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As a Balkan (Greek but with some knowledge of Albanian, Serbian and Turkish music), 9/8 music is everywhere in my life, from traditional dances to modern pop music, commonly combined with scales, such as the Phrygian. It is very interesting to find out examples of the 9/8 in western music and see the versatility of this time signature!

As soon as you mentioned the 2-2-2-3 grouping the first song in my head was “Blue Rondo a la Turk”. If I had a dollar for every time I played that in jazz ensembles I’d still be living off that cash.

Thank you! "Apocalypse in 9/8" is an amazing piece of music, as is the whole "Supper's ready". Probably the greatest progressive rock song ever made.

I clicked on this just for apocalypse in 9/8. Incredible song and solo

Thank you for including Supper's Ready! It's the best song ever made.

YESS finally some Genesis appreciation :)

I was going to leave a scathing comment if you didn't mention the Apocalypse, but there it was. Good show!

And of course King Gizzard again featured in your video, Gaia is indeed a great song. "Searching..." is also one of their songs in 9/8, or at least it starts in 9/8 and then the magic happens... I think you should take a closer look at songs from Polygondwanaland, they really are perfect examples for some incredibly interesting rhythmic ideas

Kiss from a Rose by Seal does the switch between 9/8 and 6/8 in the verses too. Drags out the verses and then makes the build to the chorus all the more epic. 🙌

i'm from turkey, and it really amazes me how 9/8 is treated outside the balkans. i immediately associate any odd time grouping of 9/8 with our traditional dance songs, which sometimes makes it a bit hard to play western music written in 9/8 since there's a habit to fit the "traditional groove" into 9/8. also, a nice example of using both odd and compound grouping could be the song atmaca by laco tayfa (definitely check out their stuff), they count the main rhythm as 4, 2, 3 but switch to 3, 3, 3 in some parts and you get an eerie feeling if you're used to the odd groupings.

YES! The second I saw "9/8" I hoped you would do something by King Gizzard. Was not dissapointed

Hey, everyone in the comment section who's never listened to Supper's Ready all the way through-- set aside 23 minutes and do that ASAP! It's a brilliant piece of music that everyone should experience at least once.

I would have been upset had you not mentioned Supper's Ready :)

The piece right at the end is stunningly beautiful, wish it were longer

The genius of Apocalypse in 9/8 is Phil Collins’ playing. The bedrock ostinato rhythm comes from Collins’ kick Rutherford and Hacket. Collins then swings the rhythm and Banks keeps the melody moving over the top.

Possibly the only time I've heard someone talk about the 4/4 keys over the 9/8 pocket in Supper's Ready. The keyboard solo is written so well, and ends up concluding after, I believe 9 measures in 4/4, or 36 beats, played over 4 measures, of the pocket, in 9/8. So both get to 36 beats, but the solo does a great job of sounding 'normal' over a very chaotic sounding pocket.

I was wondering if you'd mention "Apocalypse in 9/8" here because it's always fascinated me as a piece in general. I grew up listening to progressive rock so these interesting time signatures and groupings almost sound normal to my ears. As per usual, awesome job with the outro piece!

so glad you shouted out Gaia by King Gizzard! that was the first song that came to my mind when i saw 9/8 in the thumbnail haha

King Gizzard are masters of using fucked up time signatures and having it somehow still sound smooth, even if your foot tapping mysteriously constantly goes out of sync.

I've always loved Watermelon in Easter Hay by Frank Zappa. He uses that 9th quarternote to really make the music feel stretched out, which fits the super relaxed vibe of the song perfectly.

Thanks for including Gaia! One of my favorite Gizz songs ever, definitely because of the time signature

King Gizzard has done another example of 9/8 in their song Gliese 710. The song is primarily in 7/8 but they go to a section after halfway going 9/8

The verse of “Question!” by System of a Down is in 9/8 time. It’s grouped essentially like 4/4 with an extra eighth note on beat 1.

Clair de Lune is in my top 5 favorite classical pieces and I would have freaked out if it wasn't in the list, and behold it was.

Part of the bridge of Mother by Pink Floyd (specifically when David Gilmour sings “Mama’s gonna keep baby cozy and warm” the first time and “Mama’s gonna keep baby healthy and clean” the second time) is in 9/8

Keep using King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard as exemples! Theyre such a great group and go out of the ordinary with odd time signatures, microtones, weird instruments...

Great video - I love how many different ways 9/8 can sound, like the waltz or the funk. Supper's Ready is just a tour de force, God knows how he solo'd over that section.

A band that I like that uses Balkan time signatures is Burlap To Cashmere. They are Americans from Brooklyn, but their heritage is Greek Orthodox. Their songs (and those of Steven Delopoulos when he goes solo) end up sounding like "What if Bob Dylan / Paul Simon were Greek?" I find their music incredibly good. 🙂

My piano teacher used to have me warm up to a version of the Brubeck tune, and if not for you I would never have realized that. Thanks, David

I always loved drumming to Never the Machine Forever by Soundgarden for the 9/8 feel

One of my faves is Steely Dan "Your Gold Teeth II" on the Katy Lied album. Verses and choruses are mostly in 9/8. Switches around with 6s and 12s during other parts of the song. Very cool.

Other public domain songs in 9/8 time include "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Beautiful Dreamer".

There's a Kansas song called "Song For America" that has an instrumental part in 9/8, and it sounds just like Blue Rondo a la Turk. (There are also some shorter 10/8 sections in ths song... Kansas actually had several songs with odd meters)

I'm really loving your exploration of time signatures. I am learning so much about music (in depth) in such a short time. When I saw "9/8" my first reaction was "Nothing odd about that, it's a slip jig". Oh boy! So many different ways to use it, especially when mixed with other time signatures. "Anyone who had a heart" always resonated with me, now I know why. The music of Genesis was in many ways different to much of the music of the time, and I think a lot of that was due to the intentional use of key and time signature changes.

Love that ending piece. Could picture someone looking out the window on a rainy day as it plays. Lovely....❤️

7/8 seems pretty common in modern choral music, so as a chorister, I get exposed to that one a lot (for instance, we just performed Gjeilo's Dark Night of the Soul yesterday - with a 1-2-1-2-1-2-3 grouping). Once you get used to that, it's not much of a leap to 9/8. And you're right, with enough exposure, it just becomes second nature. Our director says one way to think about 7/8 is like a janky waltz (3/4) with an extended third beat. Similarly, one can think of 9/8 (when grouped as 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-3) as like 4/4 with an extended 4th beat.

Apocalypse in 9/8 is a stroke of genius.

I appreciate the way you mention eastern and turkish music david you should make more videos about eastern music

the first thing I did when I saw this upload was scrub through to make sure you talked about Supper's Ready lmao

It's almost impossible to find a time signature that Van der Graff Generator haven't done. 9/8 is the ryhthm of the main theme of the song "The Sleepwalkers" from the 1975 album "Godbluff", but it defies either of the patterns you mentioned. I think it's probably better to think of it as an 18/16 that goes - as best as I can analyse - 123 123 123 123 12 12 12 - before wandering off into all sorts of other time signatures then back again. And all through the song, all four members manage to stay perfectly in time. Must be telepathy. That's just one of many reasons I love VDGG.

Great Video!!! Beautiful piece of music. You composed at the end there!

i absolutely love these videos, the variety of your examples is very refreshing.

Funny thing. My ear is not used to those odd time signatures, but in Poland we have a song that it is sung as an equivalent of "Happy birthday" - but even more often - because it's not about birthday but just wishes of long live. And its in 9/8 - and it sounds just fine for all Polish people :). It's called "Sto lat" (Hundread years). :)

I swear I watch these videos just as much to discover music I wasn't aware of than I do to learn about music.

That;s a great outro piece, David. Well done, seriously. What a phenomenal ending.

From what I remember "Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple is another well known song which uses this time signature. I'm talking about the triplety guitar in chorus.

cool that you included the part from Supper's ready. One of my favorite songs

Your videos always help me level up my compositions. Now, if only I could record them....

Great video, dude! Been a musician for most of my life, still love learning new things about music. Sooooo, you're kinda my new favorite channel. 👍🎶

The first song I remember ever seeing written in 9/8 time was "The Impossible Dream" from "Man of La Mancha".

Excellent, thank you for this upload.

Fantastic video David - thanks for sharing 😁

Another example of 9/8 time would be Jeff Beck’s “Scatterbrain.” Kicks off with heavy fusion drumming by Richard Bailey (who was just 17 at the time of recording), then Beck goes off on the guitar

Hey David, another balkan guy here in love with your videos. The balkans are a great place where you can explore odd time signatures . I am from Macedonia and almost all of our songs are writen in odd time signatures, most commonly 7/8, 9/8, 5/8 and 11/8. And the songs explore putting the triple eight note complex in different places so you change the feel of the song. Love your vids keep it up 😁

One example that I can't forget is Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Vital transformation." The drummer, Billy Cobham, goes crazy for the entire song, on top of the insanity that is the groove.

Very insightful! Thank you and cheers!

You should have added a Bulgarian "horo" in 9/8, it would've been interesting to compare it to the slower Greek and Turkish dances 😊

One of the coolest and most informative videos I've seen in a long time. I'm currently writing a song using 6/6... wish me luck!! 😁

Always so inspiring! Too inspiring actually. Slow down man. I’m still writing a song that uses all the modes! You are the best! I stopped like three times to listen to some of these songs with new ears. 😊

Its rares to find such quality lessons on UKposts, thanks for this

Genesis made a song called Riding The Scree which is also in 9/8.

a favourite 9/8 example of mine is Igorrr's Very Noise, it's at a pretty fast tempo with it's breakcore influence in the drums and it becomes really disorienting until it eventually falls into 4/4 by the end of the song I can think of a few examples where there are brief uses of 9/8. Snot's I Jus' Lie has a few 9/8 bars dropped in the verses, the intro of Mastodon's Aqua Dementia alternates between 5/4 and 9/8. Exit Sun by the norweigan band Shining (not the swedish one) has a section predominantly in 9/4 by the drums measure although the other instruments follow a 9/8 pattern that repeats twice in the 9/4 bar

I play a lot of Irish traditional music in 9/8 time as mentioned. We call those "slip jigs" in 9/8. Those in regular 6/8 time are simply called "jigs". A lot of military matches were composed in the 19th century in 6/8 time to represent or reflect the "clippity cloppity" of horses on parade.

Love this channel! Great vid!

Thank you so much for have included "Apocalypse in 9/8" by Genesis!

One thing I like to do when listening to music in 9/8 is to "switch" the meter in my head, so if it's in an odd subdivision, I try to think of it in a "traditional" 3x3 meter, and vice versa.

Awesome video David, amazing production quality & thanks for showcasing a less well known time signature so popular in Greece, Turkey & a lot of the Balkans. Thanks so much for also pointing out how Greek blues & folk songs otherwise known as "Zembekiko" are in 9/8 time commonly referred to in Greek as εννέα ογδα (ennea ogtha) ie nine eights. If anything, I'm far more surprised that more western musicians haven't yet picked up on it as it sounds awesome & very distinct, especially the non-isochronal 9/8, especially if its slowed down like Zembekiko. Extremely popular & well known examples of Greek Zembekiko songs in 9/8 time are "Athina mou - Kostantinos Argyros", "Yiati kale geitonissa & Vrehei Fotia Sti Strata Mou - Stratos Dionysiou", "To agalma - Giannis poulopoulos, "Roza & S' anazito stin Saloniki - Dimitris Mitropanos", "Nihta xelogiastra - Vasilis Karras", "Paliokairos - Paschalis Terzis", "Molyvia - Manolis Aggelopoulos", "Genethlia & Soma mou - Notis Sfakianakis", "Ti eimouna yia sena & Ela na me telioseis - Antonis Remos", "To Vouno - Loukas Dalaras", "Ta paidhia ton fanarion - Nikos Kourkoulis", "Sto keli 33 - Giorgos Margaritis", "Oi Magkes Den Yparxoun Pia - Nikos Papazoglou/Haris Alexiou" & at least 1000 other songs dating back to at least the time of rembetiko pioneer Vasilis Tsitsanis. Fun fact: the popular Greek "kalamatiano" dance is in 7/8 time although it has about 12 dance steps in non-isochronal format. For those who are curious, the Zembekiko example is "To Zembekiko Tis Evdokias - Manos Loizos"

Here in Greece 9/8 is the "default" time. Combines very well with Phrygian

Excellently presented!

Thank you for all these examples

I love that you add your own pieces at the end😎

I like what you did with the timing of the piece at the end -- it sounded like the right hand was holding the rhythm, and the left hand was coming in late, like the opposite of ragtime.

I was waiting for Supper's Ready and you brought it. :)

Great video David!! The first song i thought of was "I Hung My Head" by Sting. And it's the first one you looked at!!

Finally tysm for making a video about my request!!! My tension is now released

Brilliant video, thank you

Well explained and well produced video.

One of the other many pieces in 9/8 is Rachmaninoff's Symphonic dances Mvt 2, which is a really amazing waltz like piece.

Super explanation and illustration.

Thank you thank you thank you for featuring Blue Rondo. What a fun tune it is.

I want to offer some of my own perspective on "odd" rhythmic cycles, and 9-beat cycles are an excellent example for this. I'm primarily a percussionist, and I mostly play with community groups. Drummers and percussionists usually don't want to count rhythms. It's always preferable to feel the groove, or what you could call internalizing the rhythm. Over the course of many years, I've realized that even the oddest rhythms break down into sets of 2s and 3s, and then are easily internalized, not by constantly counting all the numbers, but by feeling a groove of 2s and 3s. In a 9-beat rhythm, it's just 3 sets of 3. The 3 sets are the slow pulse, and the 3 subdivisions of the slow-pulse 3s are the fast pulse. To get started playing a common 9-beat rhythm, I might silently count (phonetic spelling here) "wunnanna tuanna thrianna" etc. but within the space of a few cycles, it becomes a swingy physical groove based on triplets. Accented beats on a drum often switch between right and left handing in this cycle, especially if every "one"/ every downbeat of the cycle is accented as a strong beat. Learning to be comfortable with 9-beat rhythm--I feel-- unlocks a new level in rhythmic ability and confidence, where I am suddenly unintimidated by 5s (a 2 and a 3 or vice versa) 7s (2-2s and a 3) or 11s (3-3s plus a 2). The community gatherings where I play almost always include dancing. I have theorized that drummers would rather feel the groove than count, but with dancers it's more than a theory. Our dancers always feel their way through a 9-beat dance. It's a waltz made of cha-cha-cha, totally graceful and sexy.

I’m so glad you saved Supper’s ready for last. Was hoping you’d talk about it it’s my favorite use of the 9/8

such a useful channel imma try some 9/8 patterns thanks to this

This is fantastic

arrived here by searching for a list of 9/8 songs, not having paid much attention to the fact of 9/8 in all my previous listening and singing, but rather simply loving the music that I love. I knew about Aretha's example here, but how could I not have recognized Jesu, Joy... ? I adore them both. And, lo and behold, here are some other longtime loves of mine (the Bacharach, the Metallica moment, more). Thx for great vid. Would be good to combine with relevant dance steps. When I sing 2 2 2 3, I feel it as skip-adding a beat at the end of a 4/4 bar. Lovely, lively.

Oh man I was so ready to pick up my phone and yell at you… but then right at the end you finally mention the greatest piece of music in prog history. Supper’s Ready is just unbelievable, and the apocalypse section is one of the greatest build-up moments in all of recorded music. Also, Soundgarden’s Never The Machine Forever is entirely in 9/8.

I also wrote a song in 9/8 time once - was one of my best 😀

The Road to Reversal Mountain from Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 is an example of 9/8 being used in game music

Thank you so much, I really enjoyed it! Having some experience of Turkish (and Greek) music I have come across different variations of 9/8. 2-2-2-3 being the most common but then you also have the 3-2-2-2, 2-3-2-2 and 2-2-3-2. The Turks classify all meters as "small" or "large". 29 to the measure being small, 30 and over are large. Thanks again, all the best!

As an avid prog rock fan, most of this didn't throw me. Then I tried tapping some of the rhythms and realized, I gotta practice this stuff more. Lol. Great content sir! Keep it up!

my fav outro so far.. cheers

great video! really enjoyed it :)

You hit the nail on the head that “odd” time signatures are only odd to us westerners - so happy you mentioned this.

Go Now, by Bessie Banks, then The Moody Blues is in 9/8. Cesar Franck's Prelude, Fugue and Variation Op 18 is also in 9/8. But it's not a pop song, I know! But check it out, it's beautiful.

For me, Claire de lune is one of the most beautiful songs ever written (Children's Corner is very nice whatsoever). Mike Oldfield's Tubular bells is another example of 9/8. The Avishai Cohen Trio uses lots of quiet interesting rhythms.

In Ireland we learn 9/8 timing in school, lots of Irish songs use 9/8 timing, the most popular would be the rocky road to Dublin, great video for people trying to learn it, good are you young man☘️

Turkish rhythms are way more complex than ours tend to be.I had a roommate from Turkey and he taught me how they count complex time sigs and weird tuplets. Basically everything is broken down to 2's and 3's and how and when they are put together. Like a quintpulet could have many ways to count. 3/2... 2/3... 1/3/1... 2/1/2...or 5 even pulses over the beat(which is the hardest but possible because there is no remainder for a group of 5 lol)

Macedinian and albanian music is famous for the non regular rythms. 7/8 and 11/8. Old folk song titled "Karaj me majko" is an amazing example of 11/8.

Every time I see you post an odd time video, I try and guess which Gizz song you’re going to use as an example! lol