Odd time-signatures apreciation - Progressive Rock Music Forum

garla1lh wrote:

Peter Gabriel also has a great use of odd-time signature in Solsbury Hill. Most of the song is is 7/4 but he makes it flow so well, you don't even notice! Also I love Awaken by Yes where its 11/4 in the second section of the song!

Good choices here!

jsem wrote:

Celestial Terrestrial Commuters by Mahavishnu Orchestra - 19/16

Good God, really??? No wonder I could never quite play along with it..... LOL

First thing that comes to mind in Easy Money from KC, first two verses in 7/8. Might be an over-used time signature, but KC, especially Brufford open another dimension in rhythm. If I heard correctly Bill plays 4/4 over 7/8 or sth. ... Confused

"At this very moment

We have drummer a playing in 7/8,
Drummer b playing in 3/4,
The bass playing in 3/4,
The organ playing in 5/8,
The tambourine playing in 3/4,
And the alto-sax blowing his notes(nose?)."

I was going to mention part 2 of Long Piece No. 3

I really love odd time signatures but I have to say that I don't like when the thing doesn't flow... that's why I love Egg

But now my branches suffer
And my leaves don't bear the glow
They did so long ago

7/4 iz fur noobz
7/8 is where it's at baby!

JeanFrame wrote:

Nothing wrong at all with odd time signatures, but the challenge is to make them make sense in terms of the composition. If they're put in just to be clever or complicated, then it's completely naff and has no credibility. If anything, odd time bars make it double difficult to get the balance of the song right, but then again, when it works, it works really well. It requires sensitivity as well as sense. Trouble is, too many prog bands don't have either.

Could you give some examples of what you see as a good odd time sequence?

A piece solely in 7/8 isn't unlike a piece solely in 4/4.

Dream Theater is very much into this thing - almost any album have examples of odd time signatures
also Planet X has more exotic examples

taken from wikipedia

Soundgarden also used unorthodox time signatures; while such songs as "Jesus Christ Pose", "4th Of July", and "Blow Up The Outside World" are in typical 4/4 time, "Outshined" is in 7/4, "My Wave" is in 5/4 and 4/4, "He Didn't" is in 5/4 and 6/4, "Black Hole Sun" is in 4/4 and 9/8, "The Day I Tried To Live" switches between 15/8 and 4/4, "Fell On Black Days" and "Somewhere" are in 6/4, "Never The Machine Forever" and "Black Rain" are in 9/8, "Beyond The Wheel", "Get On The Snake" and "New Damage" are in 9/4, "Face Pollution" uses 9/8 and 6/4, "Rusty Cage" is in 4/4 and 19/8, "Ugly Truth" is in 4/4 and 6/8, "Limo Wreck" alternates between 12/8, 15/8, 9/8, and 6/8, "Half" is in 5/8 with a measure of 11/16 before a 4/4 section, and "Spoonman" alternates between 7/4 choruses and 4/4 verses with a section in 6/4. Thayil has said that Soundgarden usually did not consider the time signature of a song until after the band had written it, and said that the use of odd meters was "a total accident."^[102]

Klavierstruck IX by Karlheinz Stockhausen anybody? It's not rock, but there is a part of it supposedly in 142/8 time