Unbelievable time signatures in music?
Asked by
2CDenzy (
442
)
March 10th, 2011
If you know of the band Dream Theater, they have a song called The Dance of Eternity which changes between multiple time signatures, here are a few: 13/16 and 12/8. I also here tell that they changed time signatures over 400 times in the song. I find listening to these types of chaotic songs enjoyable. Do you know of any songs with amazing combinations of time signatures or rhythms that just blow your mind?
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15 Answers
I am partial to Zappa and he was famous for messing with his band members with his time signatures and one song comes to mind…
“Keep It Greasy” On the studio album, first verse and guitar solo are counted in 19/16 and another part is in 21/16.
Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog is completely un-danceable and yet one of rock’s greatest songs.
Killswitch Engage – Arms of Sorrow has the weirdest signature guitar riff. One of the songs I can’t seem to play right. The drums are a perfect 4/4 time, but the guitar oddly deviates during the middle measures or something.
Good call @Rarebear both Tool and A Perfect Circle had very weird time sigantures.
Does anyone know some from the jazz genre??
Here is a list of the strangest time signatures I have ever seen. Some examples include peices with time signatures such as ⅔ /4 time and 142/8 time.
I’m sorry, but what is a time signature?
my favorite multiple time signture piece is the rite of spring by Stravinski.
when I was doing my undergrad we had to conduct one of the last sections of it. It changed signatures every measure.
There’s always the famous jazz piece Take Five, which is one of my favorites. Not that 5/4 is that crazy of a time signature, but it is a little different.
Nine Inch Nails plays with time signature on occasion. “The Becoming” switches between 13/8 and 6/8, “The Collector” switches between 13/4 (three bars of 3 / 4 followed by one bar of 4/4) and 14/4 (two bars of 4/4 followed by one bar of 6/4), and “March of the Pigs” switches between 29/8 (three bars of 7/8 followed by one bar of 4/4) and 4/4. I’m sure there are plenty of other interesting time signatures as well.
Sure, listening to these songs is fine…just don’t try playing them on a musical instrument, lol!
“Schism” by Tool: “The band has referred to the time signature as 6.5/8. Although many composers would use 13/16 instead, 6.5/8 is still a valid fractional time signature.”
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