From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Rhythm
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Odd time signatures
From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Rhythm
Odd time signatures
- Asymmetrical or complex time signatures have five or seven beats per measure. More often, you might hear these called odd time signatures. Rhythms based off of these have different feels than rhythms based on twos, threes, and fours. Five and seven beat rhythms date back to ancient Greece and Persia, and are still used in many traditional musics around the world. Like Hungarian folk music, and Indian folk and pop music. They're also often used in jazz tunes and in prog rock tunes. Such as in Pink Floyd's song Money. Where the main riff is in 7/4 time. Possibly the most well-known song in 5/4 time is Dave Brubeck's classic Take Five. The essence of that beat goes something like this. One, two, three, four, five. (drum beats) When counting odd time signatures it's good practice to break them up into groupings of twos and threes, and add emphasis when counting. Like one-two, three, four-five, one-two, three, four-five. Or even make it more simple one-two, one-two-three, one-two…
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