Odd Time Signatures in Video Game Music

[Music] the more astute viewers among you may already know that I'm actually primarily a drummer with drums to this day being the instrument that I am the least terrible at the even more astute among you may already know that I was actually 13 years old at one point in my drumming history by this combination of facts you can safely assume that I have a deeply ingrained love for odd time signatures there's something just inherently kick-ass about a song that breaks out of boring old 4/4 time or it's stuck-up cousin 3/4 time and journeys out to the edge of what's rhythmically intelligible as any preteen drummer will tell you nothing is more satisfying than finding a piece of music that seems completely inscrutable at first and then after repeated listening and constantly doing arithmetic while the song is playing managing to make sense of the rhythms and successfully follow along with what the musicians are doing so let's take a look at a few of the different ways that video games use these weird time signatures to great effect I found that for a lot of cases where strange time signatures are being used there the focal point of the entire tune for example the composition of Kingdom Hearts Hollow Bastion music seems to have been driven entirely by a rhythm unofficially called the 5/4 clave a the 5/4 clave a as you may have already guessed requires a five four time signature and sounds like this [Music] this rhythm effectively breaks the bar up from five beats into two smaller chunks of three and two beats creating this wonderfully lopsided feeling uses of this and pop culture range from the crooked waltz feeling of Dave Brubeck's take five to the pulse-pounding action vibe of the Mission Impossible theme a simple game [Music] Hollow Bastion uses this repeating rhythmic pattern in almost every level of its composition it's outlined explicitly in the base and this inner plucked string part while the melody blasts us with this relentless eighth note line that subtly accents the same 5/4 clave a rhythm the tune mostly sits on the tonic B minor chord like this but when the chords do change later on we see the harmonic rhythm conforming to this pattern splitting the bar into alternating three and two beet chunks [Music] this continuous driving rhythm as well as the constant stream of eighth notes use of dissonant half-step motion in the inner voices and thick orchestral texture create this oppressive gloomy mood that never lets us catch our breath much like how the twisting pipes and pathways and unending waves of enemies keep the player on their toes as they try to push their way through Hollow Bastion in the game taking a look at the tune leave-taking from ninokuni 2 we see a completely different approach to the 5/4 time signature where Hollow Bastion based a lot of its compositional choices around this 5/4 klava rhythm leave-taking uses the five four time signature entirely in service of its melody the extra beat in each bar gives the sense that the music is pausing to catch its breath each time it starts the somber melodic figure giving the phrase a gravitas that it wouldn't otherwise have [Music] oh and those C sharps the way it just sits on those C sharps for two full beats before resolving down to the B absolutely wrecks me and you wouldn't be able to fit that into a 4/4 time signature without wrecking the rhythm of the rest of the melody this emphasis on melody first is a characteristic of Joe Hisaishi she's writing and though it's masterfully done here I'd say that hollow bastions time signature first approach is much more common in video game music for another example of this approach we need look no further than fire emblems black Fang theme [Music] meant to symbolize a group of assassins known as the black Fang this ominous tune uses a seven four time signature once again we see the bar broken up into alternating segments this time of four and three beats emphasized by the bass the constant driving eighth note line in the middle voice and the placement of the chord [Music] the plotting baseline and use of the dark flat to court in a minor key evokes a pretty grim atmosphere when fighting one of the four fangs the four strongest members of this group of assassins the music transforms this black fang theme by doubling the tempo and laying down a shredding baseline underneath these multi-layered rhythmically dense parts outlining the same dark harmony as before creates a really tense hectic atmosphere and using a 7/8 time signature makes it just that much harder for the listener to find their bearings in this kind of tune the goal is to disorient the player with a barrage of fast and complicated rhythms and harmonies in order to create the kind of heart pumping tension that you want the player to feel as they tackle a tough boss fight and the time signature serves wonderfully in that regard another way that more complicated time signatures are used are in what I call drum driven Arrangements basically some tunes take an eccentric time signature and base their entire composition around creating a groove to fit into this time signature with melodic and harmonic elements used only to dress up the rhythmic interest generated by the percussion parts a great example of this is the weapons factory music from Super Mario RPG which layers three snare tracks - bass drum tracks and this industrial clanging noise into a groove in 13:8 time while these simple repeating synth parts help outline where these measures start and end [Music] this tune follows a common technique among the more wild time signatures where a pattern will be established and then every other repetition of this pattern will either chop off a beat or add an extra beat this is an easy way to make a time signature sound way more complex than it actually is see how you can read this as a repeating figure in 7/8 with the last note cut off in every other bar that's a life hack for you aspiring prog rock composers out there anyways the layered percussion here does a great job of evoke the kind of erratic industrial noise you'd expect from this levels spooky factory aesthetic some Tunes manage to use a really peculiar time signature without resorting to the chop off a beat every other bar method when fighting the barrier trio in mother3 the Japanese only sequel to earthbound the battle music that plays makes use of a 15-8 time signature the battle system in this game challenges players to tap a button in rhythm with the background music in order to score combos so as the boss fights increase in difficulty the rhythms of the boss music also get increasingly more complicated in this example the drums play an erratic pattern that refuses to break the measure up into smaller more digestible chunks the way we saw in some of our previous examples it's just 15 straight beats of madness on a loop throughout the entire tune [Music] that is pretty ridiculous but the confusing nature of this meter is offset by the constant repetition of the drum part it's hard to figure out at first but the longer you listen to this loop the more and more your ear picks up until eventually you can follow along and even predict what's coming next considering the mechanics of this game's battle system this is perfect now earlier I mentioned the disorienting boss theme trope in reference to Fire Emblem softly with grace theme I'm sure you already know of one example that makes that tune 7/8 time signature look like one one I'm talking of course about the infamous Ganondorf battle theme from ocarina of time this tunes really got it all a constant barrage of sixteenth notes traumatically shifting harmony a melody that deliberately clashes with the harmony and to top it all off a time signature of 2316 when you break it down here what we see outlined by the xylophone timpani and snare drum is a pattern of three groups of three sixteenth notes followed by a group of four sixteenth notes this makes one bar of 13 16 which is already pretty out there we then see our metrical lifehack from earlier used here with every other bar knocking out one of these groups of three sixteen to make a bar of ten 16 or 5/8 alternating consistently between these two rhythmic groupings adds up to a bar of 23 16 and it sounds like this [Music] it's pretty wild and without having the music in front of you it's really hard to follow which makes it perfect for this boss fight the rhythms frantic energy and the disorienting harmony leaves us barely hanging on as listeners putting us in that adrenaline fuelled fight-or-flight state that goes along with challenging the evil demon king of the world to a winner-take-all tennis match like our example for mother3 though there's no variation in this rhythmic pattern granted if there were any variation throughout I'm sure this piece would stop making any sense whatsoever but this means that it is possible to figure out the rhythm and follow along once you get used to the pattern this is not the case in one of my favorite examples of time signature tomfoolery in video game music kirby's superstars Marx's theme instead of one insane time signature to keep us off balance composer Jun Ishikawa constantly changes the time signature to ensure that we can never expect exactly what's coming next there's a constant pulse provided by the snare drum and bass part but the length of each phrase seems to change almost at random I notated the time signatures depending entirely on when the chords changed which gives us a healthy mix of seven five and three four time signatures throughout [Music] [Applause] [Music] you'll notice that the rest of the musical elements here aren't quite as dark as some of our previous examples the harmony is definitely dissonant with minor major seventh chords chromatic medium bleeps and constantly shifting tonality x' littering the tune throughout but we also get the occasional major seventh chord or functional harmonic move that keeps things from getting too dark and we do get a strong melody that always fits with the Harmony underneath I'd say that these decisions were made to better fit the tone of a kirby game the cumulative effect of all these elements isn't so much that of an adrenalin pumping battle as it is like a carnival ride that's gone completely off the rails and I think that this was a really smart move it fits really well with Marx's gesture turned demon that thing aesthetic unlike the previous examples there's no consistent pattern here that reveals itself after repeated listenings and careful counting to be able to tell exactly what's coming next at any point in this tune would require you to memorize the entire piece from top to bottom which honestly makes my little 13 year old drummer heart just swell with joy as you can see there are lots of different effects that composers achieved by using these odd time signatures and the author the better as far as I'm concerned speaking of odd big thanks to patron Steven D Rico for requesting this topic I'm just kidding you're the best Steven and I'm sure you're very normal if you liked the video consider checking out my patreon page here to help me make more i'm also on twitter at 8-bit music theory thanks so much for watching the video and i'll see you all next time [Music] completely Papa what it did not be people what you think [Music]

Channel: 8-bit Music Theory

Views: 1,605,780

Rating: 4.9674106 out of 5

Keywords: Odd Time Signatures, Video Game music, ocarina of time music, ganondorf battle music, write prog rock, marx's theme kirby, yoko shimomura, kingdom hearts music, ni no kuni 2 music, joe hisaishi, fire emblem music, 7/8 time, 5/4 time, super mario rpg music, composition, music theory, 8-bit Music Theory

Id: 5JRojRIA1ng

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/FekkinPhoneUsrAcct]

Here's that clip with drummer Mike Portnoy showing the weird time signatures in The Dance of Eternity (by Dream Theater): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwkcRTNMsWs

Edit: The song is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfydR1CQ76k

[u/DireKrow]

For people who are interested in hearing more examples of video game music with odd time signatures, this blog has over a thousand examples: http://vgm-in-irregular-time-of-the-day.tumblr.com/

(I'm actually kinda surprised it wasn't mentioned in the video description or something)

[u/garyyo]

While I love the idea of this channel, I have no clue what is going on. you do need at least some semblance of music theory to get this and unfortunately I dont have enough. I wish this was easier to understand. are there other channels that tackle similar topics but not as confusing?

[u/Aggrokid]

This 8-bit guy is unrealistically talented - from computer repair to musician to programming to games design.

[u/TheLastGundam186]

Been awhile since I've delved into any music theory, but damn that was a seriously awesome video to watch.

[u/PurpleWhiteOut]

I wanna say in contrast to some other comments, but to not sound condescending, I love this channel for being focused on intermediate/advanced music theory and I find that really refreshing. I find that many YouTube videos cater to beginners, which limits the depth at which the video can get into, and I love this channel for getting in depth with advanced topics.

[u/[deleted]]

This guy describes music like an armchair winetaster. I kept resisting the urge to roll my eyes every time he threw in a buzzword like "relentless" or "doesn't let you breath" or something.

[u/[deleted]]

Wasn't alot of 8 - bit music from the 1980s based off of electronic music from that time? The soundchips used are more or less on par with synths from that era, and they probably used the same time signatures because pop music also did the same thing.

So wouldn't those odd time signatures be attributed to music at that time?

EDIT: Nevermind, 8 bit synthesizers are shit compared to what actual musicians used.