The centerpiece of the “Frozen Friday” concert, “Hodie”, spent very little time in straight old 4/4 time. Nope, it drifted all over the place. It took quite a while to get the rhythms all straight (practice, practice, practice) and Joanne should get a medal and a martini for how she played (maybe not in that order, now that I think about it).

So let’s explore the insanity of not-so-normal rhythms and how to work through them without straining something or having your head explode. For me, there are only two ways: figure out a counting strategy for the measure or identify a piece of music you know that you can apply to it.

For those of you that I’ve already confused because this is new to you, a quick bit of foundation. The time signature is a two-number combination at the beginning of a piece of music (or in the middle if it changes). The top number is the number of beats in the measure and the bottom number is the note value for each of those beats. Kinda like this:

In the first example, there are 4 beats in a measure and each beat is a quarter note. In the second, there are  6 beats in a measure and each beat is an eight note. These are two of what are referred to as “simple” time signatures. Like they used to say on “American Bandstand”, it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it. Pretty much anything divisible by three (like a waltz) or four (like almost every other song you’ve heard) makes sense to your sense of rhythm and multiples of them (like 6/8 which is twice as many notes in a measure as 3/4) are still pretty easy to deal with.

It’s the complex ones that need some attention. For the purpose of today’s confusion we’ll take a look at two we’ve seen recently: 7/8 and 5/4. First, the counting bit. Just counting to seven or five doesn’t really work that well because there is (usually) an implied accent in the rhythm that makes it roll. Kinda like this (if you say these out loud it’ll make sense):

7/8 = (ONE-two-ONE-two-ONE-two-three)

5/4 = (ONE-two-three-ONE-two) or (ONE-two-ONE-two-three)

The only way I know how to make this work in your head is to tap your foot as you count like that and feel how it moves. Keep at it and it’ll work its way in past the thick parts of the skull into the softer pieces.

The second way is a good start for understanding how these time signatures “feel” before you apply them to the piece of sheet music that’s making your head threaten the aforementioned explosion. Find a tune that you know that’s in the dreaded time signature you need and hum it while doing the same foot tapping. You’re using familiarity instead of counting but ending up at the same place.

For example, a 7/8 tune you probably have heard is “Money” by Pink Floyd (yeah, it’s really 7/4 but you just go twice as fast). It slips into 4/4 during the guitar solo because trying to do one in 7/4 would probably break a finger.

And one in 5/4 that is also probably familiar, the “Mission Impossible” theme (this one also has a little syncopation that I really think helps it to make more sense). Another is Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”.

There are others out there hidden in nearly every genre you can find so go hunting for something that you already know and work that brain into complex lands. Here are a few artists that wandered into the bizarre-o-ness of time signatures, tap your foot and count and see if you can stick with them. Once you get the feel you’re one step closer to being a time signature ninja.

Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” has the guitar and singer in 6/8 and the drummer in 4/4 so they bounce off each other in a truly creative way. They end up in the same place every few measures thanks to the math of it.

Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” is in 7/8 and his old pals in Genesis did “Turn it On Again” in a truly confusing 13/8 (it makes more sense when the verse starts).

Classic rock band Yes did a piece in the early 70’s that went pretty much everywhere. I once tried to figure out all the time signatures in “Perpetual Change” and gave up after 3/4/, 4/4, 7/4 (which might really be 14/4) and the introduction in 10/4. Perpetual change indeed.

The Beatles used time signature shifts a lot. “All You Need is Love” is mostly in 7/4 except when they sneak in a 4/4 measure every now and then.

The Allman Brothers tossed out “Whipping Post” in 11/4. Glad I was never a drummer.

And some other bits of familiar music that have a little wrinkle:

“Tubular Bells” from “The Excorcist” (which still scares the willies outta me) alternates between 7/8 and 8/8.

“Everything’s All Right” from “Jesus Christ Superstar” is in 5/4 along with some other major chunks of that epic rock opera.

The composer of the “Terminator” theme, Brad Fiedel, calls it 13/16 time but good luck tapping your foot to THAT one. I think he just made that up to get people to stop arguing about it.

And in a final moment of oddity, Sting’s “I Hung My Head” is (relatively) easy to tap out in 9/8 but the score he wrote has it as a “compound time signature:

Ouch.

“At this very moment, on stage, we have drummer A playing in 7/8, drummer B playing in 3/4, the bass playing in 3/4, the organ playing in 5/8, the tambourine playing in 3/4, and the alto sax blowing his nose.” – Frank Zappa