Odd time

Any metre whose bar contains an unusual number of beats, such as five, seven or nine, rather than the familiar twos, threes and fours.

Odd metres are counted as combinations of twos and threes, so a bar of seven might be felt as four plus three or three plus two plus two, and the choice changes how the music sits. They appear constantly in progressive rock, in Balkan and Greek folk music and in modern metal, where a riff in seven can sound entirely natural once the internal pulse is established. Playing them well means feeling the groupings rather than counting them one by one.

Example: A riff whose bar is counted one-two-three-four-five and repeated is in an odd time signature.

Odd time

See also