Ignorance is bliss...

[Apache]

Being a big Rammstein fan, I've been working on some of their tracks in my lessons, the last 2 weeks its been Ich tu dir Weh, which is coming together now..

My teacher then explained the timing signature for the main rif, in standard music notation, and I don't think I'd have touched the song with a barge pole if I'd seen it laid out in conventional notation! Think it was only really because I knew the song well, that I managed to sort of play it...

Like I said, ignorance is bliss!

[rparker]

Yeah, I saw a song in 5/4 timing one time. Head spinning shortly thereafter. Nothing like trying to understand the theory that you don't know you know.

[Big Lar]

The winner for weird time signature has to be Jacob's Ladder by Rush. It alternates between 6/8 and 7/8 time each measure! Somehow your mind gets used to it and it still manages to sound musical. Amazing.

[Vic Lewis VL]

Isn't "Whipping Post" by the Allman Bros in some weird time signature - 13/8 or something like that? Like Apache said, ignorance is bliss - must be why I'm so happy!



Vic

[Crow]

Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. I'm still trying to work out that little dilemma.

I can't count the oddly timed break from "Black Dog" in ANY format. Can't get it by ear, can't count it in my head. I can HEAR it in my head, but I can't count it. I saw sheet music for it once, but it looked wrong. It's like a warp in the space-time continuum.

The flip side: I jammed once with a piano player who learned Billy Joel's "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" with one measure of 7/8 tucked into the instrumental break....

[Apache]

Sounds like there are a lot of strange time signatures out there!

Mind you when I read Cliff Burton's bio, there is a quote from I think Kirk Hammett, to say that Burton was the only member of the band that really understand time signatures... so its nice to know others struggle too

Love the pic Crow

[jwmartin]

When I'm dealing with weird time signatures, I just have to learn it by feel. I can count it while listening to the song, but not while I'm playing it.

[Moonrider]

Man, asymmetric time signatures are a hoot! Fire up a 5/4 tune like "Living in the Past" or Pink Floyd's "Money" in the last set, then watch the (hopefully) well lubricated punters TRY to dance to it.



Score. for musicals can be a pain. I did pit orchestra for a musical that swapped between 2/4 and 3/4 every measure on one number. They gave me the score two days before dress rehearsal. I was basically sight reading the first dress rehearsal

[kent_eh]

Or Zappa's tune "thirteen", which he explains is in 13/4 and even maps out the rhythm as the song starts.

Or another tune he caler 21 Try counting that...

[Apache]

Or Zappa's tune "thirteen", which he explains is in 13/4 and even maps out the rhythm as the song starts.

Or another tune he caler 21 Try counting that...

13/4 That sounds tricky!

[Crow]

There's a lot of it going around.

Today, driving through the fog across the Midwest without a CD player, we were treated in short order to "Point of Know Return" by Kansas and "Double Vision" by Foreigner, each of which has interesting little glitches in a basic straight-rock 4/4. Then I remembered "Over the Hill and Far Away" by Zeppelin and turned off the radio. Nothing makes the time pass better than working out odd rhythms, and the opening of "Over the Hills" is pretty odd....