TEARS OF THE KINGDOM SPOILERS ON 23/8. SKIP TO 28:58 TO AVOID That is completely my bad, ironically I have no perception of time and thought the game was out long enough. Also Final Fantasy VII spoiler from 4:20-4:27 but cmon now the game has been out for almost 30 years and is THE most video game spoiler spoiler.
The reason why you get such strange time signatures almost exclusively for final boss themes is to in contrast with the rest of the games music, put you off balance and enhance the drama by being so different from the more comfortable time signatures you find in house settings, protagonist themes etc. It enhances the direness of the situation
@@wiegraf9009i wouldn't say that they're not interesting, but they typically give off a sense of familiarity and overall safety. most protagonists in video games are the "good guys", so it would probably make more sense for a "bad guy" protagonist to have a strange time signature
@@mshishii4485 But what if things were _flipped?_ Not primarily in terms of alignment, that could be whatever. It just boils down to agenda at that point.. Instead, what if all the tracks (including the protagonist theme) we’re all of these wacky signatures like 41/5 or 23/8! However, in contrast the main antagonal force’s theme is.. *cold.* *Formatted..* *_Calculated._*
I think my favourite weird time signature is Frothy Waters from Splatoon 3. After the intro, it goes into a 10/8, then 11/8 for the next bar, then 12/8 for the bar after that, then 13/8, 14/8 etc. It just loops a melody adding another repeating eigth note every bar and it's is just... beautiful
@@ha-harmony not to mention bait and click, being 3/4. Not that special on it's own, but the fact that it's a corruption of 4/4 song that's had it's time signature remixed is so cool.
"Story 2" by Hip-Hop Group clipping. does something like this starting at 3/8, then 4/8... all the way to 8/8, then changing the pace & putting the 8/8 into triplets before restarting back at 3/8 & repeating.
4:12 I think the only way to truly have “1/4” is to have a completely consistent quarter note pulse with no emphasis given to any beat. So in reality that would basically just be a metronome count with no emphasis, just constant, homogenous clicks 😊😅 great video by the way!!
That makes sense to me, but then again my lizard brain would probably still divide the clicks into powers of 2 and phrases of 4 lmao Also DAVID! I'm a huge fan of your stuff, I've seen all of your time signature videos a while ago and they were a huge inspiration for this video. Thanks for watching!
not a video game tune, but i think the song 'Spell with a Shell' by Cardiacs is a really good candidate for a 1/4 example. the main groove for the verse section of the song is a pulsating synth playing a single note on every beat, overlayed with a solitary bass drum with occasional light fills at perhaps arbitrary points. this groove gives the song a sort of freeform vibe, where it can for short intervals sound like a particular time signature, but never stay still on any until the chorus comes, of which is, unlike the verse, at least countable in 2/4.
can i just say that an interest in time signatures and a stress fracture in my spine combined on one fateful day to lead to me discovering that the beats of the MRI machine were in 19/16
every single thing that has ever bothered me about time signatures was instantly remedied when you said it's, in practice, typically added retrospectively based on what feels right. that explains why i couldn't actually math the math and make it math right.
00:00 Intro 03:37 1/4 04:12 2/4 (Advent: One Winged Angel - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) 05:56 3/4 (Rosalina in the Observatory - Super Mario Galaxy) 07:13 4/4 (Main Menu - Wii Sports Resort) 08:51 5/4 (Gear Getaway - Super Smash Bros WiiU/3DS) 10:41 6/8 (Flipside - Super Paper Mario) 11:57 7/4 (Mother Brain - Super Metroid) 13:36 8/8 13:51 9/8 (Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker) 15:01 10/8 (Trainers' Eyes Meet (Psychic) - Pokemon X/Y) 16:22 11/8 (Forgotten Isle - Super Mario Odyssey) 18:28 12/8 (Remix 3 - Rhythm Heaven) 20:16 13/8 (Shrine Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) 21:55 14/16 (Yuga-Ganon Battle - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds) 23:22 15/16 (The Moon - DuckTales (NES)) 25:28 Intermission 25:45 "21/16" (Pokémon Mansion - Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green) 27:32 23/8 (Demon King Ganondorf (Phase 2) - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) 28:58 24/8 (Shrine Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) 29:57 31/16 (Fishing Frenzy - Splatoon 2) 31:24 Outro mightve did something wrong but i think this is right
that's the neat trick of putting the "rushed" subdivision somewhere in the middle instead of at the end of the measure, makes it sound a lot more clean
Okay, so during the 11/8 section she brings up sagat's theme from SFII a peak game. What she doesn't mention is the cool as hell reason the composer decided to use 11/8 it was more than just a choice to make the song sound awesome (even though it does) in the original street fighter 2 hyper fighting, there are only 8 playable characters, however there are 4 final boss fights that are unplayable but still definitely feel like fighters, sagat is the third of these fighters, making him the 11th of eight fighters, aka 11/8 fighters. This is so awesome and I really wish she mentioned this, but now you know
Ohh my goodness that's such a cool little Easter egg xD I love it when game developers put so much care and love in their games even in the littlest things
The reason why you get such strange time signatures almost exclusively for final boss themes is to in contrast with the rest of the games music, put you off balance and enhance the drama by being so different from the more comfortable time signatures you find in house settings, protagonist themes etc. It enhances the direness of the situation
It looks like you copied this exact comment from someone else a month after they did. Its literally word for word and youtube literally put yours after theirs. I don't see a point to the considering they have over 1k likes and you have 400 so they we'll see theirs before your copy a month after
i have an example of 8/8! In a concert band i was in a few years back we played a piece called Bulgarian Dances and I think it was the third movement that was written in 8/8 with subdivison of 3/3/2 which gave it a similar feel to 5/4 with that last beat rushing a little bit more than the others. Actually 8/8 is really interesting because of this structure built into it and the feel can change a lot depending on where you place the shorter beat in relation to the longer ones.
Isn't 8/8 with a 3-3-2 subdivision just the classic tresillo rhythm? That's everywhere in any latin-influenced music from the Charleston to Coldplay's "Clocks". I'm sure there's an example in Mario Sunshine somewhere.
I know this isn't what the video is about, but at 10:10, you brought up the Mission Impossible theme, which is comprised of two "long notes" and two "short notes". If interpreted as dashes and dots respectively, the simple 4 note loop is morse code for M.I. -- Mission Impossible.
Ok, as someone who LOVES music with odd time signatures (TOOL, Primus, Polyphia, etc.), it's kinda cool to see that that may come from the fact that my childhood as a Nintendo kid has made odd time signatures more appealing to me.
14:37 correction! This is not like a jig, but like a slipjig! you can tell because you can say the words “eggs, rashers and sausages” to the rhythm. A jig would be just “rashers and sausages”, and a reel is “black and decker” or “double decker”. I have not yet found a helpful mnemonic for identifying hornpipes. Probably you already knew this, you know more about time signatures than I ever will, but on the off chance it’s helpful, thought I’d comment!
For hornpipes I was told "HUMPty DUMPty. It doesn't work quite as well as the others, but if you say humpty dumpty to a reel you lose the emphasis on 1 and 3 and it's just 'humpty dumpty' rather than 'HUMPty DUMPty' (Though I also generally find hornpipes and slip jigs are easier to identify than reels and jigs because they have such distinctive characters)
Cool, I've noticed most of these examples when playing the games. I love odd time signatures and hope this video encourages people to experiment more with their compositions! 😁
Really big fan of Marx’s theme in Kirby Super Star, with the absolutely insane switch ups in signature making it feel nearly impossible to play in real time which adds to the cosmic horror of the fight
I actually really appreciate this video. I've watched plenty of music theory time signature videos going "Oh I see!(I don't.)", so actually hearing songs I'm more familiar with their beats, makes this much MUCH more clearer.
as a musician this has actually helped me learn how to compose in unusual time signatures. i would never have figured out the ‘dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter-quarter’ tactic for 5/4, or the triplet/duplet difference between 3/4 and 6/8
5/4 seems like such a scary time signature and then you realise that basically *every* song in 5/4 uses that exact same rhythm. From Eden by Hozier is another good example of a song in 5/4, it's a beautiful ballad that has the same rhythm as a bunch of action movie themes.
24:31 YES, I love how she explained music analysis. I've tried to explain to people that sometimes you might like music that seems odd or weird to you if you give it more listens because you need to know ahead of time how all the pieces fit together so you can start detecting the patterns and movements in a song.
Thank you so much for including Fishing Frenzy !!! Splatoon's Salmon Run osts have crazy time signatures that keep changing all the time, it's really interesting to hear
I just wanted to say thank you for using the eighth note tied to the quarter note ( 9:48 ) for dotted-quarter notes that start on the offbeat...it's such an often overlooked convention in notation that is really helpful for seeing where the beat is while reading.
agree, i’ve even confused myself when writing my own music on staves, by opting for dotted notes in the composition phase, then coming back to play it at a later date and tripping up on the same dotted notes, especially when there’s a syncopation or polyrhythm between voices. the tied notes are often way more legible, digestible,and not that much more time consuming to write on the page.
Big Splatoon fan here, so happy to see Splatoon salmon run music represented in this video. ω-3 music is so beautifully chaotic, and as a lover of odd time signatures, some of my favorite vgm of all time. Plenty of other SR songs have irregular time signatures as well, such as Deluge Dirge in 7/8, and Frantic Aspic in 5/4, perfectly encapsulating SR’s intense, dramatic, zombie-apocalypse-like environment.
Splatoon music is such a mixed bag for me, but I consistently love the Omega 3 music more than most music I've ever heard before. Love the use of Fishing Frenzy
its very cool that you transcribed all the music you showed as examples of the time signatures, it also helped me a bit to understand more of how music theory works
26:22 I just watched a video earlier today that humans can't percieve a beat that's off by less than about 30ms, so if any one of those beats were to be of by 1/21 of a bar we'd percieve it as being continuous even if it's not. Neat!
Wind Waker theme is what you'd call in Irish music, a slip jig. It's a really good one, you could slip it into a set of Irish slip jigs and no one would complain.
I love the breakdown you gave for each time signature. It really helped make it clear what I was trying to feel especially in the later sections ^^ Been here since the Andrew Huang chordstory challenge so it’s insanely cool to see you evolve your channel in this way ^^
As someone who writes their own music, I'm glad to find a channel explaining this stuff in a more friendly manner. Like I always thought of 6/8 as and elaborate 2/4 but rest assured, they are different and I think it is all a matter of perception and what people find easier to count. Any method is valid as long as it remains on tempo and on time.
This video is overwhelmingly high quality. I don't usually post comments, but I just have to say, “Wow.” You break down these complex themes in such digestible ways. You deeply understand these topics and can break down years’ worth of knowledge into a 30 minute video. Incredible. You also exemplify it with Nintendo music, making it further compelling and palatable. You clearly put a bunch of effort into each of your videos by choosing *the best* examples of whatever you're describing. Love the quality ❤️
I forget the exact time signatures, but my favorite use of strange time signatures is Marx's theme from Kirby! How it manages to keep a comprehensible and catchy melody amidst all those changes is magic to me.
@@CadenceHirahave you ever of mother 3's strong one and the masked man version of that,it is literally the strangest time signature I've ever come across in a video game
Was hoping someone would bring up Marx's theme. It's so catchy that i never realized how the time signature keeps bouncing around until someone pointed it out.
Music has always been so alien to me, at least in its construction. Like, yeah I love jamming out to songs, but all of the terminology just racked my brain to think about, and nobody has explained it in a way that made sense to me. But now I really feel like I understand time signatures and how they can evoke a variety of feelings tones within music, and I've even been a bit inspired to think of making my own music trying out different time signatures to see what happens. thanks a ton!
i do have some familiarity with music signatures and even i really appreciate how easy and approachable this video is! like not just showing the songs, but then breaking it down by the staff and then counting off the beats atop the song.
Agreed. I listen to a lot of music, even read music theory or about how music was composed. But time signatures were always something that I could feel but never properly explain. I think she broke it down in a way that anybody can understand!
As a musician thats not too familiar with music theory, I feel like this video somehow gave me a worse understanding of time signatures than before. Maybe it's like a Dunning-Kruger effect, where I am now more aware of how much I didn't know beforehand.
I listen to a decent amount of prog that just sort of grooves, and I definitely think there are some songs I could play by feel, but if I tried counting them it might screw me up! :D
holy crap the explanation you give at 24:41 is one of the smartest things I think I've ever heard someone say about music theory! a concept with such depth explained so succinctly. amazing work on this video!!
I really like the 13/4 groove in the theme for cryogenic hopetown in splatoon 3 its just splendid. I did a transcription for it for piano and its fun to play too.
I'm sure someone else has brought it up, but Mother 3 is pretty iconic for its use of funky time signatures, names 15/8 in Strong One and 29/16 in Strong One (Masked Man). Also, on the topic of Splatoon's Salmon Run mode, the tune Frothy Waters from Splatoon 3 has some really interesting shifting time signature biz going on, it's REALLY fun to try to keep up with imo.
My favorite example of 13/8 has always been, and will always be, "Weapons Factory" from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Also, I always love that any video or discussion of this type of stuff always elicits people sharing their favorite examples, I've found so many wonderful pieces from games I've missed that way.
As a person who loved video game music before it was widely accepted, this is fantastic. I used to learn Castlevania songs on Guitar way back (and at this point who doesn't feel like video game music is relatable in someway). This was one of the most relatable and easy to get through videos I've seen. It even inspired me to write a riff in 10/8 for a song I've almost finished but felt like something was missing. Thanks for this and good work! 🎶🎶👏🏻😊
If you're counting the 11/8 + 12/8 from the TotK Ganondorf theme as 23/8, then I have another (Nintendo-adjacent) example: Oh No! WASPS!! from Bug Fables. I think that one might be an even clearer example, because it plays each beat (particularly with the percussion), and the base line clearly indicates the divisions of 2-2-2-2-3 2-2-2-3-3.
I've never really fully understood what time signatures mean even though I've been playing and making music for years, and this video has immediately clarified something that I've always found incredibly unapproachable! Thanks for making it!
Hey Cadence, great video! I’m new here, however, I’m a professional musician and piano performance major in college. One of my theory professors changed my understanding of beat for the better. One of common phrases we hear is “sub-divide” the beat, which is implying that you cut the beat into one or two subsets. However, that is a very loose term for what it is. The prefix “Sub” implies underneath or secondary function. If this was true, a quarter note’s (QN) “second division” would be a 16th note, as you’ll have to split the QN twice to get there. I would argue saying you need to “Divide” a beat and then “sub-divide” is better. If I divide a quarter note, I get an 8th note, then if I sub-divide the QN, I’ll get my 16th. I would love to hear what you or others will think about this!
Super Paper Mario has quite a bit of musical oddities. The track 'Hammer Whacker' uses 7/4 to sound playful and chaotic. The mini boss battle theme 'A Powerful Enemy Emerges' starts off with a 4 to 3 polyrythm.
I cannot put into words how helpful this video is. I've been learning music theory for the past couple of years, so I know the basic 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, but I wasn't so sure about others. And as a huge video game fan, especially nintendo, my heart practically skipped a beat seeing this on my recommended. Thanks.
There are some great orchestra examples of the fact that 5/4 is more commonly felt as 2/4 + 3/4 as well. Cajun Folk Songs (Movement 2) is a great example. The entire song revolves around the same melody, however there are many, MANY time signature changes that alternate between 2/4, 3/4, and 5/4. Slightly less stable time signatures like 5/4 often have songs with the occasional measure that switches time signature to one of it's more stable counterparts (2/4 or 3/4) before returning to the original melody in 5/4. Some also use the time signature switches to spin counterparts of the melody.
A lot of other people have brought it up, but Mother 3’s "Strong One (Masked Man)" has an absolutely insane time signature, even more than Fishing Frenzy, and unlike that song it doesn’t give any good musical hints on how to count it. The game has a mechanic where if you time button presses to the music you get extra damage in, so the songs get progressively weirder throughout the game. This is the peak of that.
I think it's kind of cheating to count it as 29/16 as all they do is change the tempo, so any time signature you come up with would be slightly inaccurate at best. 5/4+5/8 is my preferred way of counting Strong One
@mischacarlberg6631 IIRC it was programmed into the game in 4/4 with tempo changes, so if you ignore tempo changes it's 4/4 or if you don't then it's 29/16. It's more cheating to split it than it is to call it how it sounds. (For anyone interested, there's a silvagunner rip where someone removed the tempo changes to restore how it was put into the system, which feels like 3/4+5/4 but who knows if it was composed like that or if it was composed with the tempo changes intended? ruclips.net/video/GtsX-kyecWw/видео.html)
And thus, she truly completed her quest to EARN the name of Cadence, forever. (Seriously, I love your name. It's musical without sounding snooty or silly. And it makes me think of Cadence of Hyrule. Also, this video was excellent.)
I know you didn’t do 11/4, but a great example of that is the eastern province theme from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet! It can also be read as a repeating 5/4 and 6/4 pattern and it’s so wonderful to listen to.
I once played Celebration Tribalesque by Randall D. Standridge in band, and for a short segment, it instructs the conductor to “conduct in one”. I always felt that it was, in fact, in 1/4.
1/4 is really such an unhelpful time signature, it can be a copout answer to any other time signatures that are hard to follow. You can see this in music websites that supposedly identifies the time signature of any tune; it'll just output "1/4" to any tunes with number of beats that are not multiples of 2 or 3, or do not have an obvious/consistent loop (i.e. not in a n/8 or n/16 time signature).
This is so cool!! I don’t know much music theory despite playing violin for ten years and counting, this has inspired me to learn more! Thank you for all the work you out into this video, it’s such a great entertaining but knowledgeable explanation:D
My favourite example of a time signature change is in the game Rhythm Doctor. The gameplay is primarily pressing the spacebar on the 7th beat (with all the distractions/speed changes etc to expect from a rhythm game). Basically all the songs are in 4/4, except for the boss level for act 4. The song itself starts in the same 4/4, but the second half switches to 7/8. It's just such a clever way of adding a new gimmick and taking the basic rule of pressing on the 7th beat to its absolute limit. Well worth a play
I think the thing that screwed me over is that the first measure ended on the seventh beat (because it’s in 7/8, duh) of a 4/4 measure so I kept thinking the next one ended on the seventh beat every time instead of the sixth, then fifth, etc.
@@eric8764 yeah. Know You/Murmurs are called 4-4 and 4-4N respectively, while the boss levels are all X (All The Times is 2-X etc). There isn't technically a 4-X, but 1-XN is available only after you complete Know You so it's as good as the boss level for the act
Oh man, this video is so awesome. I'm a music student, so I really appreciate you breaking down these more intimidating time signatures into something I can understand, especially while using examples. So yeah, great video!
I'm only 2 and a half minutes in and I already love this video. You're explaining things in a way that makes sense to me when music theory type things have always been so difficult for me to grasp.
Best explanation of time signatures I've ever seen. Not just because you show examples, but the base explanation you give at the start is also way better then anything I've seen
This is the most thoroughly i’ve ever understood time signatures and general music sheet stuff. That being said, I still don’t understand a single thing about time signatures and general music sheet stuff. It’s a me problem though. You did a great job regardless
I am forever (video game musically at least) indebted to you because I FINALLY know where that meme jingle is from (23:22). I've actually been trying to find this for years.
At 12:59, I accidentally turned on the Mother Brain theme in the background, and for a full minute I was completely convinced the fact I can't hear you talking through its loudness was an intended funny gag
UGHH this is so great. it really scratches the brain the right ways, because every in time signature. you're trying to make sense of it - but then the use of nintendo music refreshes and calms you, with vibe you kinda know and feel! Good visuals aswell! wish you did the clapping with your hands aswell well and counting with your voice haha
Just wanted to say how helpful this video is! I’ve always wanted to explain time signatures and other music stuff to my non-musical friends, but it’s really hard to explain with just words alone. Including examples with all of them as well as explainations is SO useful! Not to mention, it doesn’t have that ‘stuffy, classist’ feeling that classical music has. I’ll be showing this to my friends and maybe next time they’ll understand me when I start gushing about time signatures again.
Amazing video as always. As far as the 1/4 goes, I feel like when a relentless repeated downbeat pattern appears, without any variation in emphasis, that could be considered 1/4. Maybe something like the opening of the famous shower cue from “Psycho.” Now, it wouldn’t be the most sight-readable thing in the world; it’s a lot easier for rehearsal purposes to just expand the beats into 2/4 or something. But if the emphasis really doesn’t vary - like, if there are no weak or strong beats - then purely in terms of musical feel, there’s no justification for anything other than 1/4.
1/4 is one of those pretty much never used. I've only ever seen it as a starting pickup measure. However, 1/1 is used more often as a sustain for the conductor's cue.
2 years in music school and this video about Nintendo actually got me to understand more about time signatures than I ever got out of school. Great job!
This isn't a Nintendo tune but Good Morning Good Morning by The Beatles I think would be a good example of 1/4 because there's no other consistent way to subdivide the measures for most of the song. There are also parts of it that are 4/4 and 12/8
My favorite odd time signature in video game music is the cross-examination theme from “Ace Attorney: Justice For All” Every Ace Attorney game has two cross examination themes, “moderato” and “allegro”, with the allegro version being faster, having different instrumentation, adding another section, and usually being higher pitched. In AA:JFA, the moderato version is entirely in 27/8, which alternates between 14/8 and 13/8 every measure. The allegro version starts off the same way, in 27/8, but it goes into a second section that is in 25/8, alternating between 13/8 and 12/8 every measure.
1/4 occurs in some rare techno where you can't believe the energetic resolve is simply every downbeat. Generally it's 2, although 4 and 8 are common as well. House music, alternative, tends to be 8/4, although 4/4 is quite common, 2/4 happens on occasion. Indeed much of electronic dance music really stresses every 8 quarter notes as the resolving of the repetition. The producers of both believe it's all 4/4 because their DAW says so, and will downvote information to the contrary.
definitely have some new tracks to add to my weird time signatures playlist. Mother 3 has quite a few battle themes that add a beat to the original one to throw you off since you can time your button presses to the music during battle, which is a super cool aspect of the game. I’m probably remembering wrong, but the track “Strong One” technically has a time signature in the hundreds. I have no clue how to divide it so I brute forced my way through that boss.
Strong one is a lot simpler than most people think. Off the top of my head it's 15/8? If you keep a beat based on the first 3 timpani notes you'll notice that when they come back they'll be on the backbeat and when it comes back again it will still be synced with the first ones. It just has you combo in a strange rhythm. Now the masked man variant? I have no idea.
strong one has a time signature of 15/8. strong one (masked man), however, has a time signature of 29/16 (which is kinda just 15/8 with a 16th note cut out of it)
I know this ain't video game music, but if some of y'all wanna hear a funky time signature, check out Björk's song "Moon", which is mostly 17/8, in a way to supposedly mimic the lunar cycles!
This is really well explained! I'm a drummer and I tend to find myself drawn to the down beat as my reference for counting, and try and figure out the time signature from that. So I often would first hear an example you give and think, that's a weird way to count that its just 4/4 or 5/4. But then you did a great job of showing me why I was wrong haha. But I like that, time signatures are a bit weird and deciphering them is tricky. I'm honestly not that good at it and usually just "feel" it and play what seems appropriate.
this video is so fun and interesting! as someone who finds music theory super cool but has never been able to understand it, i LOVE your editing style and how you highlight the tempo/notes when playing a song
YESS 29:00 I was hoping you would cover this theme!! It’s so cool and quirky and a wonderful shrine theme in my opinion. I loved this groove more than the BotW one!
the rhythm heaven song coming up was a SHOCKER. so proud of you
8 месяцев назад+40
Excellent video! New subscriber. I like to think of 8/8 as a better option for the typical "3/8 + 3/8 + 2/8", but I know that by convention we use 4/4 for that (one example could be Mt. Moon from Pokemon games)
Yep. Although I think people more often talk about tresillo when it's in sixteenth notes so that it lasts 2 beats. Fun fact: in Spanish, we use the word "tresillo" for what you call "triplet". Some people talk about "tresillo cubano" (which would translate like cuban triplet) to mean what you just call "tresillo".
A use case for stuff like 8/8 or 16/16 would be if you're scoring something proggy that changes time signatures every other bar, but is felt with the same bottom meter throughout. So if you have this fast 16th-note instrumental run going 15/16, 16/16, 15/16, 17/16 or something like that, it might look neater and more consistent to hold the 16/16 than to suddenly consolidate it to 4/4. Just a little thing I remember running into in Guitar Pro back in the day lol.
I don't know how they would write it themselves, but one prog song I can think of where I would do this is In the Presence of Enemies, Pt. 2 by Dream Theater. The beat starting at 2:36 rotates between 9/8 and what I would call 8/8, as it makes way more sense to me to count every other measure as 8 than slow down to counting in 4
fwiw, retrospective analysis is also true of visual art, careful use of value can direct the eye in a narrative fashion and allow even a "static" piece to deliver a temporal experience. you can easily see a lot of this in comics and manga, where conventions of experiencing a work also often recontextualize full page spreads as the eye travels
My entire life I have been entirely unable to hear time signatures, even after family members and past lovers have tried at great cost to their own sanity. This video is the first time it has ever clicked. I feel like I understand time signatures now and it is pretty much entirely thanks to you. Thank you so much ❤
TEARS OF THE KINGDOM SPOILERS ON 23/8. SKIP TO 28:58 TO AVOID That is completely my bad, ironically I have no perception of time and thought the game was out long enough.
Also Final Fantasy VII spoiler from 4:20-4:27 but cmon now the game has been out for almost 30 years and is THE most video game spoiler spoiler.
I haven’t watched and I already know which FF7 spoiler it is lol
Why are people crying over TOTK spoilers when it’s the next year?
The game was out 7 months ago cmon
@@Apotheosis0because some of us can’t afford to buy the game on release and still want to experience it fresh when we can finally get it for ourselves
Tbh iirc the ff7 spoiler was in the back of the boxart lmao
Ahh, finally. A good video explaining time signatures in a clear, concise way. If there are any Great Value Blueberry jumpscares, I’m going to scream.
I get all bounty mega roll jump scares 😂. Sometimes less than a minute apart.
Uhh, I should probably say something...
Sure but the 13/8 jumpscare...
Y'all talking about the blueberry jumpscare, but I'm getting Remix 3'd
3:20 Does the "Any schmuck" count as a jump scare?
( It kinda did for me 😅! )
Splatoon’s Frothy waters has a time signature that increases every bar, making it use 10:8, 11:8, 12:8, 13:8, 14:8, 15:8, 16:8, 17:8, 18:8, 19:8, 20:8, 21:8, 22:8, 23:8, 24:8, and 25:8 all in one song.
Cool!
Dang
Not nintendo but gilded runner in genshin impact does this too.
Thank you for sharing this! That was a gnarly experience!
that's actually insane
The reason why you get such strange time signatures almost exclusively for final boss themes is to in contrast with the rest of the games music, put you off balance and enhance the drama by being so different from the more comfortable time signatures you find in house settings, protagonist themes etc. It enhances the direness of the situation
Clearly we need more interesting protagonists and houses
@@wiegraf9009i wouldn't say that they're not interesting, but they typically give off a sense of familiarity and overall safety. most protagonists in video games are the "good guys", so it would probably make more sense for a "bad guy" protagonist to have a strange time signature
@@mshishii4485 Yeah I understand the logic just thinking of what doing the opposite would look like
@@mshishii4485 But what if things were _flipped?_
Not primarily in terms of alignment, that could be whatever. It just boils down to agenda at that point..
Instead, what if all the tracks (including the protagonist theme) we’re all of these wacky signatures like 41/5 or 23/8!
However, in contrast the main antagonal force’s theme is.. *cold.*
*Formatted..*
*_Calculated._*
@@quotetry8998That's interesting, I wonder how that'd feel in practice.
Time signatures is a way for your band teacher to torture you without getting arrested.
it's incredible that music theory has managed to break down and categorize something that for the most part comes down to Vibes
Fr though
I think my favourite weird time signature is Frothy Waters from Splatoon 3.
After the intro, it goes into a 10/8, then 11/8 for the next bar, then 12/8 for the bar after that, then 13/8, 14/8 etc.
It just loops a melody adding another repeating eigth note every bar and it's is just... beautiful
Splatoon is such a goldmine for fun time signatures... both Deluge Dirge and Don't Slip have a 7/8 time signature c:
@@ha-harmony not to mention bait and click, being 3/4. Not that special on it's own, but the fact that it's a corruption of 4/4 song that's had it's time signature remixed is so cool.
@@ha-harmony Those two are my favorite splatoon songs to play on the drums lol
Frantic Aspic is the flagship of Splatoon's music imo. 5/4 with a dissolved meter and offbeat triplets is something I haven't found anywhere else
"Story 2" by Hip-Hop Group clipping. does something like this starting at 3/8, then 4/8... all the way to 8/8, then changing the pace & putting the 8/8 into triplets before restarting back at 3/8 & repeating.
4:12 I think the only way to truly have “1/4” is to have a completely consistent quarter note pulse with no emphasis given to any beat. So in reality that would basically just be a metronome count with no emphasis, just constant, homogenous clicks 😊😅 great video by the way!!
That makes sense to me, but then again my lizard brain would probably still divide the clicks into powers of 2 and phrases of 4 lmao
Also DAVID! I'm a huge fan of your stuff, I've seen all of your time signature videos a while ago and they were a huge inspiration for this video. Thanks for watching!
@@CadenceHira thank you!! I stumbled across your channel today and really like it. Keep up the good work!
Oh damn, it's David Bennett
not a video game tune, but i think the song 'Spell with a Shell' by Cardiacs is a really good candidate for a 1/4 example. the main groove for the verse section of the song is a pulsating synth playing a single note on every beat, overlayed with a solitary bass drum with occasional light fills at perhaps arbitrary points. this groove gives the song a sort of freeform vibe, where it can for short intervals sound like a particular time signature, but never stay still on any until the chorus comes, of which is, unlike the verse, at least countable in 2/4.
correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't 1/4 have to just be one note
Awesome music theory knowledge, and then...
"Prime example"
"This fusion"
"Feeling of dread"
3 Metroid puns in one sentence, you hooked me. Subscribed
Gamer learns that words actually have meanings in real life scenarios
@@sebaschan-uwu They were intentional puns put in by the scriptwriter. Nice try though.
@@honeycrisp808 so?
@@sebaschan-uwu lmao true
Samus: *proceeds to fall offstage*
can i just say that an interest in time signatures and a stress fracture in my spine combined on one fateful day to lead to me discovering that the beats of the MRI machine were in 19/16
Hahhahah,
every single thing that has ever bothered me about time signatures was instantly remedied when you said it's, in practice, typically added retrospectively based on what feels right.
that explains why i couldn't actually math the math and make it math right.
00:00 Intro
03:37 1/4
04:12 2/4 (Advent: One Winged Angel - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
05:56 3/4 (Rosalina in the Observatory - Super Mario Galaxy)
07:13 4/4 (Main Menu - Wii Sports Resort)
08:51 5/4 (Gear Getaway - Super Smash Bros WiiU/3DS)
10:41 6/8 (Flipside - Super Paper Mario)
11:57 7/4 (Mother Brain - Super Metroid)
13:36 8/8
13:51 9/8 (Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker)
15:01 10/8 (Trainers' Eyes Meet (Psychic) - Pokemon X/Y)
16:22 11/8 (Forgotten Isle - Super Mario Odyssey)
18:28 12/8 (Remix 3 - Rhythm Heaven)
20:16 13/8 (Shrine Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
21:55 14/16 (Yuga-Ganon Battle - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds)
23:22 15/16 (The Moon - DuckTales (NES))
25:28 Intermission
25:45 "21/16" (Pokémon Mansion - Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green)
27:32 23/8 (Demon King Ganondorf (Phase 2) - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)
28:58 24/8 (Shrine Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)
29:57 31/16 (Fishing Frenzy - Splatoon 2)
31:24 Outro
mightve did something wrong but i think this is right
@@ApplzAndHoney no problem. should be fixed now
@@larho9031 yep, imma delete my reply so no one hates me:3
How does Marx's theme not get a mention the entire song is just random 5/4s and 7/4 inserted with no pattern into 3/4
Kinda sad we didn’t get any mention of 7/8 😢
This deserves a pin
I had no idea Moon was in 15/16. It sounds so clean and pure that I just assumed it was 4/4
That's because the rest of the tune actually IS just in 4/4, it's only the intro that's in 15/16
that's the neat trick of putting the "rushed" subdivision somewhere in the middle instead of at the end of the measure, makes it sound a lot more clean
Okay, so during the 11/8 section she brings up sagat's theme from SFII a peak game. What she doesn't mention is the cool as hell reason the composer decided to use 11/8 it was more than just a choice to make the song sound awesome (even though it does) in the original street fighter 2 hyper fighting, there are only 8 playable characters, however there are 4 final boss fights that are unplayable but still definitely feel like fighters, sagat is the third of these fighters, making him the 11th of eight fighters, aka 11/8 fighters. This is so awesome and I really wish she mentioned this, but now you know
Ooooooh cool 🤩
My brain wants it to be 5.5/4 so bad lmao
Ohh my goodness that's such a cool little Easter egg xD I love it when game developers put so much care and love in their games even in the littlest things
as a musician, that cut at 20:16 to that combination of music and 13/8 staring me in the soul legit made me jump!
I was looking for this comment😂. 100% true
The reason why you get such strange time signatures almost exclusively for final boss themes is to in contrast with the rest of the games music, put you off balance and enhance the drama by being so different from the more comfortable time signatures you find in house settings, protagonist themes etc. It enhances the direness of the situation
This makes the idea of the main character having a wacky time signature more exciting if it's properly pulled off tbh
It looks like you copied this exact comment from someone else a month after they did. Its literally word for word and youtube literally put yours after theirs. I don't see a point to the considering they have over 1k likes and you have 400 so they we'll see theirs before your copy a month after
i have an example of 8/8! In a concert band i was in a few years back we played a piece called Bulgarian Dances and I think it was the third movement that was written in 8/8 with subdivison of 3/3/2 which gave it a similar feel to 5/4 with that last beat rushing a little bit more than the others. Actually 8/8 is really interesting because of this structure built into it and the feel can change a lot depending on where you place the shorter beat in relation to the longer ones.
Bartok's "Mikrokosmos" #151 and 153 are both in 8. #151 is in 3+2+3, and #153 is in 3+3+2
Isn't 8/8 with a 3-3-2 subdivision just the classic tresillo rhythm? That's everywhere in any latin-influenced music from the Charleston to Coldplay's "Clocks". I'm sure there's an example in Mario Sunshine somewhere.
@@KeenathI also hear it when I listen to clocks. I also saw it in Frank Ticheli’s Vesuvius, which I was fortunate enough to play last year.
tresillo
@@Gingermaasdon’t forget that he uses a 1/4 bar at least 2 times in that.
I know this isn't what the video is about, but at 10:10, you brought up the Mission Impossible theme, which is comprised of two "long notes" and two "short notes". If interpreted as dashes and dots respectively, the simple 4 note loop is morse code for M.I. -- Mission Impossible.
I cant get over how freakin smart that was.
That's awesome.... mind blown (pun intended!)
PS. Great vid!
The great value blueberries had me in tears
I think while not nintendo music, the spongebob theme song is 8/8. It just fits better than 4/4, especially because of the AT EASE part.
I don't get it 😭
@@monkeydreams it's representative of "the most thing ever," with nothing complex or out of the ordinary about it, nothing to observe about it really.
@@daveslamjam oh my fucking god it's dave strider.
Are you from Michigan or are you unsure?
Ok, as someone who LOVES music with odd time signatures (TOOL, Primus, Polyphia, etc.), it's kinda cool to see that that may come from the fact that my childhood as a Nintendo kid has made odd time signatures more appealing to me.
14:37 correction! This is not like a jig, but like a slipjig! you can tell because you can say the words “eggs, rashers and sausages” to the rhythm. A jig would be just “rashers and sausages”, and a reel is “black and decker” or “double decker”. I have not yet found a helpful mnemonic for identifying hornpipes. Probably you already knew this, you know more about time signatures than I ever will, but on the off chance it’s helpful, thought I’d comment!
For hornpipes I was told "HUMPty DUMPty. It doesn't work quite as well as the others, but if you say humpty dumpty to a reel you lose the emphasis on 1 and 3 and it's just 'humpty dumpty' rather than 'HUMPty DUMPty'
(Though I also generally find hornpipes and slip jigs are easier to identify than reels and jigs because they have such distinctive characters)
Cool, I've noticed most of these examples when playing the games.
I love odd time signatures and hope this video encourages people to experiment more with their compositions! 😁
Thx for the kind words Fredde! I am a huge fan of your stuff, I've been watching your vids for over a decade :D
@@CadenceHira I want u to talk about this song ruclips.net/video/-hsQDpCqxIg/видео.htmlsi=dj4lZpYvbPwiUegE
It sure encouraged _me_ to, if that's any indication
Really big fan of Marx’s theme in Kirby Super Star, with the absolutely insane switch ups in signature making it feel nearly impossible to play in real time which adds to the cosmic horror of the fight
I talked about it in my 6 Levels of Kirby Harmony video!
I actually really appreciate this video. I've watched plenty of music theory time signature videos going "Oh I see!(I don't.)", so actually hearing songs I'm more familiar with their beats, makes this much MUCH more clearer.
Also it's very well explained, like she's talking to human beings, that doesn't already understand the theory, which is kinda rare
as a musician this has actually helped me learn how to compose in unusual time signatures. i would never have figured out the ‘dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter-quarter’ tactic for 5/4, or the triplet/duplet difference between 3/4 and 6/8
5/4 seems like such a scary time signature and then you realise that basically *every* song in 5/4 uses that exact same rhythm. From Eden by Hozier is another good example of a song in 5/4, it's a beautiful ballad that has the same rhythm as a bunch of action movie themes.
24:31 YES, I love how she explained music analysis. I've tried to explain to people that sometimes you might like music that seems odd or weird to you if you give it more listens because you need to know ahead of time how all the pieces fit together so you can start detecting the patterns and movements in a song.
Thank you so much for including Fishing Frenzy !!! Splatoon's Salmon Run osts have crazy time signatures that keep changing all the time, it's really interesting to hear
I just wanted to say thank you for using the eighth note tied to the quarter note ( 9:48 ) for dotted-quarter notes that start on the offbeat...it's such an often overlooked convention in notation that is really helpful for seeing where the beat is while reading.
i am the invisible barline's strongest soldier
agree, i’ve even confused myself when writing my own music on staves, by opting for dotted notes in the composition phase, then coming back to play it at a later date and tripping up on the same dotted notes, especially when there’s a syncopation or polyrhythm between voices. the tied notes are often way more legible, digestible,and not that much more time consuming to write on the page.
thats interesting bc ive never liked seeing that LMAO
Big Splatoon fan here, so happy to see Splatoon salmon run music represented in this video. ω-3 music is so beautifully chaotic, and as a lover of odd time signatures, some of my favorite vgm of all time. Plenty of other SR songs have irregular time signatures as well, such as Deluge Dirge in 7/8, and Frantic Aspic in 5/4, perfectly encapsulating SR’s intense, dramatic, zombie-apocalypse-like environment.
Splatoon music is such a mixed bag for me, but I consistently love the Omega 3 music more than most music I've ever heard before. Love the use of Fishing Frenzy
its very cool that you transcribed all the music you showed as examples of the time signatures, it also helped me a bit to understand more of how music theory works
26:22 I just watched a video earlier today that humans can't percieve a beat that's off by less than about 30ms, so if any one of those beats were to be of by 1/21 of a bar we'd percieve it as being continuous even if it's not.
Neat!
Wind Waker theme is what you'd call in Irish music, a slip jig. It's a really good one, you could slip it into a set of Irish slip jigs and no one would complain.
Criminally underrated channel
I love the breakdown you gave for each time signature. It really helped make it clear what I was trying to feel especially in the later sections ^^
Been here since the Andrew Huang chordstory challenge so it’s insanely cool to see you evolve your channel in this way ^^
you will probably love IN - Stage 4 theme
As someone who writes their own music, I'm glad to find a channel explaining this stuff in a more friendly manner. Like I always thought of 6/8 as and elaborate 2/4 but rest assured, they are different and I think it is all a matter of perception and what people find easier to count. Any method is valid as long as it remains on tempo and on time.
This video is overwhelmingly high quality.
I don't usually post comments, but I just have to say, “Wow.” You break down these complex themes in such digestible ways. You deeply understand these topics and can break down years’ worth of knowledge into a 30 minute video. Incredible.
You also exemplify it with Nintendo music, making it further compelling and palatable.
You clearly put a bunch of effort into each of your videos by choosing *the best* examples of whatever you're describing.
Love the quality ❤️
I forget the exact time signatures, but my favorite use of strange time signatures is Marx's theme from Kirby! How it manages to keep a comprehensible and catchy melody amidst all those changes is magic to me.
It's a banger track! I talked about it in my 6 Levels of Kirby Harmony video :)
@@CadenceHirahave you ever of mother 3's strong one and the masked man version of that,it is literally the strangest time signature I've ever come across in a video game
Was hoping someone would bring up Marx's theme. It's so catchy that i never realized how the time signature keeps bouncing around until someone pointed it out.
Music has always been so alien to me, at least in its construction. Like, yeah I love jamming out to songs, but all of the terminology just racked my brain to think about, and nobody has explained it in a way that made sense to me. But now I really feel like I understand time signatures and how they can evoke a variety of feelings tones within music, and I've even been a bit inspired to think of making my own music trying out different time signatures to see what happens.
thanks a ton!
i do have some familiarity with music signatures and even i really appreciate how easy and approachable this video is! like not just showing the songs, but then breaking it down by the staff and then counting off the beats atop the song.
Agreed. I listen to a lot of music, even read music theory or about how music was composed. But time signatures were always something that I could feel but never properly explain. I think she broke it down in a way that anybody can understand!
As a musician thats not too familiar with music theory, I feel like this video somehow gave me a worse understanding of time signatures than before. Maybe it's like a Dunning-Kruger effect, where I am now more aware of how much I didn't know beforehand.
I listen to a decent amount of prog that just sort of grooves, and I definitely think there are some songs I could play by feel, but if I tried counting them it might screw me up! :D
Being aware of what you don't know is the opposite of D/K
holy crap the explanation you give at 24:41 is one of the smartest things I think I've ever heard someone say about music theory! a concept with such depth explained so succinctly. amazing work on this video!!
i love the way you explain music theory!!! talking about the feel and intuition of making music while discussing theory is really helpful perspective.
I really like the 13/4 groove in the theme for cryogenic hopetown in splatoon 3 its just splendid. I did a transcription for it for piano and its fun to play too.
I think I found your transcription on musescore. It sounds even prettier on piano!
@@redtomato4903 ty. if you do try playing it do note that the fingering is pretty bad (been meaning to redo it but I just forget)
@a-ramenartist9734 can I has link?
I'm sure someone else has brought it up, but Mother 3 is pretty iconic for its use of funky time signatures, names 15/8 in Strong One and 29/16 in Strong One (Masked Man). Also, on the topic of Splatoon's Salmon Run mode, the tune Frothy Waters from Splatoon 3 has some really interesting shifting time signature biz going on, it's REALLY fun to try to keep up with imo.
My favorite example of 13/8 has always been, and will always be, "Weapons Factory" from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
Also, I always love that any video or discussion of this type of stuff always elicits people sharing their favorite examples, I've found so many wonderful pieces from games I've missed that way.
I was so certain when I clicked this video that Weapons Factory was gonna be in it :(
As a person who loved video game music before it was widely accepted, this is fantastic. I used to learn Castlevania songs on Guitar way back (and at this point who doesn't feel like video game music is relatable in someway). This was one of the most relatable and easy to get through videos I've seen. It even inspired me to write a riff in 10/8 for a song I've almost finished but felt like something was missing. Thanks for this and good work! 🎶🎶👏🏻😊
20:25 Don’t tell me I’m the only one who noticed the bwee bwee bwee bwee.
as someone who isn't very educated in music theory, this really helped explain why rhythms can make me feel a certain way! great video!
If you're counting the 11/8 + 12/8 from the TotK Ganondorf theme as 23/8, then I have another (Nintendo-adjacent) example: Oh No! WASPS!! from Bug Fables. I think that one might be an even clearer example, because it plays each beat (particularly with the percussion), and the base line clearly indicates the divisions of 2-2-2-2-3 2-2-2-3-3.
I've never really fully understood what time signatures mean even though I've been playing and making music for years, and this video has immediately clarified something that I've always found incredibly unapproachable! Thanks for making it!
Hey Cadence, great video! I’m new here, however, I’m a professional musician and piano performance major in college. One of my theory professors changed my understanding of beat for the better.
One of common phrases we hear is “sub-divide” the beat, which is implying that you cut the beat into one or two subsets. However, that is a very loose term for what it is. The prefix “Sub” implies underneath or secondary function.
If this was true, a quarter note’s (QN) “second division” would be a 16th note, as you’ll have to split the QN twice to get there.
I would argue saying you need to “Divide” a beat and then “sub-divide” is better. If I divide a quarter note, I get an 8th note, then if I sub-divide the QN, I’ll get my 16th.
I would love to hear what you or others will think about this!
7:28 this is the exaxt moment this video went from good to great. im glad i found this channel, cuz i have a feeling this vid is gonna blow up
Blueberry jumpscare
GREAT VALUE BLUEBERRIES!!!!🫐
@@Theofficialsuperkdab ah, ahh, AHH
Super Paper Mario has quite a bit of musical oddities. The track 'Hammer Whacker' uses 7/4 to sound playful and chaotic. The mini boss battle theme 'A Powerful Enemy Emerges' starts off with a 4 to 3 polyrythm.
I cannot put into words how helpful this video is. I've been learning music theory for the past couple of years, so I know the basic 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, but I wasn't so sure about others. And as a huge video game fan, especially nintendo, my heart practically skipped a beat seeing this on my recommended. Thanks.
There are some great orchestra examples of the fact that 5/4 is more commonly felt as 2/4 + 3/4 as well. Cajun Folk Songs (Movement 2) is a great example. The entire song revolves around the same melody, however there are many, MANY time signature changes that alternate between 2/4, 3/4, and 5/4. Slightly less stable time signatures like 5/4 often have songs with the occasional measure that switches time signature to one of it's more stable counterparts (2/4 or 3/4) before returning to the original melody in 5/4. Some also use the time signature switches to spin counterparts of the melody.
A lot of other people have brought it up, but Mother 3’s "Strong One (Masked Man)" has an absolutely insane time signature, even more than Fishing Frenzy, and unlike that song it doesn’t give any good musical hints on how to count it.
The game has a mechanic where if you time button presses to the music you get extra damage in, so the songs get progressively weirder throughout the game. This is the peak of that.
Strong One (Masked Man) is in 15/8, it just has a bunch of tempo changes which is why it sounds wonky
Game mechanic: Press to the beat of the song to deal extra damage! It won't be _that_ hard!
Final boss: GO GO GADGET 71907/40120 TIME SIGNATURE
@@NummyGD I actually think Strong One (Masked Man) is in 29/16. Strong One, the theme of the barrier trio in the other hand, is indeed in 15/8
I think it's kind of cheating to count it as 29/16 as all they do is change the tempo, so any time signature you come up with would be slightly inaccurate at best. 5/4+5/8 is my preferred way of counting Strong One
@mischacarlberg6631 IIRC it was programmed into the game in 4/4 with tempo changes, so if you ignore tempo changes it's 4/4 or if you don't then it's 29/16. It's more cheating to split it than it is to call it how it sounds.
(For anyone interested, there's a silvagunner rip where someone removed the tempo changes to restore how it was put into the system, which feels like 3/4+5/4 but who knows if it was composed like that or if it was composed with the tempo changes intended?
ruclips.net/video/GtsX-kyecWw/видео.html)
And thus, she truly completed her quest to EARN the name of Cadence, forever.
(Seriously, I love your name. It's musical without sounding snooty or silly. And it makes me think of Cadence of Hyrule. Also, this video was excellent.)
shit i may or may not be dyslexic i read that as candace every time XD
I think of perfect cadence, which is fitting for being a musician.
the section about 11/8 and Indonesian Gamelan was so fascinating! Huge props to Koji Kondo for incorporating that into such a huge game.
great video !
NO WAYY!!!!
This is actually some of the best videos I’ve ever watched
Thank you, please don’t cut off on the great work
I know you didn’t do 11/4, but a great example of that is the eastern province theme from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet! It can also be read as a repeating 5/4 and 6/4 pattern and it’s so wonderful to listen to.
I really like that you trasformed the outro theme to 31/8. Great videooo
Had the stupidest grin across my face after realizing 😆
I love how there's gaps in time sigs like there's gaps in stability on the periodic table. Very cool!
I once played Celebration Tribalesque by Randall D. Standridge in band, and for a short segment, it instructs the conductor to “conduct in one”. I always felt that it was, in fact, in 1/4.
1/4 is really such an unhelpful time signature, it can be a copout answer to any other time signatures that are hard to follow. You can see this in music websites that supposedly identifies the time signature of any tune; it'll just output "1/4" to any tunes with number of beats that are not multiples of 2 or 3, or do not have an obvious/consistent loop (i.e. not in a n/8 or n/16 time signature).
11:34 caught me so off guard
The Great Value blueberries cutaway made me laugh out loud. Love the vid
This is so cool!! I don’t know much music theory despite playing violin for ten years and counting, this has inspired me to learn more! Thank you for all the work you out into this video, it’s such a great entertaining but knowledgeable explanation:D
My favourite example of a time signature change is in the game Rhythm Doctor. The gameplay is primarily pressing the spacebar on the 7th beat (with all the distractions/speed changes etc to expect from a rhythm game). Basically all the songs are in 4/4, except for the boss level for act 4. The song itself starts in the same 4/4, but the second half switches to 7/8. It's just such a clever way of adding a new gimmick and taking the basic rule of pressing on the 7th beat to its absolute limit. Well worth a play
the first boss (night mode) also switches to 7/8
@@mr.duckie._.That's what they meant when they said act 4 boss.
I think the thing that screwed me over is that the first measure ended on the seventh beat (because it’s in 7/8, duh) of a 4/4 measure so I kept thinking the next one ended on the seventh beat every time instead of the sixth, then fifth, etc.
@@eric8764 yeah. Know You/Murmurs are called 4-4 and 4-4N respectively, while the boss levels are all X (All The Times is 2-X etc). There isn't technically a 4-X, but 1-XN is available only after you complete Know You so it's as good as the boss level for the act
Oh man, this video is so awesome. I'm a music student, so I really appreciate you breaking down these more intimidating time signatures into something I can understand, especially while using examples. So yeah, great video!
I'm only 2 and a half minutes in and I already love this video. You're explaining things in a way that makes sense to me when music theory type things have always been so difficult for me to grasp.
Best explanation of time signatures I've ever seen. Not just because you show examples, but the base explanation you give at the start is also way better then anything I've seen
13:35 Dread, prime, fusion.... incredible arrangement of puns
31:14 "Their three, collective brain cells"
Don't you mean: "Their one, shared brain cell"
This is the most thoroughly i’ve ever understood time signatures and general music sheet stuff.
That being said, I still don’t understand a single thing about time signatures and general music sheet stuff.
It’s a me problem though. You did a great job regardless
I am forever (video game musically at least) indebted to you because I FINALLY know where that meme jingle is from (23:22). I've actually been trying to find this for years.
Same here. Honestly I thought it was from Kirby
At 12:59, I accidentally turned on the Mother Brain theme in the background, and for a full minute I was completely convinced the fact I can't hear you talking through its loudness was an intended funny gag
UGHH this is so great. it really scratches the brain the right ways, because every in time signature. you're trying to make sense of it - but then the use of nintendo music refreshes and calms you, with vibe you kinda know and feel! Good visuals aswell! wish you did the clapping with your hands aswell well and counting with your voice haha
Cadence: The perfect 4/4 song doesn't exi-
NOSTALGA JUMPSCARE
Just wanted to say how helpful this video is! I’ve always wanted to explain time signatures and other music stuff to my non-musical friends, but it’s really hard to explain with just words alone. Including examples with all of them as well as explainations is SO useful! Not to mention, it doesn’t have that ‘stuffy, classist’ feeling that classical music has. I’ll be showing this to my friends and maybe next time they’ll understand me when I start gushing about time signatures again.
Holy crap you transcribed all of these??? Wonderful video!!! Your effort is appreciated
I'm doing a study on Time Signatures for my music class and this was super helpful!I can't thank you enough.♡
Amazing video as always. As far as the 1/4 goes, I feel like when a relentless repeated downbeat pattern appears, without any variation in emphasis, that could be considered 1/4. Maybe something like the opening of the famous shower cue from “Psycho.”
Now, it wouldn’t be the most sight-readable thing in the world; it’s a lot easier for rehearsal purposes to just expand the beats into 2/4 or something. But if the emphasis really doesn’t vary - like, if there are no weak or strong beats - then purely in terms of musical feel, there’s no justification for anything other than 1/4.
To me personally it sounds like it's in 3
1/4 is one of those pretty much never used. I've only ever seen it as a starting pickup measure. However, 1/1 is used more often as a sustain for the conductor's cue.
2 years in music school and this video about Nintendo actually got me to understand more about time signatures than I ever got out of school. Great job!
This isn't a Nintendo tune but Good Morning Good Morning by The Beatles I think would be a good example of 1/4 because there's no other consistent way to subdivide the measures for most of the song. There are also parts of it that are 4/4 and 12/8
My favorite odd time signature in video game music is the cross-examination theme from “Ace Attorney: Justice For All”
Every Ace Attorney game has two cross examination themes, “moderato” and “allegro”, with the allegro version being faster, having different instrumentation, adding another section, and usually being higher pitched.
In AA:JFA, the moderato version is entirely in 27/8, which alternates between 14/8 and 13/8 every measure.
The allegro version starts off the same way, in 27/8, but it goes into a second section that is in 25/8, alternating between 13/8 and 12/8 every measure.
1/4 occurs in some rare techno where you can't believe the energetic resolve is simply every downbeat. Generally it's 2, although 4 and 8 are common as well. House music, alternative, tends to be 8/4, although 4/4 is quite common, 2/4 happens on occasion. Indeed much of electronic dance music really stresses every 8 quarter notes as the resolving of the repetition.
The producers of both believe it's all 4/4 because their DAW says so, and will downvote information to the contrary.
definitely have some new tracks to add to my weird time signatures playlist. Mother 3 has quite a few battle themes that add a beat to the original one to throw you off since you can time your button presses to the music during battle, which is a super cool aspect of the game. I’m probably remembering wrong, but the track “Strong One” technically has a time signature in the hundreds. I have no clue how to divide it so I brute forced my way through that boss.
Strong one is a lot simpler than most people think. Off the top of my head it's 15/8? If you keep a beat based on the first 3 timpani notes you'll notice that when they come back they'll be on the backbeat and when it comes back again it will still be synced with the first ones. It just has you combo in a strange rhythm. Now the masked man variant? I have no idea.
strong one has a time signature of 15/8. strong one (masked man), however, has a time signature of 29/16 (which is kinda just 15/8 with a 16th note cut out of it)
@@ravingrabbits32Wrong, masked man is still in 15/8. It just has a bunch of tempo changes which is why it sounds wonky
@@NummyGD love to see this discussion but I don’t think I’ll ever get the timing down
I know this ain't video game music, but if some of y'all wanna hear a funky time signature, check out Björk's song "Moon", which is mostly 17/8, in a way to supposedly mimic the lunar cycles!
I see Chorus Kids, I click on video: it’s that simple.
im a band kid and a chorus kid, idk if i have ever moved away from 3/4 and 4/4 in chorus, but we’re doing a 7/8 piece in band rn
I’m a chorus kid too! I’m leaving chorus at the end of this year tho
This is really well explained! I'm a drummer and I tend to find myself drawn to the down beat as my reference for counting, and try and figure out the time signature from that. So I often would first hear an example you give and think, that's a weird way to count that its just 4/4 or 5/4. But then you did a great job of showing me why I was wrong haha. But I like that, time signatures are a bit weird and deciphering them is tricky. I'm honestly not that good at it and usually just "feel" it and play what seems appropriate.
As soon as I saw the blueberries I subscribed this is the greatest music channel of all time
this video is so fun and interesting! as someone who finds music theory super cool but has never been able to understand it, i LOVE your editing style and how you highlight the tempo/notes when playing a song
25:38
but did you have your mom look?
YESS 29:00 I was hoping you would cover this theme!! It’s so cool and quirky and a wonderful shrine theme in my opinion. I loved this groove more than the BotW one!
This video was absolutely amazing Im so thankful for this
the rhythm heaven song coming up was a SHOCKER.
so proud of you
Excellent video! New subscriber.
I like to think of 8/8 as a better option for the typical "3/8 + 3/8 + 2/8", but I know that by convention we use 4/4 for that (one example could be Mt. Moon from Pokemon games)
That rhymhic idea is called a clave or a terrillso
@@flyingpiggy1475 you mean tresillo?
Yep. Although I think people more often talk about tresillo when it's in sixteenth notes so that it lasts 2 beats.
Fun fact: in Spanish, we use the word "tresillo" for what you call "triplet". Some people talk about "tresillo cubano" (which would translate like cuban triplet) to mean what you just call "tresillo".
@@abugidaiguess yws
ludofonia bilingue, increible
A use case for stuff like 8/8 or 16/16 would be if you're scoring something proggy that changes time signatures every other bar, but is felt with the same bottom meter throughout. So if you have this fast 16th-note instrumental run going 15/16, 16/16, 15/16, 17/16 or something like that, it might look neater and more consistent to hold the 16/16 than to suddenly consolidate it to 4/4. Just a little thing I remember running into in Guitar Pro back in the day lol.
I don't know how they would write it themselves, but one prog song I can think of where I would do this is In the Presence of Enemies, Pt. 2 by Dream Theater. The beat starting at 2:36 rotates between 9/8 and what I would call 8/8, as it makes way more sense to me to count every other measure as 8 than slow down to counting in 4
Mario Kart 64 of all games having a song in 11/8 is such an entertainingly random aspect.
fwiw, retrospective analysis is also true of visual art, careful use of value can direct the eye in a narrative fashion and allow even a "static" piece to deliver a temporal experience. you can easily see a lot of this in comics and manga, where conventions of experiencing a work also often recontextualize full page spreads as the eye travels
My entire life I have been entirely unable to hear time signatures, even after family members and past lovers have tried at great cost to their own sanity.
This video is the first time it has ever clicked. I feel like I understand time signatures now and it is pretty much entirely thanks to you. Thank you so much ❤
13:23 When I heard "this fusion" I was so hoping you were going to sneak dread into that sentence too
And I just noticed you got prime in there as well