Actually, he was 19 when he recorded it (almost completely by himself, mind you). He began working on Tubular Bells at the age of 17. I assume he amassed bits and pieces throughout the years till the song was finally 40-plus minutes and *had to be* divided in two because of the physical limitations of vynil.
I always hear the wrong notes as the downbeats of the melody and get confused as soon as the other instruments start playing, because then the rhythm sounds so dislodged and shifted to me🙇🏻♂️ for my ears, the first five notes of the song are the upbeat and the sixth note (the second A) is the 1 beat, no matter how hard I focus on hearing the real 1 beat. I've also once heard an iPhone ringtone remix song and when the beat kicked in, my brain was like just yooo wtf is going on😂
You know what's the coolest part, it's not even the best section on the album, that honor goes to the last 8 minutes of side 1, where all the instruments start playing one by one the same riff
Oldfield was really a prodigy. His sister showed him a few chords and in a couple of months he was starting to master the guitar. The other people in his folk group couldn't keep up with him. His talent for composing and writing great melodies is unsurpassed.
There's another nice song in 15/8, Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, which inspired the riff in Fade Into Darkness by Avicii (though it was adapted for 4/4)
I'm glad someone mentioned this -- indeed, a fantastic example which I wish were included in the video (which, to be fair, couldn't be exhaustive). This one was made famous in a bunch of commercials, but especially -- "Napoleon Dynamite." The score suggests it's divided in quintuple compound time, but I find it easier to count (noting that the "C" is a pick-up note, and that the bar really begins on "E") as 4 + 3 + 4 + 4.
Mike Oldfield is my favourite artist of all time. Tubular Bells is amazing though if you look a bit more into his discography, for example Ommadawn or Amarok you'll be amazed by what he has created throughout the years. If you like classic rock, prog rock or experimental music you must listen to him. Seriously, go do it now, and don't just listen to Tubular Bells.
Oh man when that Thunderstorm part of Hergest Ridge hits... or the ending to Ommadawn... Songs from Distant Earth was my fave album for a couple of years. There is so much to explore, and it's all exquisite
@Marcelo Katayama Amarok is also one of my favourites. I also love his early 80s stuff. QE2 and the instrumental stuff on Five Miles Out is just incredible IMO.
Karnivool is a criminally underrated band with a criminally underrated song called C.O.T.E. from their debut album known as Themata. That song incorporates the 15/8 time signature quite a bit, and it's phenomenal. I'd highly suggest u listen to it sometime. It's an amazing song on an amazing album.
Karnivool are bloody excellent and deserve way more of a following than they have saw them live last month and they hold up just as well on stage as they do on the albums
A great lesser-known 15/8 track is Gyroscope by Dismemberment Plan! It throws in a few bars of other times occasionally but is largely structured on 15/8 and is a ton of fun to listen to!
King Gizzard has a few pieces that use 15/8, though its easiest to think of how they use it as adding a bar of 7/8 and a bar of 8/8 together. These songs are Pleura (the whole thing is based on this), Ataraxia (used during the choruses, that song is full of crazy time changes), K.G.L.W (similar to Ataraxia in the way that its only used for a section), Yours, the b3k title track I think, and multiple times over the course of Polygondwanaland & Murder of the Universe.
Really cool that Mike Portnoy watched one of your videos, man! He’s one of my favourite drummers of all time! Also, in regards to 15/8, I’ve always thought of Hozier song, “From Eden” to be in a compound 15/8 time. Also, the main riff of “The Loss Inside” by Flying Colors (one of Portnoy’s bands) is not in 15/8 time, but in 15/4 time (alternating bars of 7 & 8)
5/4 is already a really fun time signature to write with, and I want to try a song in 15/8, cuz it seems like a natural extension of that time signature.
I'm not sure I'd call it an extension, 5/4 to me feels like 4/4 but you fill an extra beat, 15/8 is losing half a beat every other bar. I'd say it's more like 7/4. Edit: actually after getting through more of the video, I didn't even consider it could just be quintuple compound time. You're right, it would be similar to compose to 5/4 when you think of it like that.
I knew it was gonna be "The Ocean", freakin' love that song. I played it with my band and it was an absolute beast rhythmically, especially because our drummer was in another city and unable to join quite a few of our practices, and I was playing both Page's part and singing... whew! But the difficulty of nailing it during practice without a drummer actually made our performance better, because it was comparatively easy to play _with_ our drummer. 😅
Interesting what Tom Newman said about the weird rhythm of Tubular Bells keeping the brain from "switching off" due to a boring regularity! I'll try to keep that in mind when working on my project "Sound of Sustainable Power Systems" ...
The Intro for Venusian 1 by King Gizzard is in 15/8 too. I love when you mention them in this videos, so I wanted to add them at least in the comments lol Edit: They actually make some polymeric stuff (not quite sure how to name it) with the 15 hi-hat hits against the 10 guitar strums.
When I saw 15/8 two Plini tunes came to mind. The first being ‘Inhale’ which is predominantly in 12/8, but it uses 1 bar of 15/8 in the second half of the riff which is about 1:36 seconds into the song, to extend the riff by 1 extra beat. The other is ‘The Glass Bead Game’. This song is in 15/8 for the majority of its duration. Drummer Chris Allison moves between playing the 15 as three groups of 5, and then as 5 groups of three later on. As the song progresses he modulates that pattern different ways. But interestingly, he also adds a back beat on the first note in every other grouping to make it feel like the piece isn’t in an odd meter, or at least not as complex as it seems. It’s crazy stuff but I thought it would be a cool piece for you to do an analysis in a future video!!
It's cool to see Zeppelin here, 'The ocean' is a very groovy song by them. I am Not a big fan of Oldfield but I must recognize that tubular bells to be a good example of this time signature.
I've just realized that "Danger Money" by UK also uses 15/8 during the verses. In this case, both variants are there: the compound 15/8 and its 'traditional' form right after. Such an interesting song! 🎶🎶
Strong One mentioned, let’s goooooooo! Genuinely one of my favorites from Mother 3. Strong One is so rewarding when you learn the timing for your hits, just like you were talking about.
Nikolai Medtner's Night Wind Sonata is in my opinion the greatest piece of music in this time signature - it spends SO MUCH time in 15/8 - and it feels totally natural but creates a distinct sense of chaos and unpredictability - that's important because it is the subject of the Sonata - Chaos and Order. The second movement is in a standard time signature but is built from a lot of the same material. It's a fascinating contrast to spend so much time in the world of 'Chaos' that it ends up feeling natural - and then coming to 4/4 - it's just genius!
I love that you're including lots of video game music in these. It makes sense, since video game music is usually freer than average to do whatever it wants. It's really nice :D
my goodness- you have three hands!! so this is how you're able to play so well jokes aside-lovely video and especially the piece at the end, I found it really beautiful and tranquil
Another great (but less well-known) example is "On the Boom" by Tricot. The verse is in 15/8 and the drummer basically plays 3x a kick-kick-snare pattern and then switches to 3x kick-snare, dividing it into 9/8 and then 6/8. However, what the lead guitar is playing feels more like a 6/8 then 4/8 and then 5/8, which sounds pretty amazing together.
I’m so appreciative of this video cause I was bewildered with my homework. I saw the time signature and almost started crying but now that I’ve seen loads of examples on how to divide the notes- I’m not that scared. Thank you!💕
Thanks David. I like that you explained why 15/8 works by constantly tripping you up at the end of the bar when you expect one more beat and adding that bit of "interest" or "complexity" or "tension"
If it were counted as fifteen beats it would be in 15/16; if it were 15/8 you'd have to count each note on the bass and guitar as a 32nd and the tempo would be something like 50bpm, which it obviously is not. Regardless, I think it would be hard to argue that each time that 8th beat comes around (when the two snare hits come in rapid succession) is the tail of a single measure, so I think it is actually alternating 7/8 and 8/8.
Looking forward to a video about 15/16. Once a jazzman tried to explain me how to "drop" that one semiquaver. A great example can be heard in Pantera - Shedding Skin.
New Grass from Talk Talk's stunning final album Laughing Stock is in compound quintuple time all the way through. In the context of what precedes it, it's like a moment of brightness and normality!
I can't help but hear the 1 beat in Tubular Bells on that second A (or the 6th note in the melody) and ALWAYS get confused as soon as the other instruments start playing along... the rhythm throughout the whole song just sounds kind of dislodged or shifted to me, no matter how hard I try and focus...
Great video! I swear when I saw the title of the video I was like "if he doesn't mention Dream Theater I'm gonna be pissed" 😂 I also like the 15/8 riff in Beyond This Life, played like 4/4 + "3.5/4" and then like 12/8 + 3/8, that's the first example that came to my mind :)
This is a very impressive musical analysis of a rarified area of theory. I credit your delivery with obvious erudition and much coolness! However, I think 15/8 goes to a qualitatively higher place than the other, "simpler" compound meters. That higher place may not be Heaven, or Eden, but I would certainly consider it the "Elysian Fields of Asymmetry." With 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8, we may be captivated by the pleasure of a propulsive musical pace, but it's quite simply regulated by the familiarity of square expectations. These time signatures all respect a rectilinear, even-numbered periodicity, even though their components are triple-figure iterations in even-numbered sets. The various groupings of 15 notes, whether 7-note and then 8-note "breaths," or 3-note pulses grouped in sets of 5, inevitably feel like hopping on a cart and realizing it's three-wheeled, or practicing a round of patty-cake with a skipped beat. The "regularity of irregularity" is intriguing and sometimes intoxicating. It's also an arrhythmia that characterizes many corners of the natural world, such as the engagement of precession and obliquity with the rotational axis of Earth and its long-term march through climate cycles, or the regularly irregular, but usually not worrisome, arrhythmic heartbeats of millions of people, myself included. German composers, especially Bach and Brahms, but also Slavs like Dvorak and Stravinsky, loved the "brought-up-short" periodicities, like the apparent three-beat phrases in a 4/4 chorale. But I wonder if maybe the rhythmic or metrical "off-sync-ness" I find lovably quirky was not so unusual to their ears, especially if a given culture's folk musical traditions honor the inherent prosody, euphony, elision and agglomeration of that culture's spoken language. I strongly believe they do. No Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon master could ever match the typical gem-like constructions of Rameau or Couperin. And maybe this is also the reason Handel and Bach were so infatuated with Italian compositional conceits. The childlike daring with which Italian composers approach melodic expression, the languorous tendrils with which they effortlessly extend a line, might have felt impermissible or forbidden to the studious pupils of Leipzig or Salzburg. One sojourn to Milan or Venice might have been their LSD experience. I've always loved the nickname Bellini earned from his compatriots: "Le Cigne di Catania," the Swan of Catania, for the lissome, endless grace of his melodic sentences. Supposedly Bellini was the only composer whom Wagner openly envied--and for that very Italianate skill. Conversely, no French or Italian composer ever stomped off a "rush-the-pulse" passage like the first climax in the second movement of Beethoven's Eroica, or similar dazzling gymnastics in the coda of the final movement of his Fifth Symphony. So many of Bach's chorales, or Brahms and Dvorak's dances, produce a five-step skipping feel, even when they're an artifact of jumping the turnstile, not true bar metering. I love the effect, especially when it creates a swagger or rolling motion, such as a ship traversing the cross-interference of oblique wave-forms. Enhancing all of this, of course, would be the addition of hemiolas or cross-rhythms. I envy all pianists who can tackle Phillip Glass, whose metrical expectations leave me with cramped fingers, jumpy legs, crossed eyes, anxiety attacks and temporal-lobe meltdown. I call it music for three hands, two brains. Not specified in his scores but required nonetheless are cranial metronome implants. To think I survived tonal homelessness under Schoenberg's rule, and suffered stochastic oblivion with Xenakis, only to be broken by Glass in the game of childhood terror whereby wee, happy souls with a mere six years of earthly tenure are slung off this mortal coil at birthday parties for the innocent lapse of counting too slow while reading too fast! "Measures Without Ends" is a funeral dirge I wrote in fifth-grade, and it eloquently relates a factitious tragedy of 1957 that catapulted an asylum-deserving orphan of Arrhythmorosia falling a thousand demisemiquavers into an abyssal, invisible zeroth position in a game of cruel diplomacy--asymmetrical, metrical chairs--between the Great Powers (my mom vs Mrs. Schenkekburg). The dirge, BTW, won the Pulitzer--and a papal audience (he with me)--for its swan-like melodic grace strung out in astonishing key & time signatures: 17/0 in B#, Pedante con impertinente. Eat my hemiolas, Glass.
Well, David, even with you're brilliant and clear explanations, it's still hard to hear this time signature naturally. Great video and got me thinking, enjoy your composition at the end too.
The way I transcribed tubular bells was the way I found it easier to understand. I original heard it as a 30/16 with the melody segments within having four segments grouped individually as so:7/ 16,7/16,7/16, and then the resolving and longer 9/16. For sake of composing it's easier written as 15/8 but for a studying student I think it helps to count out each of the melody notes of the riff , resetting the count whenever the melody resolves itself. 3 segments of 7/16 pedal notes tagged with a resolving and elongated 9/16 turn around
Great examples! "Cogs in Cogs" by Gentle Giant is another song that uses 15/8. In this case, the opening section can also be subdivided in 6/8 + 9/8 which reminds me of the Dream Theater example. It's a fantastic song, by the way. 🎹
For another (possible) example of 15/8, there's a song that came out only a couple weeks ago now - Sempiternal Beings by the prog metal band Haken. The first two choruses use an odd meter that, while I haven't been able to verify it myself, I've seen others call 15/8. The final chorus though resolves the tension by shifting to 4/4 (though again, I've seen people claim it's a 4/4 against 6/4 polymeter, either way it's a much easier meter to parse). It's also just a great song, the whole Fauna album is just fantastic.
I'm listening to Tubular Bells for the first time, but my interpretation is 4 bars of 7/16 plus a bar of 2/16. Calling it 15/8 would be weird because of the stress on the offbeats of 4 and 11.
I think of the first part of Tubular Bells as being 3 bars of 7/8 then one bar of 9/8 (what you are calling 8th notes I hear as quarter notes so you would call this 7/16 and 9/16)
Just heard it. Congratulations man, that's an awesome song. Not a huge fan of the extreme metal vocals in the middle, but the composition is exceptional.
I’m not a piano player but I became a little obsessive about this tune the last couple days, walking around keeping time with my hand and fingers whistling the notes thinking, OK, it’s 7/8 and 4/4. But of course I was just going with the riff. Then when I heard it played online it sounded as if it was beginning after a few notes. Then I thought 4/4 and 8/8 are the same thing. (at least keeping time with my fingers lol) I kept wondering how they get 15/8 until I saw Michael Oldfield talk about it saying 7 on the first bar, 8 on the 2nd bar….. and it finally hit dumb dumb that 7+8 is 15. Thank you for posting the video.
A random bit of trivia, mike oldfield "Tabular Bells" is the first lp richard branson sold under Virgin records label. Mike is the first person, musican to give him ago. Thanks to Mike he help get richard branson to where he is now.
As a soloist bassist busker I found Tubular Bells very useful in my set list as I was using a very square drum machine to back everything else, it really helped to get out of the box. Of course I used shuffles and waltzes also, but this classic track has been a good one to reel in more musically versed people. Very easy to tapping in open Em too.
Fifty something Aussie here. I just wished when I was at secondary school I enrolled in subjects that I am passionate about such as music, art and home economics (cooking) rather than stereotypical bloke topics like wood work, metal work, technical drawing and industrial design.
Tattooed love boys is one of my favourite songs by them. I always knew it was weird time signature, but could never count it out properly. Now it makes sense!
The first verse and chorus of clipping.'s Story 7 is also in 15/8! They do a lot of cool experimenting with time signatures, which is really interesting coming from a hip-hop group
Excellent content as always. I LOVE Tubular Bells. Would you consider doing a recreation of it? Your recreations of songs are fantastic, and I would love to see the process of how this song was put together.
Check out my new "Piano for beginners" course over at Artmaster: www.artmaster.com/course/piano? 🎹🎹🎹
Mr. Bennet, is there sheet music available for that 15/8 song you composed? I am currently learning piano.
@@alicial4857 hi! I’m afraid the sheet music isn’t available but I’m glad that you liked the piece 😊
Oldfield was 19 when he wrote Tubular Bells. Beautiful piece
Youngfield
Actually, he was 19 when he recorded it (almost completely by himself, mind you). He began working on Tubular Bells at the age of 17. I assume he amassed bits and pieces throughout the years till the song was finally 40-plus minutes and *had to be* divided in two because of the physical limitations of vynil.
I always hear the wrong notes as the downbeats of the melody and get confused as soon as the other instruments start playing, because then the rhythm sounds so dislodged and shifted to me🙇🏻♂️ for my ears, the first five notes of the song are the upbeat and the sixth note (the second A) is the 1 beat, no matter how hard I focus on hearing the real 1 beat.
I've also once heard an iPhone ringtone remix song and when the beat kicked in, my brain was like just yooo wtf is going on😂
@@markvicki7611 Mine too!!!!
You know what's the coolest part, it's not even the best section on the album, that honor goes to the last 8 minutes of side 1, where all the instruments start playing one by one the same riff
Sooner or later he's gonna hit us with the "Songs that use 87/4 time" video and its gonna be epic
It's gonna be Gojira for sure-
There's probably A song that does that
but more likely in 87/16 or 87/32 because that's such an obnoxiously large number
one measure will be the entire video
@@miserirken Or Jethro Tull
So that's 29 compound quarter notes in each bar.
"The 15/8 time signature contributed to the unlikely mainstream success of this 26-minute instrumental track." Lol.
Now I understand why Tubular Bells has that otherworldly sound. Beautifully chilling.
Now I understand why I never got the hang of written music. It’s sorcery.
Your videos on odd time signatures are so fascinating to watch!!!
Glad you like them! More to come!
Oddly enough I always make time for those videos
@@zzzaphod8507 Well done. 👏🏽
@@DavidBennettPianoHOW THE HELL YOUVE RUN OUT OF TIME SIGNATURES
if you make like ANY more it going to be TOOL and king gizzard and like that’s it
Really cool to see Dream Theater’s drummer is a fan of your channel! Goes to show music can reach people everywhere.
Dream Theater isn’t real they’re impossible
Mike is possibly the biggest Beatles fan
Not only is Portnoy a great drummer but he also knows the difference between arithmetic and mathematics!
The beginning of the "Moon theme" from the duck tales video game is another great example of 15/8.
15/16* 🤓🎼
@@danamaderas3382 15/8
Oldfield was really a prodigy. His sister showed him a few chords and in a couple of months he was starting to master the guitar. The other people in his folk group couldn't keep up with him. His talent for composing and writing great melodies is unsurpassed.
"Oldfield was really a prodigy" ...he still is.
15/8 feels strangly comfortable for an odd time
There's another nice song in 15/8, Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, which inspired the riff in Fade Into Darkness by Avicii (though it was adapted for 4/4)
Yes!!! My favorite example of 15/8. It's so mesmerizing.
It's almost a companion piece to Tubular Bells.
I'm glad someone mentioned this -- indeed, a fantastic example which I wish were included in the video (which, to be fair, couldn't be exhaustive). This one was made famous in a bunch of commercials, but especially -- "Napoleon Dynamite." The score suggests it's divided in quintuple compound time, but I find it easier to count (noting that the "C" is a pick-up note, and that the bar really begins on "E") as 4 + 3 + 4 + 4.
@@StoneChords I feel the rhythm and count it like that too :)
Yessss penguin cafe orchestra is so great
So glad Biffy Clyro got a mention here! They have a ton of great examples of odd time signatures, and are quite an underrated band overall.
Mike Oldfield is my favourite artist of all time. Tubular Bells is amazing though if you look a bit more into his discography, for example Ommadawn or Amarok you'll be amazed by what he has created throughout the years. If you like classic rock, prog rock or experimental music you must listen to him. Seriously, go do it now, and don't just listen to Tubular Bells.
No. I’m just going to listen to tubular bells.
Oh man when that Thunderstorm part of Hergest Ridge hits... or the ending to Ommadawn... Songs from Distant Earth was my fave album for a couple of years. There is so much to explore, and it's all exquisite
@@____xD If you like the bells you'll like the other stuff
Amarok is my favourite Mike Oldfield album. It is beyond wonderful
@Marcelo Katayama Amarok is also one of my favourites. I also love his early 80s stuff. QE2 and the instrumental stuff on Five Miles Out is just incredible IMO.
Karnivool is a criminally underrated band with a criminally underrated song called C.O.T.E. from their debut album known as Themata. That song incorporates the 15/8 time signature quite a bit, and it's phenomenal. I'd highly suggest u listen to it sometime. It's an amazing song on an amazing album.
Spot on, I absolute love Karnivool
That album is so good!
Karnivool are bloody excellent and deserve way more of a following than they have
saw them live last month and they hold up just as well on stage as they do on the albums
A great lesser-known 15/8 track is Gyroscope by Dismemberment Plan! It throws in a few bars of other times occasionally but is largely structured on 15/8 and is a ton of fun to listen to!
was immediately the song i thought of when i saw the video title
so glad that someone mentioned it!
IF SHE SPINS FAST ENOUGH THEN MAYBE THE BROKEN PIECES OF HER HEART
King Gizzard has a few pieces that use 15/8, though its easiest to think of how they use it as adding a bar of 7/8 and a bar of 8/8 together. These songs are Pleura (the whole thing is based on this), Ataraxia (used during the choruses, that song is full of crazy time changes), K.G.L.W (similar to Ataraxia in the way that its only used for a section), Yours, the b3k title track I think, and multiple times over the course of Polygondwanaland & Murder of the Universe.
I was definitely not expecting to see a Mother 3 reference here. Excellent game, and a wonderful soundtrack.
i hope he makes a video about it, there’s a lot of cool musical stuff going on there
He adds OSTs to lists like these a lot, rly cool.
David, I never tire of your excellent videos. Thank you again.
My pleasure!
Really cool that Mike Portnoy watched one of your videos, man! He’s one of my favourite drummers of all time!
Also, in regards to 15/8, I’ve always thought of Hozier song, “From Eden” to be in a compound 15/8 time.
Also, the main riff of “The Loss Inside” by Flying Colors (one of Portnoy’s bands) is not in 15/8 time, but in 15/4 time (alternating bars of 7 & 8)
Indeed - I love his "Two Of Us" t-shirt and his companion seemed to know her stuff too :)
Yea, him and Danny are my favorites
5/4 is already a really fun time signature to write with, and I want to try a song in 15/8, cuz it seems like a natural extension of that time signature.
I'm not sure I'd call it an extension, 5/4 to me feels like 4/4 but you fill an extra beat, 15/8 is losing half a beat every other bar. I'd say it's more like 7/4.
Edit: actually after getting through more of the video, I didn't even consider it could just be quintuple compound time. You're right, it would be similar to compose to 5/4 when you think of it like that.
I knew it was gonna be "The Ocean", freakin' love that song. I played it with my band and it was an absolute beast rhythmically, especially because our drummer was in another city and unable to join quite a few of our practices, and I was playing both Page's part and singing... whew! But the difficulty of nailing it during practice without a drummer actually made our performance better, because it was comparatively easy to play _with_ our drummer. 😅
Interesting what Tom Newman said about the weird rhythm of Tubular Bells keeping the brain from "switching off" due to a boring regularity! I'll try to keep that in mind when working on my project "Sound of Sustainable Power Systems" ...
Very happy to see Mike Oldfield featured here. My favorite artist of all time, he's just genius and undending source of inspiration for me.
The Intro for Venusian 1 by King Gizzard is in 15/8 too.
I love when you mention them in this videos, so I wanted to add them at least in the comments lol
Edit: They actually make some polymeric stuff (not quite sure how to name it) with the 15 hi-hat hits against the 10 guitar strums.
I think ataraxia is 15/8
@@prismix0870
You're right!
Now you reminded me, another LW song is too. Pleura.
When I saw 15/8 two Plini tunes came to mind. The first being ‘Inhale’ which is predominantly in 12/8, but it uses 1 bar of 15/8 in the second half of the riff which is about 1:36 seconds into the song, to extend the riff by 1 extra beat.
The other is ‘The Glass Bead Game’. This song is in 15/8 for the majority of its duration. Drummer Chris Allison moves between playing the 15 as three groups of 5, and then as 5 groups of three later on. As the song progresses he modulates that pattern different ways. But interestingly, he also adds a back beat on the first note in every other grouping to make it feel like the piece isn’t in an odd meter, or at least not as complex as it seems.
It’s crazy stuff but I thought it would be a cool piece for you to do an analysis in a future video!!
It's cool to see Zeppelin here, 'The ocean' is a very groovy song by them.
I am Not a big fan of Oldfield but I must recognize that tubular bells to be a good example of this time signature.
Tubular Bells is one of the best albums of all time
I've just realized that "Danger Money" by UK also uses 15/8 during the verses. In this case, both variants are there: the compound 15/8 and its 'traditional' form right after. Such an interesting song! 🎶🎶
The Glass Bead Game by Plini is my favourite in 15/8; just phenomenal, and there's a killer harp solo in it as well!
Fascinating... you really know your stuff. I was wondering if Greek folk and popular Greek songs might use this odd sort of time signature...
I believe that greek/balkan/turkish music uses 5/4 a lot.
@@humanbass And 9/8!
Most Greek folk music uses 7/8, 9/8, and, well, 4/4.
@@Ανδρέας-ΓεώργιοςΣκίννερ Euharisto. I love Greek folk and popular music.
Outstanding work, as always, David. And absolutely LOVE your song you composed and recorded for the outro. Wow!
Me too! That was gorgeous!
I wish I had a third arm like David
Wow. It's been DECADES since I heard Tubular Bells. You really pulled one out of the pop music past.
Unpop
Nice 2nd chord in your composition!
Strong One mentioned, let’s goooooooo! Genuinely one of my favorites from Mother 3. Strong One is so rewarding when you learn the timing for your hits, just like you were talking about.
Queens of the Stone Age mentioned!! One of their best and most interesting songs too.
My favorite 15/8 piece is Penguin Cafe Orchestra's Perpetuum Mobile. Absolute masterpiece. But then again, PCO.
Nikolai Medtner's Night Wind Sonata is in my opinion the greatest piece of music in this time signature - it spends SO MUCH time in 15/8 - and it feels totally natural but creates a distinct sense of chaos and unpredictability - that's important because it is the subject of the Sonata - Chaos and Order. The second movement is in a standard time signature but is built from a lot of the same material. It's a fascinating contrast to spend so much time in the world of 'Chaos' that it ends up feeling natural - and then coming to 4/4 - it's just genius!
The Day I Tried to Live by Soundgarden is even a clearer example of 15/8
hard to believe it's not here; it's one of the more obvious and well-known examples.
@@cletusbeauregard1972 yes, funny he mentioned limo wreck and not day I tried to live ..
Odd time signatures like this are just so interesting to listen to; they definitely grab my attention every time!
Would a 5/8:3/8 polymetre count as 15/8 timing?
I love that you're including lots of video game music in these. It makes sense, since video game music is usually freer than average to do whatever it wants. It's really nice :D
The Pretenders. Yesssss!!!!
Remainder the Black Dog by Steven Wilson is also partly written in 15/8.
my goodness- you have three hands!! so this is how you're able to play so well
jokes aside-lovely video and especially the piece at the end, I found it really beautiful and tranquil
Another great (but less well-known) example is "On the Boom" by Tricot. The verse is in 15/8 and the drummer basically plays 3x a kick-kick-snare pattern and then switches to 3x kick-snare, dividing it into 9/8 and then 6/8. However, what the lead guitar is playing feels more like a 6/8 then 4/8 and then 5/8, which sounds pretty amazing together.
I’m so appreciative of this video cause I was bewildered with my homework. I saw the time signature and almost started crying but now that I’ve seen loads of examples on how to divide the notes- I’m not that scared. Thank you!💕
Thanks David. I like that you explained why 15/8 works by constantly tripping you up at the end of the bar when you expect one more beat and adding that bit of "interest" or "complexity" or "tension"
Just noticing now... So this is what Danny Gonzales does in his spare time
Nahh, you're saying that they look alike? Don't see it.
While mainly in 4/4, Impresstion 1, Part 1 of Karn Evil no. 9 by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer also has a few 15/8 bars.
Where exactly?
@@KlausSgroi I'd have to check but it's pretty early on.
I would also add Rush's "Beneath, Between and Behind" (though 15/16 might make more sense given the tempo). 3 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2.
I love your piece at the end. It sounds like a song off A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead to me
Do you also hear it as 4 + 4 + 4 + 3?
Possum Kingdom by The Toadies is one that has a repeating 7+8 structure. I’ve never heard anyone talk about this one’s odd meter.
If it were counted as fifteen beats it would be in 15/16; if it were 15/8 you'd have to count each note on the bass and guitar as a 32nd and the tempo would be something like 50bpm, which it obviously is not. Regardless, I think it would be hard to argue that each time that 8th beat comes around (when the two snare hits come in rapid succession) is the tail of a single measure, so I think it is actually alternating 7/8 and 8/8.
Love your final composition. Thank you.
Many thanks!
@@DavidBennettPiano I was thrilled when you pulled out that third hand! Why do you keep it hidden most of the time?
Another good example of 15/8 is "electric sunrise" by plini. Giving it an open feel with movement
Tubular Bells is one of my favorite songs and one of the few (only?) song I can still play on the piano.
Looking forward to a video about 15/16. Once a jazzman tried to explain me how to "drop" that one semiquaver. A great example can be heard in Pantera - Shedding Skin.
New Grass from Talk Talk's stunning final album Laughing Stock is in compound quintuple time all the way through. In the context of what precedes it, it's like a moment of brightness and normality!
The 15/8 piece you composed is beautiful.
these are some of my favorite songs, there must be something about this time signature that resonates with me
Love strong one. No chopped off beats, just insanity.
An other less known is the theme music to "Alfons Åberg" (Swedish kid show). It use 15/8 (7/8 + 8/8) in the first half and 11/8 in the second half.
Cool I really love odd time signatures!!
I can't help but hear the 1 beat in Tubular Bells on that second A (or the 6th note in the melody) and ALWAYS get confused as soon as the other instruments start playing along... the rhythm throughout the whole song just sounds kind of dislodged or shifted to me, no matter how hard I try and focus...
Great video!
I swear when I saw the title of the video I was like "if he doesn't mention Dream Theater I'm gonna be pissed" 😂
I also like the 15/8 riff in Beyond This Life, played like 4/4 + "3.5/4" and then like 12/8 + 3/8, that's the first example that came to my mind :)
A terrific description - thank you!
That end tune you wrote was lovely
This is a very impressive musical analysis of a rarified area of theory. I credit your delivery with obvious erudition and much coolness!
However, I think 15/8 goes to a qualitatively higher place than the other, "simpler" compound meters. That higher place may not be Heaven, or Eden, but I would certainly consider it the "Elysian Fields of Asymmetry."
With 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8, we may be captivated by the pleasure of a propulsive musical pace, but it's quite simply regulated by the familiarity of square expectations. These time signatures all respect a rectilinear, even-numbered periodicity, even though their components are triple-figure iterations in even-numbered sets.
The various groupings of 15 notes, whether 7-note and then 8-note "breaths," or 3-note pulses grouped in sets of 5, inevitably feel like hopping on a cart and realizing it's three-wheeled, or practicing a round of patty-cake with a skipped beat. The "regularity of irregularity" is intriguing and sometimes intoxicating. It's also an arrhythmia that characterizes many corners of the natural world, such as the engagement of precession and obliquity with the rotational axis of Earth and its long-term march through climate cycles, or the regularly irregular, but usually not worrisome, arrhythmic heartbeats of millions of people, myself included.
German composers, especially Bach and Brahms, but also Slavs like Dvorak and Stravinsky, loved the "brought-up-short" periodicities, like the apparent three-beat phrases in a 4/4 chorale. But I wonder if maybe the rhythmic or metrical "off-sync-ness" I find lovably quirky was not so unusual to their ears, especially if a given culture's folk musical traditions honor the inherent prosody, euphony, elision and agglomeration of that culture's spoken language. I strongly believe they do.
No Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon master could ever match the typical gem-like constructions of Rameau or Couperin. And maybe this is also the reason Handel and Bach were so infatuated with Italian compositional conceits. The childlike daring with which Italian composers approach melodic expression, the languorous tendrils with which they effortlessly extend a line, might have felt impermissible or forbidden to the studious pupils of Leipzig or Salzburg. One sojourn to Milan or Venice might have been their LSD experience. I've always loved the nickname Bellini earned from his compatriots: "Le Cigne di Catania," the Swan of Catania, for the lissome, endless grace of his melodic sentences. Supposedly Bellini was the only composer whom Wagner openly envied--and for that very Italianate skill.
Conversely, no French or Italian composer ever stomped off a "rush-the-pulse" passage like the first climax in the second movement of Beethoven's Eroica, or similar dazzling gymnastics in the coda of the final movement of his Fifth Symphony.
So many of Bach's chorales, or Brahms and Dvorak's dances, produce a five-step skipping feel, even when they're an artifact of jumping the turnstile, not true bar metering. I love the effect, especially when it creates a swagger or rolling motion, such as a ship traversing the cross-interference of oblique wave-forms.
Enhancing all of this, of course, would be the addition of hemiolas or cross-rhythms. I envy all pianists who can tackle Phillip Glass, whose metrical expectations leave me with cramped fingers, jumpy legs, crossed eyes, anxiety attacks and temporal-lobe meltdown. I call it music for three hands, two brains. Not specified in his scores but required nonetheless are cranial metronome implants. To think I survived tonal homelessness under Schoenberg's rule, and suffered stochastic oblivion with Xenakis, only to be broken by Glass in the game of childhood terror whereby wee, happy souls with a mere six years of earthly tenure are slung off this mortal coil at birthday parties for the innocent lapse of counting too slow while reading too fast! "Measures Without Ends" is a funeral dirge I wrote in fifth-grade, and it eloquently relates a factitious tragedy of 1957 that catapulted an asylum-deserving orphan of Arrhythmorosia falling a thousand demisemiquavers into an abyssal, invisible zeroth position in a game of cruel diplomacy--asymmetrical, metrical chairs--between the Great Powers (my mom vs Mrs. Schenkekburg). The dirge, BTW, won the Pulitzer--and a papal audience (he with me)--for its swan-like melodic grace strung out in astonishing key & time signatures: 17/0 in B#, Pedante con impertinente.
Eat my hemiolas, Glass.
Well, David, even with you're brilliant and clear explanations, it's still hard to hear this time signature naturally. Great video and got me thinking, enjoy your composition at the end too.
Tigran Hamasyan’s “Sibylla” is in 15/8 (3,3,3,3,3) compound time. But it also switches to different beat groups such as 5,5,5 and 4,3,4,4.
It's not very popular, but a good example of a track that mainly uses 15/8 is Gyroscope by The Dismemberment Plan
The JRPG Mother 3 has a rhythm based combo system depending on the enemy music, and some of the hardest enemies have 15/8 timing
The way I transcribed tubular bells was the way I found it easier to understand. I original heard it as a 30/16 with the melody segments within having four segments grouped individually as so:7/ 16,7/16,7/16, and then the resolving and longer 9/16. For sake of composing it's easier written as 15/8 but for a studying student I think it helps to count out each of the melody notes of the riff , resetting the count whenever the melody resolves itself. 3 segments of 7/16 pedal notes tagged with a resolving and elongated 9/16 turn around
Great examples! "Cogs in Cogs" by Gentle Giant is another song that uses 15/8. In this case, the opening section can also be subdivided in 6/8 + 9/8 which reminds me of the Dream Theater example. It's a fantastic song, by the way. 🎹
Nice explanation of complicated timing
Check out the opening guitar in Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity". It has been written in 15/16 or 16/8, depending on who transcribed it.
The Art of Dying by Gojira features 15/16 against 4/4 polymeter. That's real fun lol
Your piece at the end is beautiful.
Fascinating video David!! Love your little piece in the outro!!
The 'New Jerusalem' track from the Game The Talos Princple II is in 15/8 and it reminds me a great deal of tubular bells.
The main theme of the famous Italian movie Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) by Goblin is in this time signature. It’s a very well known piece here in Italy
I recently wrote a Pange Lingua for my SATB chorus in 15/8 which I also rearranged for orchestra, double choir and tenor. It's cool!
I was expecting Queens Of The Stone Age's "I think I lost my headache" 😢. Sounds very exotic
For another (possible) example of 15/8, there's a song that came out only a couple weeks ago now - Sempiternal Beings by the prog metal band Haken. The first two choruses use an odd meter that, while I haven't been able to verify it myself, I've seen others call 15/8. The final chorus though resolves the tension by shifting to 4/4 (though again, I've seen people claim it's a 4/4 against 6/4 polymeter, either way it's a much easier meter to parse). It's also just a great song, the whole Fauna album is just fantastic.
Awesome band, never heard of them before I saw them live last year and was blown away.
I'm listening to Tubular Bells for the first time, but my interpretation is 4 bars of 7/16 plus a bar of 2/16. Calling it 15/8 would be weird because of the stress on the offbeats of 4 and 11.
Well, there's a clip in this very video of Mike Oldfield himself saying it's 15/8...
Love your site. It's a real education for me.
I think of the first part of Tubular Bells as being 3 bars of 7/8 then one bar of 9/8 (what you are calling 8th notes I hear as quarter notes so you would call this 7/16 and 9/16)
I hear it two with the extra to beats at the end but it seems harder to understand when notated.
And 7/16 + 7/16 + 9/16 = 30/16 = 15/8
terrific! more time signatures, please!
My band "Ménage à un" made a song (largely) in 15/8, it's called Mersenne Twister. Check it out if you want, we would be very honored!
Just heard it. Congratulations man, that's an awesome song. Not a huge fan of the extreme metal vocals in the middle, but the composition is exceptional.
@@blueskinkitchen9708 So glad you liked it! None of us is particularly skilled in doing metal vocals but alas. Thank you again!
I’m not a piano player but I became a little obsessive about this tune the last couple days, walking around keeping time with my hand and fingers whistling the notes thinking, OK, it’s 7/8 and 4/4. But of course I was just going with the riff. Then when I heard it played online it sounded as if it was beginning after a few notes. Then I thought 4/4 and 8/8 are the same thing. (at least keeping time with my fingers lol) I kept wondering how they get 15/8 until I saw Michael Oldfield talk about it saying 7 on the first bar, 8 on the 2nd bar….. and it finally hit dumb dumb that 7+8 is 15.
Thank you for posting the video.
8:51 Mike Portnoy with his wife playing the "Guess the Beatles song name" game is so Wholesome
A random bit of trivia, mike oldfield "Tabular Bells" is the first lp richard branson sold under Virgin records label. Mike is the first person, musican to give him ago. Thanks to Mike he help get richard branson to where he is now.
Best music theory channel ever!....do more on Time Signatures...the hardest part I have reading music is TIme
Beautifully fascinating. Love the odd time signatures. Thank You for another fantastic video. And gorgeous piece you wrote for the end!
As a soloist bassist busker I found Tubular Bells very useful in my set list as I was using a very square drum machine to back everything else, it really helped to get out of the box. Of course I used shuffles and waltzes also, but this classic track has been a good one to reel in more musically versed people. Very easy to tapping in open Em too.
Fifty something Aussie here. I just wished when I was at secondary school I enrolled in subjects that I am passionate about such as music, art and home economics (cooking) rather than stereotypical bloke topics like wood work, metal work, technical drawing and industrial design.
Tattooed love boys is one of my favourite songs by them. I always knew it was weird time signature, but could never count it out properly. Now it makes sense!
I'm so glad you mentioned Mother 3. I played a fan made english patch a while back. And super smash bros has a good chunk of the ost
The first verse and chorus of clipping.'s Story 7 is also in 15/8! They do a lot of cool experimenting with time signatures, which is really interesting coming from a hip-hop group
Another song in 15/8 is Waking Up in Waco by Banco De Gaia. It follows a 7/4+8/4 pattern throughout most of the song
One of my favourite songs of all time is in this timing:
Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
Thumbs up
Excellent content as always. I LOVE Tubular Bells. Would you consider doing a recreation of it? Your recreations of songs are fantastic, and I would love to see the process of how this song was put together.
That would be like a 4 hour video if he did all 26 minutes of it