Has anyone hear played in 5/4 time?

[SteveCoscia]

A section of Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" is in 5/4. The left hand bass riff is good counterpoint to the right hand organ melody. Great fun to play.

[MotiDave]

'Touch and Go' by The Cars is in 5/4 (well, the intro and verses anyway). Does #37 on the US charts count as a hit?

 

I used to play this song in a Cars tribute. Actually, its trickier than just 5/4 as the keys and vocals are in 4/4 time while the bass and drums run in 5/4 in the intro/verse and constantly trying to kick you off of 4/4. Wiki says guitar is in 4/4 but i recall the guitarist hitting random strum chords - he seemed closer to the 5/4 clique than the 4/4, it always felt to me that keys and vocals were alone in 4/4 while the rest of the band was somewhere else.

 

I could nail it fine but the damn singer kept fucking up his entry spots - I had to start throwing stuff at him. The song comes together in 4/4 time in the chorus and everyone syncs up. Weird beat in that one.

[Outkaster]

Wow never thought about it much.

[Morrissey]

Man, there isn't a deep catalog of tunes in 5/4. If I may add in about a multiple of 5/4 -- 10/4 -- I dig the Grateful Dead's "Playing in the Band." During the sung portions of the song, the rhythm is probably most fairly counted as two bars of 4/4 followed by one bar of 2/4, but some of the instrumental portions can be reasonably counted as measures of 5/4. Too hard to count all the way to ten!

[PianoMan51]

There are , IMHO, two ways of dealing with odd time signatures: let them flow over you, or dive into it, figure out what they"re doing, and take charge. The first is for them , the later is for us. (Musos).

 

I listened to First Circle a bunch of times before I moved into the 'just what the hell is he doing?" mode. The transformation from passive to active listening was an unexpected source of joy. But getting on that bus requires a laser intent and commitment.

 

Do it.

[Manolios]

When it comes to 5/4 time, we can all learn from the great Austin McBride:

 

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK_j2LE07G0

 

 

Or from his brilliant drummer:

 

[video:youtube]

 

[Reezekeys]

Wow that guy is great â he can play different time signatures simultaneously! Thanks for sharing!

[stillearning]

Speaking of odd time signatures...

[video:youtube]

[brenner13]

I"m a 7/8 kind of fellow.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

There's also the clearly-influenced-by-Take-5 "Everything's Alright" from Jesus Christ Superstar.

 

In my high school jazz band, we played a Stan Kenton chart called "Decoupage" that was in 5/4, and it was gorgeous. It helped that we had a stellar trombone section.

 

There's also a tune on my first solo album that goes in and out of 5/4 (might be more accurate to call it 5/8) from 4/4, and then into 6/8 at the end.

 

The thing these all have in common? They all swing. I'm sure I've heard tunes that are in 5 (3+2 or 2+3) that don't swing, but that meter seems to really lend itself to swing... maybe it's just because we've all heard Take 5 so much!

[richforman]

The very popular top 40 tune "Hey Ya," which I've covered, has its main hook in 5 time also IIRC. Back in the 90's fooling around with my Ensoniq VFX-SD onboard sequencer, I composed and produced my own attempt at a little fusiony thing in 5/4 that I cleverly (obliquely referencing Brubeck's "Take 5 ") titled "Gimme 5."

 

And of course "Mission Impossible"! Maybe the biggest 5/4 pop tune of all. Used to do that one part of the family-introductions segment in a wedding band.

[philtre71]

Not 5/4, but currently doing Solsbury Hill with the band (mostly 7/8 with the occasional 4/4 bar thrown in). Need to stop counting out the 'one two three" before we play live!

[The Real MC]

The verses of "Long Distance Runaround" by Yes is a polyrhythm. The snare hits are on beat 1 of a 5/4 meter while everything else is 4/4 meter. Count it out... Bruford is one clever musician.

 

I actually wrote a song in 5/4...

[Delaware Dave]

Pick up the pieces - average white band. 5/4 parts at the breaks.

[Reezekeys]

Pick up the pieces - average white band. 5/4 parts at the breaks.

You may be mistaken here, unless there"s a version I"m not aware of - or I can"t count!

[Irena]

Sting's "Seven Days". The usual 3+2, but Vinnie manages to make it slyly interesting--some clever accents within the hi-hat patterns.

[EricBarker]

Is 7/8 even considered an odd time signature anymore? Half the time people don't even notice. 7/4 is even danceable. 5/4 definitely makes people notice, 7/8 is just a fun groove. Most rock groups who aren't 100% punk will eventually write something in 7/8 I figure. It's pretty organic.

[Tom Williams]

One more Emerson w/ Powell: Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War.

[Marzzz]

7/4 is counted 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 (or maybe 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4)

 

I count it one-two-three-four-five-six-sev-ven

 

Works for me!?

[Mark_OA]

Take 5 obviously, as I played a lot of jazz standards last couple of years. Played the theme song from Riverdance with an orchestra once: 9/8, 7/8 and 4/4 in one piece, often switching every few measures. That was fun.

[Dave Bryce]

The not so well known 5/4 version of New York New York sung by true New Yorkers:

 

Bump bum ba de ump bum-bum-bum (triplet)

Bump bum ba de ump bum-bum-bum (triplet)

Bump bum ba de ump bum-bum-bum (triplet)

Bump

 

"Start spreading the f$%^king news..."

 

 

dB

[analogika]

[video:youtube]

[PianoMan51]

7/4 is counted 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 (or maybe 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4)

 

I count it one-two-three-four-five-six-sev-ven

 

Works for me!?

That"s brilliant! Now counting in sev-en works for everything.

 

[richforman]

Yes (no pun intended) on "Long Distance Runaround," I was covering that a few years back and remember playing chordal stabs every fifth beat with my left hand against the straight 4/4 eighth-note chords in the right. I had to make a cheat sheet indicating when to do those stabs.

[The Real MC]

Is 7/8 even considered an odd time signature anymore? Half the time people don't even notice. 7/4 is even danceable. 5/4 definitely makes people notice, 7/8 is just a fun groove. Most rock groups who aren't 100% punk will eventually write something in 7/8 I figure. It's pretty organic.

 

Yes you can dance to 7/8 meter.

 

I've seen it done many times when I cover Tom Sawyer.

 

There was a professional line dancing group in town and they stopped by the venue we were playing to give the audience a sample of their moves. Very good group. Then we decided to challenge them with Tom Sawyer and they breezed through all the meter changes. One of the few times I was dumbfounded. It was awe-inspiring to watch from the stage. The band gave them a round of applause, they were so good.

[MuzikTeechur]

I've played a lot of tunes in 5/4 - when you accompany musicals it goes with the territory.

Also, a lot of the concert band tunes I teach/conduct will go into 5/4 time.

 

It's just another time signature. If the music demands it, you write in 5/4.

[EricBarker]

Yes (no pun intended) on "Long Distance Runaround," I was covering that a few years back and remember playing chordal stabs every fifth beat with my left hand against the straight 4/4 eighth-note chords in the right. I had to make a cheat sheet indicating when to do those stabs.

Underrated gem to be sure. My wife and I used to cover it, then I brought it to my Irish fiddle band, and we had the fiddle player do the stabs. I tend to do the stabs in the R.H as accidents. I leave the low-end free for those awesome bass runs, which I used to double. Playing that one on solo piano is a total mind-bender. 5/4 over 4/4 with the bass constantly moving on and off the beat. I love learning that kind of split-brain stuff!

 

Total Chris Squire masterpiece. It's pretty clear he spearheaded that one, and his vocal harmonies are FANTASTIC. I sing the Chris part with my wife. We really need to bring that one back!

[ajstan]

'Touch and Go' by The Cars is in 5/4 (well, the intro and verses anyway). Does #37 on the US charts count as a hit?

 

I used to play this song in a Cars tribute. Actually, its trickier than just 5/4 as the keys and vocals are in 4/4 time while the bass and drums run in 5/4 in the intro/verse and constantly trying to kick you off of 4/4. Wiki says guitar is in 4/4 but i recall the guitarist hitting random strum chords - he seemed closer to the 5/4 clique than the 4/4, it always felt to me that keys and vocals were alone in 4/4 while the rest of the band was somewhere else.

 

I could nail it fine but the damn singer kept fucking up his entry spots - I had to start throwing stuff at him. The song comes together in 4/4 time in the chorus and everyone syncs up. Weird beat in that one.

Thanks for the reply! Just listened to the song again. I never payed enough attention to notice the keys and vocals were in 4/4 and continued unbroken from verse to chorus and back again. It sounds to me like the guitar strums are always on the 4& and the synth chords are on the & and change on every 1&. Singer comes in on the 1, but if you lose your place, good luck in catching up. Very neat! I have a whole new appreciation for the song.

[Baggypants]

I used to play 'My Favourite Things' in 5/4. That always went down well. I used to introduce it as 'My Five Favourite Things'.

 

Also if you want the utmost madness of time signatures, listen to Lionel Loueke"s 'Seven Teens'

 

[video:youtube]

[EricBarker]

"Pick up the Pieces" is NOT in 5/4, no part of it is. The melody sort of wraps around, but it eventually comes back around to 4/4 by the end of the second bar. Count it, it's two 4/4 bars just with syncopation.