Bizarre Time Sigs
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Printed Date: November 22 2024 at 17:55
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Topic: Bizarre Time Sigs
Posted By: Cygnus X-2
Subject: Bizarre Time Sigs
Date Posted: March 23 2005 at 20:56
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This is a question: What is the oddest time signature you've seen displayed in a song? ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: penguindf12
Date Posted: March 23 2005 at 22:10
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Hmm... Van Der Graaf Generator's "Man-Erg" has a section in 11/4 (or 11/8). Anyway, there's 11 beats per measure. On the same album (Pawn Hearts), they use 10/4 (or 10/8 -- again, I haven't figured out how to use the bottom digit yet) in the "Clot Thickens" part of "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers". Also, I'm pretty sure that "Kosmos Tours" is in some weird signature, but I haven't figured it out yet. Van Der Graaf also used some 9/8 on "Sleepwalkers" from "Godbluff", I think. |
Posted By: Metropolis
Date Posted: March 24 2005 at 06:48
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Once you've played in orchestras or brass bands at a reasonable level
(just amateur ones, like me) these /8 time signatures cease phasing you
if it remains in the same time sig for a while, its when it starts
changing time sig every bar or that the bar gets divided into
sixteenths that it gets complicated. On sheet music the strangest ones ive seen are ones like 13/16 and 17/16, although ive played pieces in 9/2, which is far more difficult than it sounds as there is a bar the full width of the page with few points of reference in them (unless you "cheat" and draw in lines for the beat, like I do) ------------- We Lost the Skyline............ 
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Posted By: goose
Date Posted: March 24 2005 at 12:48
| 65/64, it's got to be. |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: March 24 2005 at 16:20
Rush used 13/4, 4/4, 12/8, and 5/4 in the song Freewill. 13/4 must be the oddest I've ever seen...or want to see!
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Posted By: penguindf12
Date Posted: March 24 2005 at 18:28
| I put together something in 13/4 on the bass by doing two riffs in 4/4 followed by one in 5/4, and it actually sounds fairly natural. You can do the same with 11/4 by doing two in 4/4 then one in 3/4. The weirdest one I've done is 19/4 by doing a simple measure of 10/4 followed by 9/4. Okay, so I'm not so sure about the "/4s" here, but since I wrote it, hey, it's whatever I say. |
Posted By: goose
Date Posted: March 24 2005 at 18:52
| Try jamming in 15/8: no matter how you accent it, it's always unbalanced. |
Posted By: Sweetnighter
Date Posted: March 25 2005 at 01:20
Beat me to it! Dave Brubeck was fond of odd time sigs... 5/4 in the classic "take five", 7/4 in "unsquare dance" and 9/8 in "blue rondo a la turk".... but if you're just talking prog then ignore him. ------------- I bleed coffee. When I don't drink coffee, my veins run dry, and I shrivel up and die. "Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso? Is that like the bank of Italian soccer death or something?" -my girlfriend |
Crimson Prince wrote:Posted By: Sweetnighter
Date Posted: March 25 2005 at 01:24
the bottom digit denotes what note type is designated as one beat... for example, a "4" means that a quarter note is one beat, whereas an "8" means that an eight note gets one beat.... so on and so forth... its usually not something you can tell from listening to a song, its more of a notation thing, although an experienced listener can probably differentiate between 3/4 and 6/8, both of which are waltz time sigs. (don't you love music theory?!) ------------- I bleed coffee. When I don't drink coffee, my veins run dry, and I shrivel up and die. "Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso? Is that like the bank of Italian soccer death or something?" -my girlfriend |
Posted By: Beau Heem
Date Posted: March 25 2005 at 06:20
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Time signatures are lovely... Too bad I'm lacking in the english terminology of the field, but I'll try my best to write something comprehensible... IMO, time signatures themselves cannot be "complex" or "simple". They are simply an instrument of notation (and, when it comes to it, also a means to learn a piece by heart for the musicians...). This means that the weirdest rhytmic elements aren't necessarily played in the "weirdest" time signature. Sometimes the weirdest rhytmic idea has to be presented via some other instrument of notation than the time signature - just to make sure that the musicians understand what is meant... An example: First measure: an "ordinary" 4/4, (8 x 8th note) Second Measure: again 4/4, each beat divided into triplets (12 x "8th note" when written, where an 8th note really is a 12th note) Third measure: 7/8 - the last 8th is "missing" Fourth measure: 11/12... a third note of a triplet is "missing", creating a rather wild rhythm (especially if the tempo of the piece is high enough). Now, theoretically, I have thought of carrying the rhytmic structure a bit further to the abnormal by adding an 8th note (a real 8th note and not the 12th note) to the 11/12 measure. That would constitute a measure with a time signature of 25/24, but it would probably be too damn hard to play for any band... Speaking of funny rhythmic elements, I once demanded a drummer to play three beats with his feet while doing seven beats with his hands... It took him a couple of months to get the "beat" going, and when he came to me saying that he finally got it (not that he would have played it nice and easy or anything), I couldn't remember why I wanted such a rhythm in the first place... Classical (or preferably, modern) music has used such rhytmic changes (from straight beats into triplet beats) for centuries, but those changes have traditionally been long (or longer) lasting than one or two measures and therefore it has made more sense to use a tempo change in the notation instead of a time signature change. Cheers -Beau ------------- --No enemy but time-- |
Posted By: Moribund
Date Posted: March 25 2005 at 06:43
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Well, any classical music from the 20th Century is likely to use constantly changing time sigs - check Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or Soldier's Tale for examples. Some times composers will put in 'silly' sigs just to be controversial. For prog lovers, two good examples of 13/8 times are Robbery Assault & Battery (middle solo) and Starless (Whole middle instrumental - 13/4 then 13/8)
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Posted By: etigger
Date Posted: March 25 2005 at 20:55
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in the last 2 minutes of "Home" from Dream Theater's "Scenes From A Memory" They jam in a time sig Mike P explains as a 19/16 or 4/4 with 3 extra beats added between each measure.. HUH?
------------- I stood at the door to a new beginning the future called and frightened I turned away |
Posted By: topographic2112
Date Posted: March 26 2005 at 00:25
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I never realized Genesis' "Turn It On Again" is in 13/8. I didn't notice it until seeing The Genesis Songbook. ------------- "Rock is the medium of our generation." - Yes - "Release, Release" |
Posted By: topographic2112
Date Posted: March 26 2005 at 00:26
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I've never studied time signatures. I need to start. ------------- "Rock is the medium of our generation." - Yes - "Release, Release" |
Posted By: penguindf12
Date Posted: March 26 2005 at 02:06
| I found a church hymn called "Morning Has Broken" which is in 9/4. And it's a song I know fairly well, too...I never would have guessed! |
Posted By: Cygnus X-2
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 20:07
Thought maybe I'd resurrect this old one and see if anyone can shed some new light. -------------
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Posted By: goose
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 20:20
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I don't think anyone's going to top 65/64!
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Posted By: Cygnus X-2
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 20:26
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Who played in 65/64? -------------
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Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 20:58
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A good part of Roman Bunka's "Glowin' " from his album "Dein Kopf Ist ein Schlafendes Auto" is in 34/8. -------------  BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue. |
Posted By: cobb
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 21:03
| Anything with a first number divisible by three is just compound time (dotted note as the beat value) and is pretty straightforward, but you guys are coming up with some pretty weird signatures here- did you make them up? |
Posted By: goose
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 21:05
Ron Jarzombek, with A Headache and a Sixty-Fourth (from the way he describes it, it's 4/4 + 1/64, but that's a bit of an inconvenient way to notate it) 
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Posted By: goose
Date Posted: November 03 2005 at 21:08
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Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: November 04 2005 at 00:00
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------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |