Difficulty: 3.39 out of 5

Monthly mug winner: Kathy Lacey from San Diego, CA

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!