Songs with odd time signatures

Phil and Neel

For this special episode, Phil joined Neel in his studio to record our first in-person episode since early 2020!

We dove deep into songs with odd time signatures and talked about:

  • Our songwriting challenge for 2023
  • How time signatures work
  • How odd time signatures can introduce a lot of tension in your song
  • How complex time signatures with 5, 7 or 9 beats to the bar can be subdivided into 2s, 3s, and 4s to make counting them easier
  • How the emphasis on certain beats are important to defining the time signature

The songs:

No. Artist Song Time Sig Note
01 Pretenders I Go To Sleep 6/8
02 XTC Wrapped in Grey 3/4
03 Dave Brubeck Take 5 5/4
04 Taylor Swift Closure 5/4
Intro beat in 4/4; 4 bars of 3/4 before the chorus
05 Sting Seven Days 5/4
Vinnie Colaiuta on drums – WOW!
06 Philospher Kings Out of the Blue 7/4
Prechorus: 7/4 + 8/4 + 7/4 + 8/4 + 8/4 + 8/4
07 Peter Gabriel Solsbury Hill 7/4
3/4 + 4/4 in the intro, 4/4 + 3/4 in the verse; 2×4/4 at the end of the chorus
08 Genesis Turn It On Again multi
main riff: 4/4 + 2/4 + 4/4 + 3/4; “I can show you”: 4/4
09 Sting I Hung My Head 9/4
10 The Beatles Here Comes the Sun multi
11 Arcade Fire Modern Man mostly 9/4
3x 4/4 bars on “makes me feel like”

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