this is one reason why i'm really glad i made a blog cause who gives a FUCK about time signatures on my twitter. i mean someone probably does but i'd rather write about them where people will actually have to seek out my opinion because having an opinion on time signatures is like the most pretentious thing i can think of. also i think i'm going to make a separate post and link it to this one giving a simple little explanation of time signatures for those of you that are reading this because you're my friend but you don't really know how they work.
5/4
5/4 has a very interesting feel to it because it's an odd time signature (in beats per measure not odd like it's weird). i think the way it feels can feel kind of isolating to people that haven't listened to a lot of odd time signatures besides 3/4. i honestly think that 5/4 is harder to get into a groove of than 7/8, i'm not really sure why but it could be because it's a less common time signature than 7/8.
obviously the most famous song in 5/4 is probably take five by the dave brubeck quartet (i will definitely make a post about the album it comes off of, time out, later because it's a time signature gold mine). dave brubeck was feeling silly and funny when he was making take five because it's called take FIVE ha ha ha right guys. take five is a jazz standard with a very easy and repetitive piano part that is addictive to play once you learn the two chords in it. the sax in it is fucking iconic and the drum solo in it goes crazy hard.
people are actually more familiar with 5/4 than they think they are, though, because the mission impossible theme is in 5/4. the mission impossible theme is a good representation of how 5/4 is usually used: the extra beat in comparison to 4/4 drives the song and makes it feel urgent. however, 5/4's driving nature can also be used in a slower paced song to give it kind of a sway which is seen in everything's alright from jesus christ superstar. 5/4 is a very repetitive time signature which is clear in how often the mission impossible theme and the beginning of take five get stuck in people's heads.
7/8
7/8 is another odd time signature, but definitely with a different feel than 5/4. if i had to describe it 5/4 is chunkier and 7/8 is more streamlined, i think because 5/4 has fewer beats per measure so each beat is more distinct. like i said it's more common than 5/4 and i think after 3/4 it's the most accessible odd time signature. i have more examples of good 7/8 songs than 5/4 songs too, i think it's just generally easier to use.
my top two songs in 7/8 are the temple from jesus christ superstar and nearer, my god, to thee by byu vocal point (yeah they're both very jesusy and i am not at all jesusy but the music is good also at some point ill make a post about superstar's importance to me as someone that is not christian but had to go to church for 15 years). the temple is a fucking fantastic song that uses 7/8 really well to portray chaos and panic because like 5/4 the rhythm is very driving so it feels like the melody has no room to breathe which works to the song's advantage.
nearer, my god, to thee is also a very cool song that switches back and forth between cut time (2/2) and 7/8. one of the things i really like about it is when it's in 7/8 there's a soloist singing in english while the rest of the choir is basically doing a latin chant underneath that's very pulsing and rhythmic. it's a good showcase of the time signature with the rhythmic nature stated before and again drive the song forward.
9/8
9/8 is used in a song that genuinely changed my relationship with music, blue rondo a la turk by the dave brubeck quartet. dave brubeck learned about 9/8 while he was on a state sponsored tour in eastern europe in the late 50s in an attempt by the american government to keep communism at bay by exposing people to jazz (i will DEFINITELY be making a post about that later). 9/8 is how he interpreted a time signature used in turkish folk music which to turkish musicians was interpreted as 4 and 1/2 beats per measure instead of 9 shorter beats per measure. brubeck decided to incorporate the time signature into his music and blue rondo a la turk was born.
9/8 in blue rondo is a very energetic time signature and the way the measures are split up in most of the song demonstrate how it was counted as 4.5 beats in the turkish music brubeck was inspired by. the eighth notes are split into 3 groups of 2 and then one group of 3 at the end so they're counted 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2-3, making it feel like you could count the measures 1 2 3 4-and.
9/8 doesn't have to be energetic though, and this is demonstrated in stopping by woods arr. catherine mcmichael. another very interesting thing about 9/8 is because there's so many beats in a measure it can be counted in several different ways. in stopping by woods it's mostly counted in threes with the added benefit that you could have a note last much longer than 3 beats without having to tie it to another note in the next measure if it were in 3/4. in stopping by woods i think the time signature really complements the lyrics and rhythm of the original poem. the rhythm itself feels playful and lyrical because of the variation in phrasing of the measures.
in conclusion
if you read all that even if it meant nothing to you, you have all my love i love time signatures they're so cool to me and music theory is just very important to me because i'm good at it and it makes me feel capable
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