Category: Music Theory Essays

Part 6: Beyond The Odd Meters: The Mixed Meters (Previous essay: “Part 5: Examples of Odd Meters in Modern Music”)     Combinations of different meters used in a single music piece are called Mixed Meters. They could be used to create a variety of special effects in music or as a support for any… Continue reading ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 6

Part 5: Examples of Odd Meters in Modern Music (Previous essay: “Part 4: Feeling (and Understanding) the Odd Meters”)     Odd meters are such an important element of traditional Balkan music that even in a randomly picked song we would most likely encounter an odd metered rhythm. However, odd meters are not exclusive to… Continue reading ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 5

Part 4: Feeling (and Understanding) the Odd Meters (Previous essay: “Part 3: Identifying Odd Meters”)     In the world of music “feeling the music” means understanding the music with our “inner ear”. Music uses an abstract language, however, understanding the musical language doesn’t necessarily imply the intellectual understanding but rather the intuitive understanding by… Continue reading ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 4

Part 3: Identifying Odd Meters (Previous essay: “Part 2: Classification of Odd Meters”)     When it comes to identifying odd meters, the difference between simple and complex odd meters becomes obvious. Identifying the simple odd meters is quite easy – all we need to do is count the beats along the music and we… Continue reading ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 3

Part 2: Classification of Odd Meters (Previous essay: “Part 1: Introduction to Odd Meters”)     Defining the term “odd meter” can be somewhat confusing because the word “odd” implies multiple meanings. Depending on the context, the word itself refers to a variety of different things and situations including: unusual, irregular, unexpected, eccentric, fantastic, bizarre… Continue reading ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 2

  Part 1: Introduction to Odd Meters     In music theory terms “meter” and “time signature” refer to the pulse of the music and more specifically to the organization of the recurring time segments. Although interchangeable in music jargon, “meter” is a formal term and “time signature” refers specifically to the meter marking at… Continue reading ODD METERS AND TIME SIGNATURES IN MUSIC – Part 1