Songs with odd time signatures

[Stickk]

This is for all fans of odd time signature music. Post you favorite song(s) with an odd time signature.

Some of mine: Keep it Greasy - Frank Zappa - 19/16 (solo and first verse)
Horse Hunter - Dillinger Escape Plan - 8/16, 10/16, 4/4, 8/8, 18/8, 6/4, 5/8, 13/8
Right in Two - Tool - 11/8
Pyramid Song - Radiohead - 16/4 (3/4, 2/4, 3/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/4 [what's your guys's opinion on this song?])
You - Radiohead - 23/4
Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt - The Mars Volta - 6/8 and 20/8 (during the solo)
Fake Paradise - Jean Luc Ponty - 33/16 verses (9+9+9+6)
Windows to the Soul - Steve Vai - 11/16
Jambi - Tool - 9/8, 6/4
Tatragrammation - The Mars Volta - ? a lot of wierd time signatures

please post!

[capnsandwich]

I've always been a fan of Rush's songs in 7/8 time.

Limelight
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Subdivisions (chorus in 6/8)
The Trees (the bridge portion)

etc. etc. etc....

Plus my band does a lot of weird time signatures, 6/8, 7/8, 3/4, etc.

[hbarcat]

Money - Pink Floyd

Starts in 7/8 then 4/4 then back to 7/8

Transitions between the time sigs contain extra beats

[santucci218]

The Dance of Eternity - Dream Theater
Heretics and Killers - Protest The Hero

[santucci218]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

Money - Pink Floyd

Starts in 7/8 then 4/4 then back to 7/8

Transitions between the time sigs contain extra beats

In an interview the guitarists said they switch to 4/4 because he sucks at solos in odd time sigs, haha.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

Money - Pink Floyd

Starts in 7/8 then 4/4 then back to 7/8

It's actually 7/4. The beat unit is the same both in the 7-beat and 4-beat sections. As a counterexample, the synth theme/guitar solo section of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" is in 7/8 because the beat unit in that section is half the value of the preceding section (which is in 4/4).

Originally Posted by hbarcat

Transitions between the time sigs contain extra beats

At 3:02, the song immediately switches from 7/4 to 4/4 playing a two-bar bridge (in 4/4) made of 8th note triplets played by the whole band. It returns to 7/4 at 5:07 without any extra beats in between.

[neurotictim]

Anything by Meshuggah.

[Stickk]

Originally Posted by neurotictim

Anything by Meshuggah.

Yes, I do agree about Meshuggah. Especially New Millennium Cyanide Christ, it's in 23/16! The drumming is also polyrythmic (the drum set is drumming in 4/4 and the double bass drums are in 23/16, like the guitars) which is very cool.

[mike_Ro11]

Soundgarden- Outshined 7/4
Soundgarden- Rusty Cage 19/8 switches to 4/4 at parts.

Tool- the Pot
Tool- Schism has several different odd time sigs.

[hey]

The Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater incorporates all these time signatures throughout the song (in order when they appear):

4/4, 3/4, 7/8, 5/8, 3/8, 7/16, 2/4, 5/4, 6/4, 12/8, 5/16, 9/8, 15/8, 11/8, 6/16, 6/8

[mike_Ro11]

Lot's and lots of Tool songs have odd time sigs. The two I mentioned before aren't the only ones. Tool has a ton.

[BigOldHarry]

What, no King Crimson? Thela Hun GinJeet has the greatest poly rhythm in rock that I've heard... Not to mention all their other great oddball meters...

[*ToNeS*]

Errata's Miss Discord... 33/16 with the guitar diddling 6/8 over the top.

[Stickk]

Originally Posted by mike_Ro11

Soundgarden- Outshined 7/4
Soundgarden- Rusty Cage 19/8 switches to 4/4 at parts.

Tool- the Pot
Tool- Schism has several different odd time sigs.

The Pot is in 4/4, 3/4, and 9/8
Schism is in mainly in 6/8 (with some rythmical hiccups), however, it also does go into 6/½ which is quite odd.
I love to write songs with times like that. My wierdest time is either 2 and an eighth/½ or the one I wrote in Free Time... AKA no time signature!

[Arpeggiator]

Originally Posted by neurotictim

Anything by Meshuggah.

+100000000000 beat me to i t

[bassman314]

I sing in a choir, and we do some old renaissance stuff that has no time signature

[Saetia]

Originally Posted by Stickk

Yes, I do agree about Meshuggah. Especially New Millennium Cyanide Christ, it's in 23/16! The drumming is also polyrythmic (the drum set is drumming in 4/4 and the double bass drums are in 23/16, like the guitars) which is very cool.

Meshuggah openly admit they feel everything out in 4/4 though and just play over the bar.

They have many interviews stating it as well as I've had the privillage of meeting them and working with them before I saw any of the interviews. First time was when they opened up for Tool. I took my handicapped friend to the show and we got in way early and got to meet Meshuggah. We got to ask all kinds of questions and they gave us guitar picks and drum sticks. After that they played a small club I worked at (max cap 660) twice within a year. It was really cool working for them as they are very intellegent guys and have a very quirky sence of humor. I even got to drive them to Walmart! It was nice to kick back and drink beer with them after the shows.

Lots of old Candiria (circa 300% density and older) does a lot of odd times and polymetric stuff.

Check out the band Hella. They do some awesome odd time stuff.

Imogens Puzzle by Psyopus is pretty sweet, part II is awesome as well.

Dillenger Escape Plan was mentioned, but go back further to the Calculating Infinity album to see the apex of their technical stature. It'll blow your mind. They do a lot of mirroring and algorhythmic stuff.

There's endless more, I second the Porcupine Tree, that band is wonderful.

Peace

-Benny

[Saetia]

The band After The Burial from Minnesota has a song called "Pi: The Mercury God Of Infinity" which uses PI to make a break down. Here's the excerpt from their myspace blog explain it. Sadly the song is no longer on their page as they went through some changes, got signed to Sumerian Records and are going a bit different direction with their 8 string Ibanezes.

Check it out.

I can send the song to anyone who would like it? Message me or add me on AIM.

-Benny

Pi was written and recorded only a few days before the completion of the Master copy, at around 10 am, with a couple of serious hangovers. Justin and I had talked about having a classical guitar intro into some sort of heavier riffage, but we weren't quite sure what that was exactly going to be.

We remembered back to a few weeks prior, when we were throwing around an idea of using the mathematical constant Pi, and incorporating it into some sort of complex breakdown pattern where the kick drum corresponded to each number as the figure progressed. Kinda creating the ultimate mind boggler of a riff. The complexity of the intro is often overheard, because it's hard to discern what is actually going on within the track, UNTIL NOW!!!

Here's a breakdown of the....um, breakdown, in the intro to our album, "Pi: The Mercury God Of Infinity"

The actual tempo is 120 beats per minute (bpm). You can hear this by listening for the closed hi-hat that is panned left: it is playing constant eighth-notes.

The snare is on beat three in 4/4 time at 120 bpm.

A crash cymbal accents beat one of the first measure in 4/4. It is repeated every four measures.

Now this is where it gets tricky: the china cymbal.

It's hard to feel the breakdown in Pi at 120 bpm, and this is mostly due to the china cymbal, which is playing a 4 over 3 (4/3) dotted-eighth note ostinato that begins on the "E" of one.



Confused?



Check it out: A quarter note is equal to one beat in 4/4 time, but so are two eighth notes, or 4 sixteenth notes. It's all about subdividing note values.

When you count a measure of 4/4 in quarter notes, it's: 1, 2, 3, 4.

When counting in eighth notes, it's: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +. (a plus sign refers to the spoken count "and" ex. "One and two and three and four and")

When counting in sixteenths, it's: 1 E + A 2 E + A 3 E + A 4 E + A. (Spoken: "One e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a)

So when I say the china starts on the "E" of one, I'm referring to the spoken counting value assigned to the second 16th note in a quarter note duration.

A dotted eighth note is a duration of three 16th notes, an ostinato is a persistently repeated pattern. Basically, the china plays on the bold-capitalized letters:

one E and a TWO e and A three e AND a four E and a ONE e and A etc.



Starting to get it? Cool.



At last, the reason Pi is what it is: the Double-bass pattern.

The formula of Pi for the kick drum was pretty far fetched at first, but seemed to work well once the track was finished. The numbers and rests in the formula translate to 16th notes on the kick drum, and 16th note rests. There is no kick drum beats where there are snare drums. Sooo, here it is:

With the decimal point BEFORE the number, and starting with the first number, move that many decimal points to the right and insert that many 16th note rests. Use one 16th note rest to divide the numbers you passed (when applicable). Continue on throughout the rest of the figure. No repeats.

So basically for the first step, you'd place the point (pt) before the first number, three: (pt)3.14159265

Next you jump the decimal three points to the right: 3.14(pt)159265

That's where you insert three 16th rests, and insert one 16th note rest between the other numbers you passed: 3(16th rest)1(16th rest)4(dotted-eighth)159265

Now, your decimal lies in between the 4 and the 1. So, following the formula, you move one point to the right of the 1 and insert one 16th note rest. There are no numbers to separate with single 16th rests, so you move onto the next number, which is 5, and follow the same instructions.






That's all there is to it! The formula extends out to 71 decimal points.

There's another secret to the actual track on the album, but we'll leave that for the people who try to figure out the riff and play it! Good luck, all you super intelligent mother****ers!!


-Trent | ATB

[AlphaMale]

Originally Posted by Stickk

This is for all fans of odd time signature music. Post you favorite song(s) with an odd time signature.

Some of mine: Keep it Greasy - Frank Zappa - 19/16 (solo and first verse)
Collapse the Light into Earth - Porcupine Tree - 15/2
Horse Hunter - Dillinger Escape Plan - 8/16, 10/16, 4/4, 8/8, 18/8, 6/4, 5/8, 13/8
Right in Two - Tool - 11/8
Pyramid Song - Radiohead - 16/4 (3/4, 2/4, 3/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/4 [what's your guys's opinion on this song?])
You - Radiohead - 23/4
Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt - The Mars Volta - 6/8 and 20/8 (during the solo)
Fake Paradise - Jean Luc Ponty - 33/16 verses (9+9+9+6)
Windows to the Soul - Steve Vai - 11/16
Jambi - Tool - 9/8, 6/4
Tatragrammation - The Mars Volta - ? a lot of wierd time signatures

please post!

You didn't bring up Necrophagist They mostly do weird time sig fills though, but that's cool I'm surprised you didn't bring up "Take 5". Every musician should know that song, especially when talking about Time sigs. Ever hear of Stravinsky?

[derrenleepoole]

Eleven - Primus