Music

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Songs With Odd Time Signatures

Last posted Feb 16, 2015 at 04:37AM EST. Added Feb 12, 2015 at 12:07AM EST
16 posts from 14 users

Title says it all. Post songs with odd time signatures (anything that isn't 2/4 3/4 or 4/4). I'm generally a fan of stranger music and I find that strange time signatures tend to lead to strange music so I'm just kind of curious what's out there.

Also, put videos behind buttons so as not to lag the thread. Here's a how to.

Last edited Feb 12, 2015 at 12:29AM EST

4/4 7/8 groove, baby! Hell, it's almost as fun to count as it is to play.

And then we have… this:

Featuring measures in…

⅗/4, ⅔/2, ⅔/4, ⅘/4, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, (4/3)/4 and 11/4.

Goddamn, Bo!

This song makes extensive use of hemiola, a musical technique in which the emphasis in a triple meter is changed to give the illusion that both a duple and a triple meter occur in the song. For example, during the first verse, the beat appears to be in 12/8 timing, while toward the middle of the song when the lyrics from the first verse are repeated, the beat can be perceived as being in 6/8 timing.

Jesus Christ, it's like Dream Theater decided to make a song that would be physically impossible to dance to no matter how hard you tried. I'd also love to see someone try to conduct that.

Crimeariver wrote:

Jesus Christ, it's like Dream Theater decided to make a song that would be physically impossible to dance to no matter how hard you tried. I'd also love to see someone try to conduct that.

DreaM theater in general tends to be like that, but that was one of their more extreme examples.

7/4 in main riff, 4/4 in the verse breaks and chorus, and then 6/8 in the drum solo.

You can also find a lot of video games adding some odd time signatures/changes.

Last edited Feb 12, 2015 at 04:00PM EST

Mother 3's final boss theme is in 29/16:

30 years later the time signature continues to mystify people

Last edited Feb 12, 2015 at 08:49PM EST

Here's some classical piano music.

5/4

12/8 and 4/4 in the same hand, plus changing meter.

Changing meter, syncopation, and different meters in each hand.

142/8, 87/8, 42/8, 13/8, 2/8, 21/8, 8/8, 1/8, 3/8, 8/8, 1/8, 5/8, etc.

Last edited Feb 12, 2015 at 08:57PM EST

King Crimson has always used odd time signatures and polyrhythms. This is probably the best example, with Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp simultaneously playing 5/8 with 9/8, 15/16 with 14/16, et cetera, while Bill Bruford plays in 17/16 throughout (more or less) on the drums.