For The Love of Unusual Time Signatures! (Or Beats, if You Don't Get Me) (2 Viewers)

[ur_inner_child]

Here is a list of both mainstream, less mainstream and classical songs that are in unusual time signatures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_in_irregular_time_signatures#5.2F4_or_5.2F8

Have a browse.

You'll see Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, and Rage Against the Machine etc. If you have some of these songs, and still don't understand me, maybe you need a second listen?

For those who don't understand, you're probably aware that most songs are either in 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8 (ie for 4/4 you can count 4 beats over and over).


Do you own any of the music listed in that list?
Can you appreciate unusual time signatures?
Were you aware of this musical concept?
Can you follow the pulse?

I was curious, because at the Blues and Roots festival, when Bela Fleck and the Flecktones played, there was a piece in 5/8. I naturally followed, but noticed the crowd had no idea how to "bop" to the beat, but were desperately trying to.

I actually find 5/8 really natural to follow. They say we can musically count in 2's and 3's, so I suppose 5's are just me alternating between those numbers, whereas something like 11/8 would be rather hard to follow; alternating between 2 and 3 in weird ways.

Just wondering how aware some of you are of this concept? You guys are pretty bright

 

[AsyLum]

Doesn't seem to be too hard to follow, but I guess the perfect 4/4 is still regarded as the easiest

(2003) "Panic Attack" by Finger Eleven – verses.

7/4 rofl never picked that...

 

[ur_inner_child]

You'll probably find that (my own estimate) 80% of people our age have no idea about this concept though, even though it's so near for them to fathom.

 

[mr_brightside]

See avatar.

 

[Horseypie]

For a good song that changes a lot, check out The Dance Of Eternity by Dream Theater.

(1999) "The Dance of Eternity" by Dream Theater - incorporates an incredible number of time signature changes (in order, each entry written once): 4/4, 7/8, 3/4, 13/16, 15/16, 17/16, 14/16, 5/4, 6/8, 2/4, 5/8, 11/4, 9/4, 7/16, 6/16, 5/16, 10/16, 9/8, 15/8, 12/16, 16/16 (3+3+3+3+2+2), 3/8.

That was probably just showing off but anyone that listens to Dream Theater knows they're rather good.

Oh yeah, another interesting one:

(2001) "Ticks & Leeches" by Tool - verses are in 7/4, the section between the second chorus and the slow section is in 15/4 (8+7), with chorus in 4+3+3+2+2+2/8 and slow section in 3+3+3+3+2+2/8.

(2001) "Lateralus" by Tool - verse is 5/8 in first half and 4/4 in second half; chorus is 9/8 + 8/8 + 7/8 (based in part on the Fibonacci sequence)

 

[iwannarock]

love me some unusual time signatures.

7/4 or 7/8 ftw. really cool to groove out to on guitar.

i've never written songs that are unusual groupings the whole way though.

but what i like to do alot is have a riff that goes for a few bars in 4/4. then the concluding bar in 5/4.

what i suck at is playing fast lead lines where the beat is subdivided into 5 or 7 or something.

there comes a speed where i simply cannot subdivide in to 5 or 7. everything is either 16th notes or 16th triplets or whatever.

for example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFjKFDvyJ80

the run that begins at 1:39.

fucking neal schon. i can play the run slow.....as soon as i try and play it up to speed my brain can't comprehend 5 notes per beat anymore.

i've gone off topic.

 

[Josie]

I've done a little bit of conducting in my time, so quirky time signatures are very funky.
(No problems bopping along to 5/8)

These are the ones I have/knew about/both.

Mmm, definitely knew Take Five was in 5/8, but I love that piece

(1971) "Everything's Alright" by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice — album: Jesus Christ Superstar

<-- this is my favourite musical/play/whatever, of all time. 1 2 3 4 5, etc it's good stuff.

(1970) Jesus Christ Superstar - the instrumental section of "Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)", as well as other recurring motifs in the score, are in 5/8.

see above.
(1981) "Sat In Your Lap" by Kate Bush - verses are in 3/4, refrain is in 5/4.

(1982) "There Goes A Tenner" by Kate Bush - first part of bridge in 5/4.

(1986) "Master of Puppets" by Metallica - several riffs consisting of three bars of 4/4 followed by a bar of 5/8.

(2001) "The Picard Song" by DarkMateria - First measure of music after spoken introduction in 5/4, 4/4 rest of song.

(1973) "Money" by Pink Floyd – although the solo is in 4/4, as David Gilmour believed that it would be too difficult in simple septuple meter. The song is not in 21/8 time, as some may argue. Rather, the song has a triplet feel to it because the song has a swing feel. This causes some people to think that it is in 21/8 time.

That explains why the song felt triplety-but-not.

(1961) "Unsquare Dance" by Dave Brubeck

27/4

* Parts of Jetro Tull's "Witches Promise" could be analysed as in 27, divided 9(3). This distinction may be dubious as there is a fine line between 27/4 and nine bars of 3/4.

I've got a copy of the flute part for this somewhere, I'll have a look.

(2005) "Ghost Love Score" by Nightwish (the beginning most notably, as well as a few other points in the song. the rest is in 12/8 and 4/4.)

There's a few more as well. It's interesting to note that these songs often stand out, even if people don't quite know why.

 

[ur_inner_child]

Haha, Dave Brubeck and Take Five. As if that's not a giveaway.

And it's oh so danceable.

 

[melimoo]

i quite enjoy them. alternate dynamic to the music
they're usually the songs i like to sit/lie down to and bop my head

i cant remember if it was a song i heard or performed once, but it had alternating time signatures. fuck that was trippy

 

[ur_inner_child]

Oi Melli! Psapp is in there!

 

[melimoo]

haha i know! i saw that and thought of you!

 

[iwannarock]

meshuggah are pretty crazy with time signatures.

they have times where the guitarist and drummer would be playing different timesignatures altogether and they'd be like interweaving and stuff.

i dunno about it mathematically........but they sync up every so bars if you get what i mean.

its like controlled chaos.

 

[mr_brightside]

oh fuck yeah! sometimes the drummer plays different signatures simultaneously.
awesome crazy band!

 

[iwannarock]

oh fuck yeah! sometimes the drummer plays different signatures simultaneously.
awesome crazy band!

yes! yeshhhhhhh!!!

that polyrhythmic bastard.

 

[Horseypie]

Danny Carey does some crazy polyrhythms...Check out Eulogy by Tool or sections of Rosetta Stoned.

 

[Josie]

Haha, Dave Brubeck and Take Five. As if that's not a giveaway.

And it's oh so danceable.

 

[lessthanthree]

only faggots care about this shit

 

[iwannarock]

only faggots care about this shit

you cared enough to post in here ya faggot.

:wave:

 

[bowman]

Karnivool.

they have crazy drums n guitars going in n out of time sequence, i dont know what the timing is, but awesome to listen to

 

[withoutaface]

I listen to music, I know if I like it or not, and I don't think being able to say "omg I recognise this pi/e^12 time signature!" is going to help me appreciate it. That said I do have a shitload of stuff from that list (as I suspected mostly progressive rock/metal) and do see the use of it if you're studying/playing music.