How to actually play in odd time signatures

Check out my time signatures topic on Haby Academy: haby-academy.onelink.me/9KMC/DavidBennett

As a prog musician, I absolutely love odd time signatures. One of my old band's songs had a main riff in 11/8. It was essentially 7/8 (as shown in this video) followed by 2/4. The piece at the end is in 13/8.

I didn't know about the Morse code bit in Mission Impossible. What a clever little device that also makes the piece so recognizable.

You managed to play these in such a smooth way that they don’t sound as herky-jerky as I’d typically expect. Your trick with how your arranging the beats is awesome! To answer your question, I think I’m counting 13/8 for your closing example. As a counterpoint to this video, now show us how you can make normal time signatures sound odd. It’s amazing what can be done by placing emphasis on beats you wouldn’t typically do in 4/4

How about a video about finding upbeats and downbeats in such time signatures?

As a guitarist I love how much more freeing the piano can be to create songs on the fly, by thinking of melodies at the same time as you figure out chords, voicing, rhythms, etc. The guitar can also be used for that, of course, but not so effortlessly.

The piece at the end is in 13/8! I think my favorite odd meters are 7/4 and 7/8, especially when the pattern is 4+3. Our brains love 4/4 so much that it can be unexpected and jarring when a measure of what we thought was 4/4 ends prematurely, and this can be used to great effect. I currently have a video game idea where the plot revolves around a group of middle schoolers mourning and processing the premature death of a classmate, and have the idea of said classmate's theme being in 7/4. The way our ears find the 4+3 version of 7/4 "cut short" reflects the untimely end to a young life.

For me, the key is to understanding and mentally "accepting" the odd time signatures is that every other measure is syncopated to the previous measure. So since the first measure starts on the downbeat of 1, the second measure is syncopated, and starts on the relative upbeat. The measures alternate in syncopation throughout. Measure 1 downbeat. Measure 2 upbeat. Measure 3 downbeat. Measure 4 upbeat, and so-on. Makes it feel more normal.

This video virtually single handedly taught me time signatures.

11/8 sounds so beautiful

Thank you thank you thank you. I've been playing music for thirty years and this is the first time someone has explained these in a way I can understand. Turns out I've been using them already without realising, but now I can do so deliberately. Amazing video, well presented, simply explained, great examples. 10/10

Thanks for a brilliant explanation! Actually 5/4, 7/8 and 9/8 are very common in Greek music, so they are easy to grasp here even for non-musicians.

I really love hearing how my favorite prog bands treat odd meter (Rush, Crown Lands, Genesis, etc) but then I equally love hearing simplistic renditions like Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel, or Eleven by Primus. I think odd meters can scare off "normal songwriters" thinking that they're for prog nerds like me :P but you can very easily make them feel and sound very regular, and honestly they can groove SUPER hard! Starting off with anything over 4 is a great way to internalize the sense of odd meter, then you can run all the way down the rabbit hole of writing anything over 8 or 16. Thanks for making this video, it's really refreshing to see a simpler take on what can seem to be a mammoth subject.

I think the point is: Feel the rhythm instead of analyzing it intellectually! As an example, although the song "Getting Better" by The Beatles is (as I think) in a simple 4/4 beat, Ringo has added a tricky cymbal beat in the verses: If you count "one | two | three, and | four", it comes on the "and". Quite easy thing doing it this way – but try and tell at which position the beat comes if you divide the bar into 16th! I think it is the 11th, but I am still not sure. – I just tried to reproduce the drum beat using MuseScore; at first I thought that is rather the 12th of 16/16th; but listening to thee original again, I am back at the 11th of 16 /16th ... or you could also say the 6th of 8/8th.

A couple people have mentioned doing 9/8 as 3 triples. A classic example is "Beautiful Dreamer," which could have been done in 6/8, but the song would've felt hurried. It's like waltz within a waltz. Also, for an adventure in odd meters: "Tarkus" (ELP).

❤love from the UK. Really helpful

7/8 is really cool, because of how you can group it. You have, obviously, seven 8th notes in a bar. We can group it like: 1/4, 1/4, three 1/8s; 1/4, three 1/8s, 1/4; Three 1/8s, two 1/8s, two 1/8s; Etc. I have a song that I wrote where the main riff is in 7/8, grouped as three 1/8s, two 1/8s, 1/4. Regardless of how you group 7/8, it always feels like something is missing. This kind of grouping is true of most odd time signatures.

The 7/8 break towards the end of Zappa’s “Inca Roads” is some of the best shit ever. But is VERY hard to bob your head to.

I love odd time signatures and would love to see more videos on them. I think King Gizzard is doing some really interesting things with timing. Also with polyrhythm and polymeter. I'd love to see you do more videos on polymeter and polyrhythm, as well as odd time signatures.

Lovely as always, David. 11/8 is my favorite signature, and I’m the furthest possible thing from a skilled musician. Not only do I sometimes hear it as 3-3-3-2 as you demonstrated (which reminds me of “Right in Two” by Tool), but often I just cheat by alternating bars of 6/8 and 5/8 in rhythms I already know. Eventually, 11/8 began to feel “normal” to me. My next goal is to figure out how to treat time signatures with large “numerators” without using my usual cheat of smashing together two smaller rhythms (something more akin to your “if 12/8 was an odd time signature” video!). Cheers for all the inspiration.