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Progressive Rock songs with odd time signatures?
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 64520 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Atavachron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 30 2022 at 23:21
Originally posted by Machinemessiah Machinemessiah wrote:

The one that comes to mind, and that I've checked a few times, is Watcher of the Skies.
The exquisite 6/4 at the beginning..

But the odder (polyrhythm) 8/4 over the 6/4 mellotron at the end, starting at 6:20..

Yeah love this

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Points: 2505 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote friso Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 31 2022 at 04:06
Magma's Kontherkosz has an interesting 10/4 in the slow sections.
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It'd probably be difficult to find a prog album that's 4/4 all the way through.

If you're having trouble figuring out time signatures, try counting along with your fingers or tapping along with your feet. If you tap your foot every half measure like it's 4/4 but it's in 7/4, you'll probably correct yourself naturally because it doesn't feel right.

Nonagon Infinity by King Gizzard is a great 'my first weird time-signatures' album. It's a very driving album with a steady beat, making it easy to follow, but with all kinds of time signatures, some easy to understand (e.g. whenever the title phrase is sung = 7 beats), some more difficult (e.g., the verses of Big Fig Wasp, or Road Train). There's some really fun parts, like how Mr. Beat is mainly 3x 7/4, and then 1x 8/4 over and over.
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Originally posted by Machinemessiah Machinemessiah wrote:


Another one I remembered was Doug's (from Daily Doug Reaction videos from this thread) take on 'Machine Messiah' (live), where, starting at 9:58, there's a section where, apparently, there's no (discernible) time signature.. Stern Smile here's my post and here's the vid:



If this score is accurate (I only have rudimentary score reading skills), it's going from 9/8 to 7/8 to 12/8 to 15/8 and then repeating that again. Honestly, it's going too fast for me to count it to confirm it (I have a slow brain today). Maybe someone with better ears can confirm what's going on in that section?
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Points: 594 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Machinemessiah Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 31 2022 at 15:54

^ Hey, thanks for that!

This morning I was relistening, and indeed was able to spot the 9/8..  (I wonder if the "9" makes it especially elusive.., because it is fairly clear for me now).

But beyond that, let's say the 2nd. part of the same section I got lost. So thanks!

(Still.. imo, the section achieves at seeming to have an ethereal or atemporal quality nonetheless).




Edited by Machinemessiah - August 31 2022 at 15:56
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Points: 37 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote fouad.ai.azar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 05 2022 at 07:12
If you're looking for more 5/4 stuff
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Points: 541 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EduTatsumi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2022 at 13:34
"The Dance of Eternity" is a good example of odd time signatures.
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Points: 4007 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Frets N Worries Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2024 at 18:28
Originally posted by Manuel Manuel wrote:

Originally posted by Blacksword Blacksword wrote:

As I understand it, time sigs are often counted differently in classical music than in rock or jazz music. It's not a rule, and the method by which an individual chooses to count time sigs is somewhat 'flexible'

A recurring characteristic of most prog rock is obviously odd time signatures.

Taking Genesis as an example; Turn it on Again is often counted as 13/4, which is correct if you base the count on the full length of the piano riff, but even the band disputed what time sig it was in. Rutherford counting it simply as 2 bars of 4/4 followed by one bar of 5/4, and Collins choosing to count it as 13/4.

Also Golden Brown by The Stranglers has the feel of a waltz, and yet the phrase concludes with one bar of 4/4 at the end, so is it counted as 13/4 or 3 x 3/4 followed by 1 x 4/4.

Tubular Bells - IIRC - starts with alternating bars of 5/4 and 7/4, equating to 12/4 ?? EDIT: A Google search says the time sig is 15/4 for TB, but even so it could be expressed bar by bar. Ultimately it's in the time signature that the artist intended it to be in. IMO.

Who knows..?

Exactly. Quite difficult to say and define, since it's open to interpretation.

I could've SWORN Tubular Bells PT. 1 started in 15/16
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Points: 2903 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Awesoreno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2024 at 22:50
^It is in 15. Whether it's in 15/4 or 15/16 really just depends on what you're considering quarter notes or what the BPM (beats per minute) is. I would write it out in 15/4. Or, alternately, 4/4, then 3/4, then 4/4, then 4/4, repeat.
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Points: 4202 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hrychu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2024 at 22:52
Stargazers by Khan is mostly in 13/16. I really like how they divided that time signature so it doesn't sound weird or avantgarde.
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Points: 2903 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Awesoreno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2024 at 22:58
^Starts off in 11/16 if I remember correctly, and then it goes into 13/16. Pretty cool.
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Points: 169 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Golden Mean Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 07 2024 at 04:03
Leb i Sol (1978) Devetka. An example of a 9/8 time signature.




Edited by Golden Mean - February 07 2024 at 04:16
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Points: 35193 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Psychedelic Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 07 2024 at 04:17
Fairport Convention's most unconventional song: Autopsy, with time signatures changing from 5/4, to 4/4 and then back to 5/4 again by way of 6/8. Geek
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Points: 585 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Moyan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 02 2024 at 01:17
Dün's sole album was "Eros" (1981). The album was inspired by an idea from the Dune series by Frank Herbert, and it is widely considered a masterpiece of French progressive rock. My favourite song, "Bitonio," begins with an xylophone-accented odd time signature and a build-up before launching into its primary piano riff and continuing to expand from there. The song transitions from the main riff to a brief ambient-like part and back again, with amazing flute and guitar performances by the band members Vandenbulcke and Geeraerts completing the picture.
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Points: 1 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kones Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 30 2024 at 03:32
Actually, You can here odd signatures here and there on almost every solid prog album. For me, interesting is Siberian Khatru, that starts with 15/8. Zappa is crazy about that and can change it like 10 times in one song.
Also Caravan gives plenty even on "The Land of Grey and Pink" for instance.

"King Crimson is the only band, that is able to play in 17/8 and still live in expensive hotels" Bill Bruford :).
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Hi

I can not say that I have ever listened to any music for some music this or that ... these "mechanics" are great for teaching things some, but I think that when it comes to handling and trying to tell someone it is this or that, I think it is a problem. 

Having been around many writers, and musicians, a lot of them talk about what, and how, they see the inside, and some were even good enough to kinda describe it as if it were some kind of a movie ... and then one day Daevid said ... let them find the time signatures in the wind! 

In the end, I find that a lot of these details are, often, a matter of comfort and simply trying to do something or other, or in some cases a "mistake" ... but if you are a theatrical type of person and have enough experience with things, "mistakes" are never mistakes ... they usually are a doorway to something else, perhaps new parts for something else.

I tend to turn off material that comes off like ... showing off the signature changes ... as if it were some kind of outstanding musical ability ... which I'm not sure is the case, and it could have happened because someone accidentally dropped a note here or there, and the engineer said ... actually it sounds better than way!

I trust the instinctive design of things, but the mechanical style of a lot of things mentioned here is something that I can not seem to enjoy a whole lot. A good example, is Frank Zappa ... I never really thought about a time signature ... it's just great music, regardless.
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for decades anything with irregular time sigs was automatically prog for me
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EGG's Visit to the Newport Hospital, Long Piece No.2, etc 
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Slovenian mostly instrumental band Mladi Levi (English: "The Young Lions") was formed in 1966 as a nine-piece ensemble and named after the 1958 film The Young Lions, based on the novel by Irwin Shaw, directed by Edward Dmytryk. They touched on a variety of styles, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they played progressive music as well. When Mladi Levi was disbanded in 1975, its founder, composer and guitarist Janez Bončina, established the legendary Slovenian jazz-rock band September.

In 1967, the Mladi Levi recorded this excellent progressive jazz instrumental with odd time signatures, "Derviš i smrt" (English: "The Dervish and the Death"), as per the request of Slovenian Radio Television Ljubljana. The track is named after a well-known novel by Bosnian writer Meša Selimović, published in 1966. Slovenian television decided to make a short documentary about the writer and his then-freshly published novel, so they needed music. It is available on the Mladi Levi 1999 compilation album "Antologija" (English: "Anthology").
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Points: 4202 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hrychu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 02 2024 at 21:28
Nobody mentioned Hold Out Your Hand by Chris Squire yet? That song was written in a crazy sequence of shifting time signatures.
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