Exploring irregular time signatures
1 Let’s begin by looking at the most regular time signature, 4/4. A good deal of modern mainstream Western music is in 4/4 or ‘common’ time. This means that the duration of all the notes and rests in each bar has to add up to a total of four quarter-note beats, effectively giving us a dancefloor-friendly downbeat every four beats.
2 You might think that the simplest form of irregular time signature would be the good old-fashioned waltz – 3/4 – in which each bar of music contains three quarter-note beats, instead of four. However, this is actually a regular time signature, since the upper number can be divided by three.
3 Now, what if we start to get less conventional… how about, instead of three or four quarter-note beats, we had five? This brings us into the territory of the 5/4 time signature. We’re still dealing with quarter-note values, but we have five in each bar instead of four. We’ve squeezed in an extra quarter-note each time around.
4 Here’s an idea of what this might sound like in a track, containing drums, bass, an organ riff and a lead synth motif. Once you get into the feel of it, it has a weirdly hypnotic vibe. The extra quarternote in each bar gives the groove a onelegged effect that is actually danceable. I’ve tried it in my studio, and it got me an odd look from the cat – but it’s possible.
5 Taking the idea even further, a tune in 7/4 would feature seven quarter-note beats per bar. We now get a downbeat every seven beats. Weirdly enough, instead of making us feel like we’ve added three beats to every bar, this gives us the impression that there’s one missing from every two bars.
6 Here’s an example of a piece in 7/4 to illustrate this. Each bar is made up of seven quarter-note beats, but as we’re so used to hearing a regular 4/4 beat, the irregularity of the seven quarter-notes makes it seem that each bar of 7/4 is actually two bars of 4/4 (ie eight quarternotes) with the last quarter-note of every second bar missing.
7 Now let’s look at some time signatures that involve eighth-note beats. Under normal circumstances, there would be eight eighth notes to a bar – which explains why they’re known as eighth notes – and this gives us an eight as the lower number in our time signature. A time signature of 8/8 would be technically equivalent to 4/4.
8 As with quarter-note-based time signatures, the upper number that signifies the number of these beats occupying each bar can be anything we like. If we squeeze in twelve eighth-note beats, it lends the piece a fast triplet feel. Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel is a good example of a classic 12/8 pop tune.
9 The most common eighth-note-based irregular time signatures, though, are 5/8 and 7/8. 5/8 means that each bar contains five eighth-note beats. Here are the eight notes in the C major scale played across two bars of 5/8, leaving a quarternote rest (equivalent to two eighth-notes) at the end of the second bar.
10 Here’s how a tune in 5/8 might sound. The ride cymbal in the drum part is counting off the five eighth-notes in each bar, and the music hangs around this, with the downbeat occurring every five eighthnotes. If it sounds confusing at first, try counting the five beats in your head as the tune plays, and the one-legged groove will soon become familiar.
11 Here’s a four-bar snippet in 7/8, each bar containing seven quaver beats. The downbeat of each bar is marked in the drum track with an open hi-hat, with the remaining six quavers played closed. The arpeggiated bass sequence is programmed in sixteenths, so changing chord every 14 sixteenths gives the part an interesting shift in emphasis.
12 Each bar of the melody is made up of a combination of notes that add up to seven eighth-notes. Bar 1 contains two quarter-notes and three eighth-notes, for a total of seven eighth-notes, while bar 2 contains three quarter-notes and one eighth-note. The first three quarter notes in bar 2 sound as if they’re offbeats, as the ear thinks we’re in common time.