So in Starling Reverie, the kick is hitting the downbeat very overtly on the 1's in that 1234-123-12 pattern, with the bass and chord stabs reinforcing the snare in that pattern. Then the very reverb-y synth comes in in a different pattern which gives it a polymeter-ish sound without leaving the 9/8 signature.

Hopefully this all makes sense! I love finding fun things to do with odd time signatures, and I hope someone enjoys my little diversions with them!

#musicTheory #timeSignatures

Then once you've made that decision for your melody or drums or whatever you're starting with, other parts of the track can use different groupings to give you a sort of false polymeter effect that can feel more intense than syncopation normally would.

If your melody is divided into 1234-123-12 but your harmony is divided into 12-1234-123 you can have a sense of the two things running in different meters without having to actually resolve two meters

#musicTheory #timeSignatures

Which takes me to one of the things I like about odd time signatures: they can be broken up like this in lots of interesting ways. You can do this with 8/8 as well (e.g. break it into 12345-123), but your (or at least my) brain tends to detect this as 4/4 no matter what.

But in the case of odd time signatures, there are more ways to divide and group your notes. So I almost always start with how I will divide my notes. For 9/8 will I do 12-1234-123? 12-12-12345? etc

#musicTheory #timeSignatures

Also thought I'd take the opportunity to talk a bit about how to count the rhythm of the track and why I like odd time signatures so much.

So the first bit is easy: the piece is in 9/8 time, but rather than try to count to nine, you'll find it much easier to count 1234-123-12. The emphasized beats follow this pattern, so it settles much more easily into your (or at least my) brain.

#timeSignatures #musicTheory