Odd time signatures.

[apatheticbassist]

In my music theory class, we're discussing odd times. I want to incorporate some into my music. help me find some obscure ones, will you?

 

[Solodini]

Time signatures or examples of their use?

You can build interesting time signatures by building up combinations of 2 or 3 quavers (8th notes) or semiquavers (16th notes). You can also divide standard time signatures in this way to get unusual rhythms out of them.

 

[apatheticbassist]

Time signatures or examples of their use?

You can build interesting time signatures by building up combinations of 2 or 3 quavers (8th notes) or semiquavers (16th notes). You can also divide standard time signatures in this way to get unusual rhythms out of them.

i just meant the time signatures. thanks though.

 

[Nonapod]

If you want weird times, check out Frank Zappa's The Black Page and Gentle Giant's Cogs in Cogs. Also electronic musician Venetian Snares has a song called Kakenrooken Stivlobits that has a section that is in 89/8.

 

[Ralyks]

Also electronic musician Venetian Snares has a song called Kakenrooken Stivlobits that has a section that is in 89/8.

As someone who did their composition degree and loved writing in odd time, what the fucking fuck?

 

[Tatu Aleksi]

One of my favorites is Porcupine Tree - Cheating the Polygraph! It's not just odd signature for the complexity, but it also grooves really nicely. Check out Live from Anesthetize version. The 7/8 on the verse is just perfect.

 

[ArtDecade]

Also electronic musician Venetian Snares has a song called Kakenrooken Stivlobits that has a section that is in 89/8.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[sezna]

Gavin Harrison's "19 days" is in 19/8 (or 19/4? unsure). He counts it off in the beginning of his playthrough clinic video. It is also a lovely song.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I like to do mine by maintaining a four beat pulse, but using odd-number beats inside of it. So a measure of 7/4 would be four groups of 7 sixteenth notes (four groups of 3+4 sixteenth), or 5/4 would be four groups of 5 (2+3 or 3+2). It makes a lot of the stuff have a cool syncopated feel when percussion is maintaining a steady backbeat behind something that's accented that way. My personal favorite ones to use are 5/8, 9/8, and 15/16. They can still have a groove and be "tricky" to the ear.

 

[gnoll]

I like to do mine by maintaining a four beat pulse, but using odd-number beats inside of it. So a measure of 7/4 would be four groups of 7 sixteenth notes (four groups of 3+4 sixteenth), or 5/4 would be four groups of 5 (2+3 or 3+2). It makes a lot of the stuff have a cool syncopated feel when percussion is maintaining a steady backbeat behind something that's accented that way. My personal favorite ones to use are 5/8, 9/8, and 15/16. They can still have a groove and be "tricky" to the ear.

Lol, I thought I was alone in using 15/16...

 

[Solodini]

i just meant the time signatures. thanks though.

If you want odd time signatures but not examples of their use, you can pretty much stick any number over a multiple of 4, where the top number is the number of beats and the bottom number is the relative length of them and/or how they're grouped.

You're probably best not to have the top number be vastly more than the bottom number anything up to about 12/4 is just about manageable but beyond that, things start to get unwieldy.

Time signatures with 8 or 16 as the bottom number are a bit easier, as the beats group together which creates a feel of fewer main beats. Hence my mention and other people's mention earlier of using 2s, 3s and 4s to combine and make larger numbers.

22/16 could be a group of 5, a group of 7, a group of 9, divided respectively as (2, 3), (2, 2, 3), (3, 2, 2, 2), which would feel more like 9 beats of varying length, rather than 22 individual beats of a metronome. This creates some sense of groove which you can count through and feel the beat more easily than just counting from 1-22. There are countless other ways you could divide this particular time signature, though.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I'm usually treating it as five 3-note pulses and its fun.

Lol, I thought I was alone in using 15/16...

 

[Strobe]

It's not obscure, and it's not ridiculous signatures, but there are dozens of time signature changes in the song Schism by Tool.

 

[gnoll]

I'm usually treating it as five 3-note pulses and its fun.

I have one song that alternates between 15/16 and 4/4 where the 15/16 measure is a mix of groups of 2, 3 and 4. The rest of the song is 4/4 and alternating 4/4 and 5/4. It kinda just happened though, I didn't realize it was that involved til I put it in guitar pro

 

[GunpointMetal]

I have one song that alternates between 15/16 and 4/4 where the 15/16 measure is a mix of groups of 2, 3 and 4. The rest of the song is 4/4 and alternating 4/4 and 5/4. It kinda just happened though, I didn't realize it was that involved til I put it in guitar pro though

I love mathcore/math rock and I used to intentionally write in obscure time signatures as more of a challenge. Now its so ingrained I just figure out a riff to a steady click and then sort out the time signatures later. Rarely anymore do I land on a 4/4 on accident. Now I have to force myself into those patterns, lol.

 

[gnoll]

I love mathcore/math rock and I used to intentionally write in obscure time signatures as more of a challenge. Now its so ingrained I just figure out a riff to a steady click and then sort out the time signatures later. Rarely anymore do I land on a 4/4 on accident. Now I have to force myself into those patterns, lol.

My drummer once said about my music "if you want to find straight 4/4 sections you have to actively look for them". Oh well, I don't exist to make his life easy

 

[Blasphemer]

I love mathcore/math rock and I used to intentionally write in obscure time signatures as more of a challenge. Now its so ingrained I just figure out a riff to a steady click and then sort out the time signatures later. Rarely anymore do I land on a 4/4 on accident. Now I have to force myself into those patterns, lol.

I'm kind of the same way. I legitimately think my brain is wired differently than most people (ignoring the debate of 4/4 being a nature vs. nurture kind of thing). When I write music, I almost never write in 4/4 and have always been that way. It's in no way intentional. Most of the time I'll write a riff I like, and when I finally put it down on paper or record it, it ends up being in 11, or something. It's honestly a bit frustrating when trying to collaborate with other musicians as it makes it quite a bit harder to get my ideas accepted and/or understood.

In response to OP's post, here's a song from my band that changes time signatures a ludicrous amount of times. Somewhere in the 110-120 range (although some of those are strictly so the measures won't have stupid amounts of ties between measures)
https://capturethesun.bandcamp.com/track/orogenesis

 

[prlgmnr]

electronic musician Venetian Snares has a song called Kakenrooken Stivlobits that has a section that is in 89/8.

Does it really though?

 

[GunpointMetal]

I'm kind of the same way. I legitimately think my brain is wired differently than most people (ignoring the debate of 4/4 being a nature vs. nurture kind of thing). When I write music, I almost never write in 4/4 and have always been that way. It's in no way intentional. Most of the time I'll write a riff I like, and when I finally put it down on paper or record it, it ends up being in 11, or something. It's honestly a bit frustrating when trying to collaborate with other musicians as it makes it quite a bit harder to get my ideas accepted and/or understood.

Oh man, if I couldn't demo stuff with programmed drums I don't think my band would ever get anything done. Another reason I wish everyone who wanted to make music would at least read the first 3-4 pages of ANY music theory book where they explain basic rhythmic concepts and how to count. Now I just give the drummer a guitar track with a click and one with programmed drums and let him figure it out. Explaining it was a hair-pulling experience.

In response to OP's post, here's a song from my band that changes time signatures a ludicrous amount of times. Somewhere in the 110-120 range (although some of those are strictly so the measures won't have stupid amounts of ties between measures)
https://capturethesun.bandcamp.com/track/orogenesis

this is really good stuff, adding it on Apple Music till I go buy a bunch of stuff from bandcamp again.

 

[Drew]

help me find some obscure ones, will you?

Why does this read like something said by a NPC out of Legend of Zelda? Help you find them? Why, who hid them?

In a time signature like 15/8, the number on top is the number of beats per measure, the number on bottom is the note that gets one beat. So, 15/8 means each measure has 15 8th notes. You can have any number of beats per measure and use any note duration for each beat, so it's not like there are a finite number of magical combinations here, you know?