Weirdest Time Signatures

[geshel]

Just a quick question for you guys:
Do you count while playing in weird meters, or just memorize the groove?

Both.

But for most I don't count them every time I play them. Counting while learning, yes.

 

[metalguy2]

The harder time signatures are in the ??/16 catagory. Anything else is pretty standard as far as odd times go. ??/4 is a great way to have fun and still make people groove though.

 

[geshel]

The harder time signatures are in the ??/16 catagory. Anything else is pretty standard as far as odd times go. ??/4 is a great way to have fun and still make people groove though.

Well, it really depends on what you're playing. If you're playing a steady stream of 16ths, things like 31/16 etc aren't necessarily that hard. For me the tough part is to play something with more space, and/or syncopated, over an odd meter.

For example, the bassline to "Starless" by King Crimson. The 13/4 section is harder for me than the 13/8 section.

 

[Tash]

The harder time signatures are in the ??/16 catagory. Anything else is pretty standard as far as odd times go. ??/4 is a great way to have fun and still make people groove though.

15/16 for t3h w1n

Sounds like 4/4, till you "forget" a beat.

Whats really cool is splitting into multiple time sigs between the instruments. One of my band's songs has a riff in 5/4, except the drummer plays in 6/4 over it. The guitars repeat the riff 6 times, he repeats his groove 5. We sync up in the end (we both play 30 beats) but it sounds totally out of wack for the duration.

Tool is fond of this, though our approach is more subtle (the material is slower with wider spacing between notes, so the lack of symetry isn't as obvious).

 

[geshel]

OK guys, extra credit time:

http://home.comcast.net/~taylorsherman/crafty/triangulation3.mid

 

[Phil Mastro]

I'm surprised nobody's mentionned the Dave Holland Quintet. I'd say they're the band that makes odd meters sound the most natural.

 

[Adam Barkley]

OK guys, extra credit time:

http://home.comcast.net/~taylorsherman/crafty/triangulation3.mid

um, 4/4.

 

[troll]

Some of polyrythymic passages on the later Morbid Angel albums are just insane. I worked one out that was in 33/8 spilt between two guitars.

I'm a big fan of "odd" time sigs personally. They make appearances in almost all my compositions. 9/8, 11/8 and 15/16 are favorites (I don't cound 7/4 and 5/4 as "odd").

Thank you for mentioning that. Theres a lot of really wild changes with some of the better death metal bands. I recall hearing a Death tune the other day that I wasn't familiar with that was just goofy.

Can't say I work on counting or anything, probably why I'm still an amatuer player at best after all these years.

Troll

 

[geshel]

um, 4/4.

Hmm. . . the two 'correct' answers are "I don't actually know" and "3, 4 and 5".

 

[primusfan1989]

11/8 is cool in primus' is it luck and allman bros' whippin post but the hardest for me is 5/4

 

[Dr_Bassius]

check out don ellis

19/4
33/16
no kidding

 

[leffe luffer]

I recently wrote a song that has a riff in 17/16, it then changes to 4/4 at the end of the riff. Theres also some 4/4 to 5/4 changes.

It´s gonna drive my drummer nuts.