How To Write Riffs & Solos In An Odd Meter (Odd Time Signature)

What's up YouTube community, welcome to a brand new lesson video! Today, we will look at a much requested topic How do you compose music in an odd meter like 7/8 for example. While it sounds very intimidating it's a bit sad that a lot of my students choose to ignore odd time signatures Because they seem frustrating or hard to master So today I show you my basic concept on how to easily write cool stuff in an odd meter like 7/8. For this video I wrote a small rhythm and lead section we will dissect together. Before we start make sure to subscribe to stay updated for more free guitar lessons If you want to learn even more I release long in-depth lessons, tabs, workout sheets and much more on patreon.com/bernth Let's get started First I will play the 7/8 section I wrote for this video. We start with a nice riff and then I added a little solo section, an arpeggio pattern that features some interesting notes As you hear composing in an odd meter can sound really cool and it's quite common for a lot of modern metal or rock bands You create a sense of tension for the listener because we're only one eighth note short here every measure Compared to the common 4/4 beat that our ears mostly grew up with. To get started I will explain my concept of note grouping that I work with a lot in my online course 10 Steps to Modern Shredding So if you already have the course let this serve as a small refresher, if you don't have it make sure to check it out to dive even deeper into the system if you want to. So first of all I never count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and so on Although that would be the most logical approach for a beginner probably since we often count 1 2 3 4 or 1 2 3 2 2 3 in a 4/4 or 3/4 time signature. To really understand the possibility for rhythmic syncopation and interesting patterns We have to divide the seven eighth notes we have available every measure into smaller rhythmic groups Maybe you heard it already - for the example I chose the note grouping 2 2 3 So by dividing the 7/8 measure into smaller groups of 2 & 3 I get some interesting rhythmic accents and it's much easier to stay in time and also to compose cool riffs that way. If I accent the first note of all these groups I end up with this cool pattern. ...and so on. Instead of working with numbers for counting There is the amazing konnakol system that I absolutely recommend but that's a topic for another video So when I play the riff really slow. I actually think like that. ...and son on. I hope that you start to see that this is so much more effective than just counting to seven I could also swap the groups at any given point. Let's try 2 3 2 for example. I'm sure that you will get used to it very quickly. An easy exercise that you can do in your spare time is listening to music! I'd like you to pay attention to these odd meters when you hear a song that features a section like that Focus on what time signature it is written in and also how the notes are divided into groups. A lot of compositions are also written in 4/4 and the note grouping is very syncopated, giving it the sound of a complex odd meter Since this is a very rhythmic topic the drums play a huge role in this of course. Let me play you the example again with a different beat and you will see what I mean As you can hear the drums are much straighter now and it sounds more like a syncopated riff in 4/4 than a composition in 7/8 So the drummer can always decide if he or she wants to hit the accents on the groups the riff is based on or somewhere completely different There are a lot of very interesting opportunities to create something very unique that way. For the lead guitar section I played I also focused on writing something with a nice flow I don't want the pattern to end one 8th note short and then to start again if you know what I mean Sometimes it sounds like the solo or phrases are actually composed in 4/4 and just missing one eighth note I really wanted to work nicely with the odd meter I also added some interesting notes to my sequence like the raised seventh scale degree reminding us of harmonic minor or Diminished patterns featuring the diminished fifth and so on Let's listen to the whole thing again now I hope it sounds much clearer now Try to count the groups 2 2 3 out loud or in your mind when you listen to it again right now That's it for this lesson, I hope it improved your knowledge of odd meters I'd like to thank all my patrons in the end for keeping my channels up and running Thanks a lot for the support. I release weekly lesson, tabs, live Q&A videos and workout sheets on patreon So if you'd like to join my inner circle just click the link in the description. Thanks so much for watching I will see you in the next video until then keep shredding and have fun practicing! You

Channel: BERNTH

Views: 15,049

Rating: 4.9781423 out of 5

Keywords: how to odd meter, how to odd time signature, how to play odd time signatures on guitar, 7/8 guitar, 7/8 guitar riff, 7/8 lesson, odd meter lesson, odd meter guitar lesson, odd time signature songs, odd time signatures guitar, how to count odd time signatures, how to count odd meters, time signatures explained guitar, time siganture lesson, odd times explained, odd times guitar, odd time lesson, odd times metal, metal odd time signatures, odd time signatures, 5/4

Id: LA8Ucl_oDbI

Length: 6min 26sec (386 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2019