Songs that use 9/8 time

9/8 time can be used both as an odd time signature and as a more traditional compound time signature. It's amazing the range of different feels we can get from just the one time signature.

And, an extra special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

SOURCES:

0:00 Introduction
0:58 Odd time signature
6:08 Tomplay
6:50 Compound time signature
10:01 mixing 9/8 & 6/8
11:23 "Apocalypse in 9/8"
12:40 Piano outro & Patreon

[aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasugar]

As a Balkan (Greek but with some knowledge of Albanian, Serbian and Turkish music), 9/8 music is everywhere in my life, from traditional dances to modern pop music, commonly combined with scales, such as the Phrygian. It is very interesting to find out examples of the 9/8 in western music and see the versatility of this time signature!

[AJ-whtw]

As soon as you mentioned the 2-2-2-3 grouping the first song in my head was “Blue Rondo a la Turk”. If I had a dollar for every time I played that in jazz ensembles I’d still be living off that cash.

[mftubeyou]

Thank you! "Apocalypse in 9/8" is an amazing piece of music, as is the whole "Supper's ready". Probably the greatest progressive rock song ever made.

[Blue_]

Thank you for including Supper's Ready! It's the best song ever made.

[Blockoumi]

I clicked on this just for apocalypse in 9/8. Incredible song and solo

[adam_smigaj]

And of course King Gizzard again featured in your video, Gaia is indeed a great song. "Searching..." is also one of their songs in 9/8, or at least it starts in 9/8 and then the magic happens... I think you should take a closer look at songs from Polygondwanaland, they really are perfect examples for some incredibly interesting rhythmic ideas

[Dixieddawg]

The piece right at the end is stunningly beautiful, wish it were longer

[mintegral]

Hey, everyone in the comment section who's never listened to Supper's Ready all the way through-- set aside 23 minutes and do that ASAP! It's a brilliant piece of music that everyone should experience at least once.

[christophergetchell]

I was wondering if you'd mention "Apocalypse in 9/8" here because it's always fascinated me as a piece in general. I grew up listening to progressive rock so these interesting time signatures and groupings almost sound normal to my ears. As per usual, awesome job with the outro piece!

[nickdryad]

The genius of Apocalypse in 9/8 is Phil Collins’ playing. The bedrock ostinato rhythm comes from Collins’ kick Rutherford and Hacket. Collins then swings the rhythm and Banks keeps the melody moving over the top.

[PianoVampire]

Great video - I love how many different ways 9/8 can sound, like the waltz or the funk. Supper's Ready is just a tour de force, God knows how he solo'd over that section.

[zakbrokaw]

i'm from turkey, and it really amazes me how 9/8 is treated outside the balkans. i immediately associate any odd time grouping of 9/8 with our traditional dance songs, which sometimes makes it a bit hard to play western music written in 9/8 since there's a habit to fit the "traditional groove" into 9/8. 

also, a nice example of using both odd and compound grouping could be the song atmaca by laco tayfa (definitely check out their stuff), they count the main rhythm as 4, 2, 3 but switch to 3, 3, 3 in some parts and you get an eerie feeling if you're used to the odd groupings.

[sydhamelin]

Possibly the only time I've heard someone talk about the 4/4 keys over the 9/8 pocket in Supper's Ready. The keyboard solo is written so well, and ends up concluding after, I believe 9 measures in 4/4, or 36 beats, played over 4 measures, of the pocket, in 9/8. So both get to 36 beats, but the solo does a great job of sounding 'normal' over a very chaotic sounding pocket.

[Islander]

I was going to leave a scathing comment if you didn't mention the Apocalypse, but there it was.
Good show!

[timothymerrylees]

Kiss from a Rose by Seal does the switch between 9/8 and 6/8 in the verses too. Drags out the verses and then makes the build to the chorus all the more epic. 🙌

[voidleech]

i absolutely love these videos, the variety of your examples is very refreshing.

[tangerinecarrots]

so glad you shouted out Gaia by King Gizzard! that was the first song that came to my mind when i saw 9/8 in the thumbnail haha

[scottmatznick]

My piano teacher used to have me warm up to a version of the Brubeck tune, and if not for you I would never have realized that. Thanks, David

[monstroburger]

YESS finally some Genesis appreciation :)

[jimw]

I would have been upset had you not mentioned Supper's Ready :)