Songs that have a Mixed Meter

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

0:00 Introduction
0:20 Golden Brown by The Stranglers
0:41 Faust Arp by Radiohead
0:53 Hey Ya! by OutKast
1:33 Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush
2:23 Blackbird by The Beatles
3:00 Four Sticks by Led Zeppelin
3:43 Thomann
4:27 Mountains by Biffy Clyro
5:17 Bastard by Ben Folds
6:15 One by Metallica
7:00 Turn It On Again by Genesis
8:47 Happiness is a Warm Gun by The Beatles
11:41 Clap by David Bennett

[diseasefreeforall]

Story 2 by Clipping is a rap song that changes from 3/4 to 4/4 to 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4 then does the same with eighth notes while sounding perfectly logical. It's amazing.

[DisjointedConversations]

This is pretty common in the Prog world. As a drummer, the "Turn it on Again" is a great example. You have to really concentrate when playing this one.

[cdprince]

One of my favorite examples of mixed meter in when Blondie switches to 7/4 in the chorus of Heart of Glass. Yes, 7/4 in a disco song. 🙂

[ЗахарЛитвинов-ею]

Dream Theater's Dance of Eternity is definetely a good example of a song that switches time signatures a lot. There are around 108 time signature changes in just 6 minutes(depends on how you write it down). Knowing that I think you can see why this song is regarder as one of the most complex progressive metal pieces of all time.

[Moonless_Future]

I find it interesting that nearly every example listed is from before the widespread use of DAW recording. I'm speculating that before artists, engineers, and producers could see their songs laid out bar-by-bar on a grid, it was easier to write a mixed-meter song "by feel" and not realize it - whereas nowadays there's a higher chance that someone might only recognize mixed-meter songs aren't lining up to that grid in the expected way and try to "fix" them.

[mauritsbv]

Funny that for Turn It On Again, Mike Rutherford played a slow guitar riff at first. Phil told him to speed it up and said ‘Do you realize it’s in 13/8’ on which Mile replied ‘What do you mean it’s in 13/8, it’s in 4/4’ but it was in 13.

[JKenjiLopezAlt]

Whats even cooler about Happiness is a Warm Gun I’d that during the final 3/4 section, Ringo is still playing in 4/4 while everyone else is in three.

Also I think here comes the sun is possibly the greatest mixed meter pop song of all time as it’s got some really wild time signature changes yet it sounds so natural when listening to it.

[michaelschneider]

Now I understand why Genesis finished up with a whole album called "We Can't Dance". :-)

[SelfPropelledDestiny]

9:52 As a song I've analyzed deeply, I have to say that this part while technically being mixed meter, is also a really great and accessible example of polymeter. The harmonic section (bass, guitar, keys) switch to 3/4, but Ringo's drums continue in 4/4 (maybe due to him not knowing exactly what is happening there) so you end up with 3 bars of 4/4 drums over 4 bars of 3/4 harmony. The drums written on 3/4 sheet would look like this | K _ S | _ K _ | S _ K | _ S _ |, which is quite different than they would be if Ringo were internalizing the 3/4 time.

[ThomannMusic]

Such a good video! Thanks for the feature :) <3

[jamesdaniels]

I think the solo from Money by Pink Floyd is in 4/4 rather than the rest of the song that is in 7/4

[rome]

Ben Folds had an interesting discussion of "Bastards" on his podcast Lightning Bugs. I believe it was in the episode with Chris Thile. He talked about wanting to get free of the tyranny of a fixed time signature. He wrote the song by feel, so it would sound more like the way he would play if he was just sitting alone at a piano. And then the band had to sort of figure out what he was doing and follow along. His goal was to have a song with a bunch of rhythmic variation that felt "natural" and not like a prog track. I think he succeeded. When I listen to it, I hardly hear the meter changes.

[england]

Wow, I never realized Happiness is a Warm Gun was all over the place with its time signatures. I was the same with the 7/8 sections of Paranoid Android by Radiohead until it was pointed out to me.

[ESLSongs]

One of my personal favourites is Mother, by Pink Floyd. It's a conversation where the son sings in 4/4 (actually it sounds like an alternating 3/4 and 5/4) and the mother sings in 3/4. It's so well done and so simple and the two time signatures blend so well together because of the off-beat 4/4

[stefanwimmer]

As mentioned already: Genesis' "Firth of Fifth"!
Its really weird, erratic and confusing time signature mix in the piano intro and first half of the instrumental section is worth talking about one day, David! 😊

[nateds]

Shine on you crazy Diamond parts 1-5 shifts from 3/4 to a more bouncey 6/8 during the sax outro, as a more jarring transition to Welcome to the Machine(the next track) and parts 6-9 briefly dips into a 4/4 pattern for its disco section

[wellurban]

As you say at the end, many of these examples will arise from an “intuitive songwriter” approach, where playing around with melody ends up with shifting rhythms without having been deliberately planned that way. Some will come from the other extreme, where the drummer or other rhythm-focused musician intentionally explores complex rhythms: less common in pop, but more prevalent in prog or experimental styles such as Genesis or Radiohead. Another case might be the theatrically-inclined such as Queen, where the changes might mark distinct sections in a through-composed song.

[wingracer]

Don't know if they ever cracked the top 10 but Tool's Schism is a hit that is very metrically erratic.

And of course there is Outshined with it's 7/4 verses and 4/4 chorus

Rush Limelight is a hit that is all over the place.

[MandrakeGuy]

as someone who really enjoys listening to and creating tracks with this exact concept im very happy you made a video on this kind of thing, chaotic time signatures are awesome!

[kelprofitt]

The Logical Song by Supertramp is another one that alternates between 6/4 and 4/4 in the verse sections.