Odd Time Signatures: 12 Exercises from 6/8 to 11/8

The one rule: keep something steady

Every odd meter that grooves has one element that never changes: a hi-hat playing straight eighth notes, a kick on beat one of every bar, a bass note on the downbeat. The listener holds on to that element and lets the rest of the bar be strange. Every odd meter that does not groove is one where everything is strange at once.

So for each exercise below, decide before you start what stays steady. Then count the meter as a chain of twos and threes, not as a number. 7 is not seven; 7 is 2+2+3 (or 3+2+2). 11 is 3+3+3+2. Your body can feel a two and a three. It cannot feel an eleven. (The theory behind all this is in Breaking the Beat, and this article is the practice.)

Each card is quoted as it appears in the deck. The "Count" and "Try" lines are ours.

Gateway meters: 6/8 and 12/8

Not odd at all, technically. But if you can feel these three as groups of three rather than as "a bit of a shuffle", every meter below becomes counting you already know.

• 01 Time Signature 6/8 (Compound Duple) Compose in 6/8 time, felt in two groups of three eighth notes (e.g., jigs, lullabies). Creates a flowing, rounded feel. Count: ONE two three TWO two three. Try: kick on 1, snare on 4, hi-hat on every eighth. If it sways, you have it.
• 02 Time Signature 12/8 (Compound Quadruple) Compose in 12/8 time, often used for slow blues, gospel, or doo-wop, felt in four groups of three. Creates a rolling, triplet feel. Count: four groups of three, like a slow blues shuffle. Try: a 12-bar blues at 60 BPM with a triplet ride pattern. Every fill lands on the third eighth of a group.
• 03 Time Signature Slow Jam 4/4 with Triplet Feel (R&B) Create an R&B "slow jam" groove in 4/4, but with a strong underlying triplet subdivision in elements like hi-hats or melodic phrasing (effectively 12/8 feel). Count: in four, but every subdivision is a triplet. Try: program straight 4/4 drums, then set the hi-hats to a triplet grid and hear the same bar change character.

The odd ones: 5, 7, 9, 11

In order of how quickly they stop feeling odd. Give each one a twenty-minute session with one loop, one bassline that outlines the grouping, and drums that keep the steady element.

• 04 Time Signature 5/4 Compose a piece or section in 5/4 time (e.g., "Take Five"). Creates an asymmetrical yet flowing rhythm. Count: 3+2 (ONE two three ONE two) or 2+3. Try: keep the kick on 1 and the snare on 4 (in 3+2). Reference: "Take Five" (3+2), Radiohead's "15 Step", and the Mission: Impossible theme (5/4 too, but felt long-long-short-short).
• 05 Time Signature 7/8 or 7/4 Compose in 7/8 or 7/4 time (e.g., "Money" by Pink Floyd is 7/4). Specify grouping (e.g., 2+2+3) for rhythmic clarity. Count: 2+2+3 is the friendliest grouping. The long group at the end makes the bar feel like it leans forward. Try: a bassline that plays the grouping (two notes, two notes, three notes). Reference (both in 7/4): "Money", "Solsbury Hill".
• 06 Time Signature Heavy 4/4 with Occasional 7/8 Bar (Grunge) Compose a Grunge piece primarily in a heavy 4/4 time, but incorporate an occasional bar of 7/8 or another slightly irregular meter to create a lurching or off-kilter feel. Count: normal 4/4 until the fourth bar, then drop the last eighth note. Try: write a riff in 4/4, then delete the last eighth of every fourth bar, and build the riff around that lurch.
• 07 Time Signature 9/8 (Compound Triple) Compose in 9/8 time, often grouped as 3+3+3 (like a slip jig). Creates an extended triple-meter flow. Count: 3+3+3 for the slip jig, or 2+2+2+3 for the Balkan feel. Try: both groupings over the same chord loop. Reference: Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk" (three bars of 2+2+2+3, then one of 3+3+3).
• 08 Time Signature 11/8 or 11/4 Compose in an 11-beat meter. Specify grouping (e.g., 3+3+3+2 or 2+3+2+2+2) for rhythmic clarity and emphasis. Count: 3+3+3+2, the missing eighth is a breath the bar never takes. Try: write it as 12/8 first, then remove the final eighth. Your ear already knows this one.

Meters that move

Once a single odd meter grooves, the next skill is changing meter without the listener falling off. The steady element matters even more here, so keep the eighth note the same length across the switch.

• 09 Time Signature Changing Meter Alternate between at least two different time signatures within the piece (e.g., 4/4 to 3/4). Creates dynamic rhythmic shifts. Try: verse in 4/4, chorus in 3/4, same tempo. The chorus feels faster without being faster.
• 10 Time Signature Odd Meter Riff (e.g., 7/8, 5/4 Rock) Create a central guitar or bass riff in an odd time signature like 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, or 5/4, common in progressive rock/metal. Create complexity while maintaining groove. Try: write the riff in 7/8 and keep a straight 4/4 hi-hat running over it. They line up again after 56 eighth notes (8 bars of 7/8 = 7 bars of 4/4), so the riff's ninth bar starts with the hi-hat's eighth bar. Use that realignment as the hook, and work on the groove before the arithmetic.
• 11 Time Signature Sudden Meter Change for Comedic Effect (Cartoon) Incorporate an abrupt and unexpected change in time signature (e.g., from 4/4 to a brief 3/8 or 5/4) in a Cartoon Music cue to highlight a sudden action or create a comedic jolt. Try: one bar of 5/4 inserted into a 4/4 cue, right where the character trips, so the extra beat plays the stumble.
• 12 Time Signature Unmetered Textural Evolution (Ambient) Compose an Ambient piece that avoids a clear time signature, focusing on evolving sound textures and atmospheres rather than rhythmic pulse. Try: no click, no grid. Record a pad, then place events by ear against it. The exercise is realizing how much of "rhythm" was the grid, not you.

Four rhythm cards that make odd meters groove

These are not time signature cards. They are the devices that make an odd meter feel intentional instead of clumsy, and they come from the deck's Rhythm category.

• 13 Rhythm Hemiola Create rhythmic tension by superimposing a 3-beat feel over a 2-beat pulse (or vice-versa) for a few bars. Generate rhythmic sophistication through metric contrast. Why: two against three inside a bar you already know. The cheapest way to make 6/8 sound like it has a secret.
• 14 Rhythm Additive Rhythms Build rhythmic phrases by adding together smaller, irregular units (e.g., a bar of 7/8 grouped as 2+2+3, or 2+3+2). Create complex yet logical rhythmic structures. Why: this is how odd meters are actually felt, as chains of 2s and 3s. Write the chain first, then let the time signature follow.
• 15 Rhythm Polymeter (Simultaneous Different Meters) Have two or more instruments or layers playing in different time signatures simultaneously (e.g., one in 4/4, another in 3/4). Create complex rhythmic relationships within a cohesive structure. Why: a 7/8 bass under a 4/4 drum kit. Nobody has to count. Everyone just waits for the bars to meet again.
• 16 Rhythm Metric Displacement / Rhythmic Shift Take a rhythmic phrase and repeat it, but shift its starting point relative to the beat or measure, creating syncopation. Maintain the phrase's internal structure while altering its relationship to the meter. Why: same phrase, started an eighth note later. The meter stays put while the listener's sense of it shifts.

Draw your own

The deck has 30 time signature cards and 33 rhythm cards, and it combines them with tempos, instruments and progressions into a brief you did not choose, which is the point. Pull a rhythm brief in the studio, or load the Odd Meters Bootcamp deck below to draw only from these sixteen cards.