Songs that have a Mixed Meter
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0:00 Introduction
0:20 Golden Brown by The Stranglers
0:41 Faust Arp by Radiohead
0:53 Hey Ya! by OutKast
1:33 Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush
2:23 Blackbird by The Beatles
3:00 Four Sticks by Led Zeppelin
3:43 Thomann
4:27 Mountains by Biffy Clyro
5:17 Bastard by Ben Folds
6:15 One by Metallica
7:00 Turn It On Again by Genesis
8:47 Happiness is a Warm Gun by The Beatles
11:41 Clap by David Bennett
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ok
Thomann is really a great store
Please, Dream Theater - Dance of Eternity 🙏🙏
I have a Thomann piano
Tools entire discography
Exactly. I was hoping to see an example of Tool.
Prog in general lol
I know this is a joke, but Tool Ænima and before that is pretty 4/4 heavy for a progressive metal band, especially Undertow and Opiate. Even Lateralus’ songs generally aren’t in much mixed meter (except Schism lol and the title track), and songs in weird time signatures like The Grudge or The Patient are pretty much consistent the entire song length.
Sorry to sound like that guy, haha. When I was a teen listening to Ænima the first time I was actually disappointed between what I expected and what I got based on the hype, but tbh Ænima is much cooler for other reasons.
@@topofsm ænima happens to be my favourite album by tool it’s all cool bro
@@topofsm Just on the topic of The Grudge, one could argue that the entire song is in 10/8 (with the occasional 6/8 during *that* scream), but it's how they divide 10/8 into different groupings that can qualify it as a song with frequent time changes. Sometimes they actually are playing in 10/8, but sometimes they're playing two bars of 5/8. Sometimes one bar of 6/8 followed by one bar of 4/8. And sometimes five bars of 2/4.
Story 2 by Clipping is a rap song that changes from 3/4 to 4/4 to 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4 then does the same with eighth notes while sounding perfectly logical. It's amazing.
Hum, sounds interesting. :) I had never heard about that song before, but you made me want to check it out!
OK that was literally mesmerizing... Thanks so much for mentioning that song! 🙏Such a great discovery for me.
It also does a metric modulation, which is truly impressive.
it so perfectly encapsulates the heightening intensity of the story and the protags anxiety
that was incredible thanks for sharing
This is pretty common in the Prog world. As a drummer, the "Turn it on Again" is a great example. You have to really concentrate when playing this one.
That's what I was going to say. Turn it on Again very much feels like a leftover song from their 70's prog rock origin.
It's a little sad that Genesis received the label of "pop band" due to their success in the '80s, when a lot of their more well-known material from that time still carries a LOT of their '70s prog rock roots. They're a band who managed to bring prog rock to the mainstream in such a way that it feels effortless and many people failed to notice it.
@@Astfgl Same with Rush. Their 80s output is still proggy af even if it's 4-5 minute songs.
Dream Theater's Dance of Eternity is definetely a good example of a song that switches time signatures a lot. There are around 108 time signature changes in just 6 minutes(depends on how you write it down). Knowing that I think you can see why this song is regarder as one of the most complex progressive metal pieces of all time.
If you think DoE is crazy look up "soflan-chan" on TH-cam, it's a weeb song but it has even more time signatures and has a bonus, tempo changes too.
@@bazookaman1353 and if you that isn't crazy enough the rite of spring by Igor Stravinsky has the Guinness world record for the most time signature changes
@@ok5988 True, but it's 40 minutes long so the density isn't as strong at times.
@@bazookaman1353 yes indeed so instead how about bloom by through the buried and me, which has just time signature changes as dream theater but nearly half the length
@@ok5988 Interesting, never heard of it.
One of my favorite examples of mixed meter in when Blondie switches to 7/4 in the chorus of Heart of Glass. Yes, 7/4 in a disco song. 🙂
Just listened - it's only during the keyboard break where they switch to 7/8 (which is over the chorus chords). Never noticed that.
It was in his “songs that skip a beat” video already. (Notated as alternating 4/4 and 3/4 measures.) It’s a cool sound and really resolves once you get back into the 4/4 section.
@@djijspeakerguy4628 Yes, I see that now, thanks. He does mention at the end it can also be notated as 7/4.
THANK YOU!!! I was looking for a song which I couldn't remember the title or the lyrics of, all I remembered was that it changed signature. Hoped to find it in the video, found it thanks to your comment instead :D
Funny that for Turn It On Again, Mike Rutherford played a slow guitar riff at first. Phil told him to speed it up and said ‘Do you realize it’s in 13/8’ on which Mile replied ‘What do you mean it’s in 13/8, it’s in 4/4’ but it was in 13.
I've read a lot of bands are that way. Even for myself; I've noticed when I get ideas that just pop into my head they often don't follow along a specific meter or key or anything.
I find it interesting that nearly every example listed is from before the widespread use of DAW recording. I'm speculating that before artists, engineers, and producers could see their songs laid out bar-by-bar on a grid, it was easier to write a mixed-meter song "by feel" and not realize it - whereas nowadays there's a higher chance that someone might only recognize mixed-meter songs aren't lining up to that grid in the expected way and try to "fix" them.
I recall an interview where Collins talked about pointing out to Rutherford that his Turn It On Again riff was in 13 when he first played it for him. Rutherford just hadn't thought about it.
I think the solo from Money by Pink Floyd is in 4/4 rather than the rest of the song that is in 7/4
Good example!
Whats even cooler about Happiness is a Warm Gun I’d that during the final 3/4 section, Ringo is still playing in 4/4 while everyone else is in three.
Also I think here comes the sun is possibly the greatest mixed meter pop song of all time as it’s got some really wild time signature changes yet it sounds so natural when listening to it.
wow hello kenji, cool to see you here
9:52 As a song I've analyzed deeply, I have to say that this part while technically being mixed meter, is also a really great and accessible example of polymeter. The harmonic section (bass, guitar, keys) switch to 3/4, but Ringo's drums continue in 4/4 (maybe due to him not knowing exactly what is happening there) so you end up with 3 bars of 4/4 drums over 4 bars of 3/4 harmony. The drums written on 3/4 sheet would look like this | K _ S | _ K _ | S _ K | _ S _ |, which is quite different than they would be if Ringo were internalizing the 3/4 time.
I think ringo knew, they just liked the wonky 4/4 over 3/4 feel. He plays in 3/4 earlier in the song.
He totally knew
I tend to think also that he knew; however their sound engineer Geoff Emerick has told that quite often they really didn't have an idea what they were doing by their metrics, and Geoff had to clear up the mess what (mainly Lennon!) :-) was creating. Simply by cutting and glewing the tape, to make the time signatures to fit. Yet he did it with great discreetness, and always discussing his proposals with the band.
Ben Folds had an interesting discussion of "Bastards" on his podcast Lightning Bugs. I believe it was in the episode with Chris Thile. He talked about wanting to get free of the tyranny of a fixed time signature. He wrote the song by feel, so it would sound more like the way he would play if he was just sitting alone at a piano. And then the band had to sort of figure out what he was doing and follow along. His goal was to have a song with a bunch of rhythmic variation that felt "natural" and not like a prog track. I think he succeeded. When I listen to it, I hardly hear the meter changes.
I've been listening to Bastard for years and never noticed the shifting time signatures till this video! I've always wondered why I got the timing of Ben's "Huh!" at the end of the track wrong way too often. Songs For Silverman is a criminally underrated album and it's great to see it get credit where credits due.
@@geordiemack4143 Same here. I guess that's a sign of great writing, when something odd actually sounds perfectly natural
One of my personal favourites is Mother, by Pink Floyd. It's a conversation where the son sings in 4/4 (actually it sounds like an alternating 3/4 and 5/4) and the mother sings in 3/4. It's so well done and so simple and the two time signatures blend so well together because of the off-beat 4/4
Perfect example! Actually if I am not mistaken, each sentence during the verse even starts with a bar of 5/8 followed by a few 4/4 bars (I can't remember if there are 4 or 5 of them 😅), then it's all 4/4 until the last bar which is a 3/4 one. The chorus switch extremely smoothly to 6/8 (Btw, a very similar change can be heard in the chorus section of Dream theater's "fatal tragedy", which is an even funnier example due to the fact that the melody stays the same, only the meter changes).
And indeed it seems like the "mother" changes in time signatures also represent the changes of focalization (from the son to the mother). Brilliant song anyway, thanks for mentionning it. 👌 The comments section is almost as interesting as the video itself! 😁
@@kilianbeyly3934 Oh yeah, you're right... it's a lot more complicated than how I described it.
@@ESLSongs Yes but that's the beauty of it : we all perceive it as a very natural sounding rhythm due to the fact that it fits the lyrics and singing perfectly. :) (and I had even forgotten about that 9/8 bar at the end of the chorus 😅)
And another fun fact : Nick Mason himself found this song extremely hard to play because of the numerous meters changes. Therefore he is not drumming on that one, but the band hired Toto's Jeff Porcaro just for that very track.
@@kilianbeyly3934 Yes, it's a beautiful song, although I'm surprised Mason found it too hard to play considering how naturally the meters combine with each other.
I remember that Jugband blues, from the Barrett era, had a very confusing music sheet
Now I understand why Genesis finished up with a whole album called "We Can't Dance". :-)
As mentioned already: Genesis' "Firth of Fifth"!
Its really weird, erratic and confusing time signature mix in the piano intro and first half of the instrumental section is worth talking about one day, David! 😊
The entirety of "Selling England By The Pound" is filled with odd time signatures and meter changes. Songs like "The Battle of Epping Forest" and "Cinema Show" are almost impossible to dissect, but they're real adventures of musical discovery. Wonderful album, and I'm glad that Genesis themselves kept honoring it even up to their last tour.
Yeah I was waiting for him to mention that. It's like 2/4 15/8 2/4 13/8 and then keep alternating until the verse starts with 4/4 and the songs stays there until that bombastic part that returns to the beginning theme with the alternating time signatures.
Don't know if they ever cracked the top 10 but Tool's Schism is a hit that is very metrically erratic.
And of course there is Outshined with it's 7/4 verses and 4/4 chorus
Rush Limelight is a hit that is all over the place.
Schism won a Grammy
Edit: curiosity got the best of me. None of Tool's singles reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 charts, but had decent showings in the US Billboard Rock charts. Their albums however peaked at 19, 2, 1, 1, and 1 on the Billboard 200.
Was really expecting some Tool on a changing time signature video ^^ Pneuma would also be a good example
Freewill is another Rush hit with really erratic time changes.
A band my sister was fronting once lost a battle of the bands because they played "Schism" perfectly and the judges didn't know the song and thought many of the time signature changes were mistakes.
But they don’t count because they aren’t Radiohead or the Beatles
Shine on you crazy Diamond parts 1-5 shifts from 3/4 to a more bouncey 6/8 during the sax outro, as a more jarring transition to Welcome to the Machine(the next track) and parts 6-9 briefly dips into a 4/4 pattern for its disco section
As you say at the end, many of these examples will arise from an “intuitive songwriter” approach, where playing around with melody ends up with shifting rhythms without having been deliberately planned that way. Some will come from the other extreme, where the drummer or other rhythm-focused musician intentionally explores complex rhythms: less common in pop, but more prevalent in prog or experimental styles such as Genesis or Radiohead. Another case might be the theatrically-inclined such as Queen, where the changes might mark distinct sections in a through-composed song.
Such a good video! Thanks for the feature :)
The Logical Song by Supertramp is another one that alternates between 6/4 and 4/4 in the verse sections.
Wow, I never realized Happiness is a Warm Gun was all over the place with its time signatures. I was the same with the 7/8 sections of Paranoid Android by Radiohead until it was pointed out to me.
I'll add Tool's "Schism" as a song that reached the top 10 (number 2 on a couple of US charts) and is all over the place with the time signature.
I wrote a 3/4 time "instrumental" section into an otherwise 4/4 song a couple of years ago, and I was really proud of it! (Wish me luck getting it recorded!)
Zappa’s Flower Punk. Groove changes between 7/8 and 5/8.
Coldplay's "Glass of Water" from their Prospekt's March EP changes from a 4/4 verse to a 7/4 chorus. Also the climax of their song "Death and All His Friends" is also in 7/4.
Another song by Kate Bush that changes meter is "Night of the Swallow" from "Dreaming" - the song is mainly in 4/4 but then she sings two bars of 3/4 the line "I wont let you do it" followed by one bar of 5/4 with the line "I won't let you go through with it" and then returning back to 4/4 and then in the middle of the song there comes a section in 6/8.
Yes, love that song! The meter and the tempo and texture changes just make it so chaotic and energetic, in a beautiful way of course!
Indeed! As Kate is being mentionned again, I would also add "blow away" on the "never for ever" album (such a beautiful one Btw!), and the absolutely insane "fullhouse" on "lionheart". The verses in this last one are rhythmically all over the place!
one of my fav from her discography! but that song is sooo hard to play and sing lol
I think the trick is to compose the riffs or melodies in a way that people dont notice those times changes immediatly. Like that epic guitar riff by Rutherford comes so logic and naturally that most you cannot imagine it to be in another way.
as someone who really enjoys listening to and creating tracks with this exact concept im very happy you made a video on this kind of thing, chaotic time signatures are awesome!
😊😊😊😊😊😊
I was raised on Genesis albums, and I must have listened to Turn it On Again thousands of times by now. But I never noticed before how all over the place the meter was. Very cool.
yeah, they make it seem so easy and natural that it's easy to miss how complex it is. keep it dark is another example of that.
Another Genesis song that changes time signature is Counting Out Time, which is mostly in 4/4 (or is it 2/4?) but occasionally switches to 5/8. And the Daughters song Guest House starts out in 6/8 and changes to 12/16 near the end. (Or maybe you could view it as starting in 6/4 and ending in 12/8.)
About switching between 7/8 and 4/4, I happen to live in Israel, and one of the tunes practically anybody of my generation in Israel has heard countless times is an instrumental called "The golden peacock", by Shem-Tov Levy (released in 1981). It's moving between these two meters so seamlessly, you wouldn't notice it if you weren't told. Here's a link to the original recording: th-cam.com/video/syC9fdXXKKo/w-d-xo.html
תודה, באמת לא שמתי לב לשינויי הקצב. כנראה זו עוד סיבה לאהוב את המנגינה המקסימה הזו.
@@lim7lim ובונוס למי ששמים לב במיוחד: בפזמון אותה המנגינה חוזרת על עצמה פעמיים, אבל בפעם השניה אחת התיבות שהייתה בשבע שמיניות בסיבוב הקודם הופכת לארבעה רבעים.
Turn It On Again is a great example of Genesis not forgetting their 70's roots.
When I think of wacky time signature changes, I think of the opening piano part of Firth of Fifth by Genesis, but Turn It On Again is that to 11.
Excellent video again, thanks!
South Side of the Sky by Yes from the Fragile album has a number of different time signatures.
Also, the Eagles' The Last Resort from the classic Hotel California album has a time signature change at the end of each verse.
Firth of Fifth by Genesis has four time signatures in the piano intro solo. And Pink Floyd's Have a Cigar has four time signatures.
Lots of great Nine Inch Nails examples for this topic. March of the Pigs is largely a loop of 3 bars of 7/8 and 1 bar of 4/4, The Becoming is alternating bars of 7/4 and 6/4, and Just Like You Imagined is either alternating bars of 4/4 and 6/4 or 4/4 and 12/8 depending on how you hear it.
Blackbird and Four Sticks were the first two pieces I was thinking just reading this video title!
I am a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society. In 1995 I wrote barbershop arrangements of common hymns. Surely I had to include Doxology. But when I looked up the written music in multiple hymnals, I found many ideas on what the meter(s) should be. Finally, I just sang it the way I remembered it and transcribed that. I also asked a dozen or so other people to sing it the way they did in their church. It was almost 100% agreement with what I had written.
2/4 Praise God | 3/4 from whom all | 2/4 blessings | 3/4 flow
3/4 Praise him all | 2/4 creatures | 2/4 here be- | 3/4 low
2/4 Praise him | 3/4 above ye | 2/4 heav'n - ly | 3/4 host
3/4 Praise father | 2/4 son and | 2/4 holy | 4/4 ghost
Not quite the meter we sang it growing up, but yeah, that one always stuck out as being really off-kilter.
You really are putting out great content this year, I recommend you to everyone I talk to about music!
Thank you!!
@@DavidBennettPiano I agree David! You are putting up some great stuff. I watch and study all of your videos and I've learned some interesting things.
My favourite example of mixed meter is "Freewill" by Rush. Two bars of 4/4 to start, then 6/4, 7/4, 6/4, 4/4, etc.
David could do a whole video with Rush. Genesis too.
One of my favorite Rush songs is "Circumstances," which jumps all over the place every few measures. It has (at least) measures of 3/8, 7/8, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 5/4.
Subdivisions moves between 7/8, 4/4 and 3/4.
Oh yeah... Genesis is full of this kind of temporal goodness. Another artist you can check out of Sufjan Stevens. He plays loose with time too.
I love Sufjan!!
@@DavidBennettPianoGoogle translate has decided that "I love Sufjan" translates to "and they hunt Sufjan"
First thing that comes to mind when I think of changing time signatures is I Love Rock 'n' Roll. I think part of the charm of the song is how it does so in such an organic and believable way.
Pretty much anything by Dream Theater, but especially The Dance of Eternity.
I love how even their more "normal" sounding songs are ridiculous when you listen carefully, like A New Beginning and Bridges in the Sky
How about every Rush song.😀
And the fact the pull it off so smoothly is remarkable.
The Count of Tuscany by Dream Theater has some really smart meter changes.
There's one verse which lyrically implies something is off, disconcerting. The meter reflects this by being in 9/8 as opposed to 4/4, so it sounds a bit strange. The next verse also starts in 9/8, but as the lyrics go from "this is strange" to "this is terrifying", the meter then goes to 4/4, which now sounds too fast by contrast.
There are metric changes through the majority of the song, too, so this is just one example
Count of Tuscany appreciation is appreciated
dream theatre the kings of multi meter
FINALLY, Genesis makes a long overdue appearance!!
The chorus of “Say a Little Prayer” by Aretha is in 4/4 with a bar of 3/4 every 3rd measure. The verse progression is in 4/4 with a bar of 2/4 in the middle. Super unique sound.
the fact that George Martin was learned enough to understand Lennon and not tell him to dumb it down, is what makes him a gem.
An underrated pro at this is Tori Amos - God and Spark are my favourite of her’s
I love how "Whipping Post" by the Allman Brothers switches between 11/8 and 12/8 to heighten and release tension.
Technically that’s true but I don’t think of it is as a meter change so much as dropping one eighth note during the turnaround of the main riff. It does heighten the excitement for sure.
I once wrote a totally wild and exotic piece that switched between 3/4 and 6/8. 🙂
Dance On a Volcano would also have been good. More Genesis and Collins recognition please 😊
"Down And Out" as well
Or the amazing piano intro of firth of fifth.
You're solving so many mysteries for me and I feel relieved! 🤩
I can think of: Piledriver Waltz, by Arctic Monkeys (verses in 6/4, chorus in 9/8); Animals, by Muse (5/4 throughout the song, 3 bars of 5/4 followed by one of 6/4 in the solo); Saviour, by George Ezra (classic 4/4 with occasional 2/4 bars); Forgiveness, by Rina Sawayama (mostly 6/8, bridge in 4/4), and I'm pretty sure Video Games, by Lana del Rey, is either in 6/4 with some 4/4 bars, or 4/4 with some 2/4 bars (the chorus I know for sure is in 4/4)
Star Treatment by Arctic Monkeys as well.
I played Animals as a drummer. Cool tune! Got to remember to hit those extra beats in the guitar solo.
Isn't the chorus of Piledriver Waltz in 6/8? Also whenever they're sitting on the E chord they're in 4/4.
Came here to say Piledriver! That songs changes time signature so often I love it. And yup to Star Treatment too. It’s works wonderfully
Great topic, David, thank you! I would add that most of the time it seems that these metric changes came from irregular melodies, so we don't need to count, only to sing. And popular music is created mainly by ear, so they don't have to count to write. Prog Rock of the seventies have plenty of examples of this:Yes. Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, etc. Cheers! All best wishes!
Wow. I never knew why that moment in One was always so noticeably awesome until you just pointed out the time signature change.
I once played a song called "Snowflakes Dancing" and it's time signature was written as 4/4 + 6/8 and it was alternating bars of both. It was fun once you got the hang of it
Thank you, David, for another insightful and very helpful video!
THANK YOU FOR INCLUDING WUTHERING HEIGHTS! it’s such an interesting song!
Good stuff. Thank you for sharing. I like your song at the end. Especially the 7/4 to 4/4.
The intro to Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is by Chicago starts with six bars of 4/4, six of 5/8, two of 3/8 or 3/4, then settles into 4/4.
Many of Chicago’s earliest tracks are full of tempo and metre changes.
The Beatles “All You Need Is Love.” I never noticed that Blackbird changes meter and I’ve been playing that for years; it’s amazing that one feels so natural, it’s easy to miss.
Great video. Helped me figure out a few songs that kept throwing me off. I don't play as much as I did in the past. So this was great to listen too. 🎶🎵🎶
Fascinating stuff. Thank you.
Thanks. This is a great example of how songwriting is a process. Like a painting or sculpture, you start off messy, and slowly refine it. If the words don't fit regular meter, you can cut out dead pauses and end up with odd timings. Or you might choose to use an odd or mixed time precisely because it conveys a dislocation that matches the lyrics. Good artists just wind up with better end products than bad artists. But it's the same process. I have a book about the philosophy of mathematics that uses a wonderful metaphor: it's like a restaurant. As customers, we only see the dish brought out to us; we never see the chaos in the kitchen (and probably don't want to!) tavi.
bad artists wind up with 4/4
From Wikipedia:
"I Say a Little Prayer" b/w "(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls", became one of the most successful double-sided hits of the Rock era. Like several Bacharach compositions, both sides contain passages written in unusual time signatures. The verses of "Prayer" are constructed of two successive measures of 4/4, a measure of 10/4 (using 4/4 + 2/4 + 4/4), and two final measures of 4/4. The chorus is in 11/4 (using 4/4 + 4/4 + 3/4), played by session drummer Gary Chester.
Or you could just say, "all of prog".
My favorite mixed meter song: Possum Kingdom by Toadies. In the verses, alternating sets of 7/4 8/4. While it may be more simply expressed as a skipped beat demonstrating the narrator's unhinged mind, it still piques my rhythmic ear.
One of my favorite examples is Rite of Spring, which literally changes every measure
Yeah, how about the Barber's Adagio for strings. You don't notice it immediately when listening but when I saw the score...
Rite is an example of additive time rather than divisive time. He isn't dividing a beat as much as adding up collections of beats.
A lesser known example of this is "Murders" by Miracle Musical. This Song is great at hiding the fact that it switches between time signatures frequently. I didn't even realise it until recently.
Thanks for sharing! I always struggle with my time rhythms when I write a new song. Maybe I shouldn’t focus on it too much. Thanks for sharing.
The only Frank Zappa album I had is called The Grand Wazoo. The whole album seems to have changing tempos, unusual or discordant chords and I don't know enough about music to say what else but it sounds different.
The album grew on me and I still like it almost 50 years later.
Excellent, David. I love your analysis. Thank you..
Thanks Peter 😊😊
Very cool. Thank you for your in depth knowledge.
As a musical illiterate, and without any sense of rhythm, I've often been confused why even trying a simple finger-tap so often fails.
Thanks to this particular video, I can see and hear at least some examples which have helped me understand the music's rhythm can be so much more complex than I have ever realised. Maybe, just sometimes, I have actually followed the music properly but been confused if I have in any way counted the beat?
Glad the video helped! 😊
i only discovered this channel thanks to your appearance on "popmaster" and now I'm really into it!!
Love your song at the end. Really relaxing....👍
I always, well maybe sublimely noticed that Money by Pink Floyd threw me off. Then I realized years later it's in 7/4, save for the guitar solo. It's amazing how changing and/or using a different meter can change the whole dynamic of a song...
The new thumbnail got me to watch this a second time 😂
😁😁
Concert band music has quite a bit of metric modulations. Yesterday I played a concert with the piece Vikings in it, which switches between 6/8, 3/4, 10/8, back to 3/4, then 2/4, 2/2 and finally 4/4. Tricky at first but we have an amazing conductor. Very fun to play and feel!
Back in 8th grade my school’s band played the piece “Wild Dance” by Douglas Akey. The piece featured two distinct sections that repeated with variations throughout the whole piece. The first section switched constantly between 4/4 and 5/8 with the occasional 7/8 bar. The second section switched between 7/4, 5/4, and 3/4. It was a tricky piece to play at first but it was also very fun, both due to the constantly changing time signature and the fact that it had a tuba solo
david: one is largely in 3/4, which is an unusual choice for a rock song
me:
it
is
METAL
Subdivisions by Rush starts in 7/8, then moves to 4/4, throws in a bar of 3/4, goes back to 4/4, then to 7/8, and just the intro. About 1/3 of the way through the 7/8 goes away and it just alternates between 4/4 and 3/4. Neil Peart was a genius.
There’s also Tom Sawyer by Rush which switches to 7/4 during the guitar solo and outro, and on a similar note Pink Floyd’s Money is predominately in 7/4 before switching to 4/4 for David Gilmour’s guitar solo
Was suprised to see Ben Folds! So underrated! Great video
I love Ben Folds!!
A song that has multiple time signature changes is Synchronize by Wheel. It changes between 9/4, 7,4, 4/4, and a few other time signatures.
Mr. Beat by King Gizzard is one of my favorites, 3 bars of 7/4 and one of 8/4
March of the Pigs moment
@@deftfkaubgup4669 exactly lol
Great to see a Biffy Clyro landing on your channel! They have great songs with awesome time changes
Always happy to see you give Genesis' music a look :)
Thank you David
Thanks!
Hey David!! Another great topic that i enjoy :) Thanks a ton 😊 and yes John Mayer's "Shouldn't matter but it does " Also change between 3/4 and 4/4 time signature:)
The National uses this regularly. 'Nobody Else Will Be There' is 4/4 and 6/4. 'I Should Live In Salt' is (I think) 7/8 and 5/8.
That one has a tricky almost awkward pause (musical hiccup) which makes you feel like you're about to trip on a crack in the sidewalk.
One example I recently noticed is Muse's Unnatural Selection. The intro verse chorus and outtro are all 4/4 but the middle section where the song slows down for a while, it changes to 6/8.
a modern example of a song with mixed meter that even got into the charts is "Walk me Home" by Pink. It changes a lot between 3/4, 2/4 and 4/4
A very interesting example of mixed meter is diorama by IRyS.
It starts in 15/8 for the intro and the first verse, then switches to 4/4 for the pre-chorus and chorus. The instrumental section before the second verse is in 7/4 and the verse itself is, once again in 15/8. Repeat of the pre-chorus and chorus in 4/4, instrumental part in 7/4 and then comes the bridge. It starts in 7/4 as a continuation from the instrumental part but halfway through, it switches to alternating between 5/4 and 6/4 before returning to 4/4 for the last chorus and then the outro is in 7/4 and switches back to 15/8 again, right at the end.
It's one of my favourite mixed meter songs 'cause I could not, for the life of me, wrap my head aroumd the 15/8 when I first heard it due to the tempo off the song. But now that I've figured it out it sounds so good. I wish more songs were written in 15/8 tbh
Black Midi are pretty wild with their time signatures. Drummer is an absolute beast too!
kinda like how marx's theme in kirby is always shifting for a more chaotic tone kinda like marx in kirby
The whole time I was watching I was waiting for Tool's Schism to be mentioned. I mean its possibly the song with the most time signature changes while still being a coherent and fantastic song
Some other songs that change time signature:
1. CryptoSanta - Lemon Demon (this is the hardest one to figure out so i might be wrong here)
Has a short 6/4 intro. Launches into 5/4 then goes to 4/4. Goes back to 5/4 then goes 6/4 and then back to 5/4 for a bit and then to 4/4 again for the rest of the song
2. Cotard's Solution (Anatta, Dukkha, Anicca) - Will Wood and the Tapeworms
It has an intro in 3/4 and then switches to 4/4 for the rest of the song
3. Dr. Sunshine Is Dead - Will Wood and the Tapeworms
About halfway through the song it switches from 4/4 to 5/4 for a brief section
4. Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally - Will Wood
Starts in 6/8 and goes to 4/4 and then goes back to 6/8 for a bit to build up to the next section then he rest is in 4/4 except for a section thats like 6 seconds.
5. Old Friend - Mitski
Starts in 4/4 then does 1 bar of 5/4 leading into the chorus. The chorus is in 3/4 with every fourth bar being in 2/4. Post Chorus instrumental in 4/4 and then repeats.
6. Goodbye - Bo Burnham
Basically the entire song is in 4/4 except for the "look whos inside again" at the end that is in 3/4
7. Welcome to The Internet - Bo Burnham
Main part in 4/4. Slow part in 3/4 then goes back to 4/4 for the last part
8. Take Me to Church - Hozier
Switches between 6/8 and 4/4 a bunch
was definitely expecting to see "sail to the moon" by radiohead here lmao
great video as always!
You made my day! Used a Biffy Clyro song as an example!