Pyramid song 4/4 explained.

[immayhem]

nice.

ha... i did something similar to explain it to someone (had them clap it) when they asked what time sig it was.

i love this song and like playing it a lot.

years ago, at first listen, i thought it was some kind of compound meter, but when i learned the song, i was more astonished at how awesome the accents were that masked the simple cut time.

[areharald]

Thanks for making this!

[SFXAlien924]

The time signature is more like 12/8 (4 dotted crotchets per bar), or 4/4 swing, using a lot of qvaver triplets. So the beat would fit even better still if there were 3 hi hat hits per beat, instead of 4: 1 * * 2 * * 3 * * 4 * * instead of: 1 * * * 2 * * * 3 * * * 4 * * * Good video though.

[facecheek]

@SFXAlien924 exactly, i agree!

[15381472]

thanks, great upload i've always wondered how thom counted this

[trombonejuggle]

some people get confused because the eighth note is swung. that's why people misinterpret the relatively simple #/4 meter for something more complex. when the drums kick in, I seem most comfortable thinking in this meter(rhythm) pattern: 3/4(as 2 dotted-eighths,) 2/4 (as a half note,) 3/4(as 2 dotted-eighths,) 3/4(as 2 dotted-eighths the second one changes pitch,) 2/4 (as a half note,) 3/4(as 2 dotted-eighths) Phil Selway kind of plays it like a jazz waltz that gets interrupted with 2/4 holds.

[Unnamed0909]

I think it's best explained as 3+2+3/4

[funkymonks0003]

Man. Am I the only one that just can't get my head around this? What everyone says makes sense, but when I go to play it/count it out, it just doesn't sound right. Oh well, I guess that's why I'll stick to my day job and let others be the multi-million dollar rock stars. @mr2gti - thanks for trying. It has been the best tutorial I have seen so far. Why is such a simple song so hard? Ha ha.

[Chaossangel]

1:32

[fenixx67]

Did anyone else get reminded of EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHT PLACE when it was played along with the beats ?

[SuperiFox]

@fenixx67 Everything in it's right place is also often called 5/4, but it's 10/4.

[DiabolicBadger]

This song is actually in 8/4, which is subdivided into 3/4, 2/4 and then 3/4 again. (5/4 is in itself a combination of 3 and 2.) So the 4/4 beat does "fit" over the song, but it doesn't feel like 4/4 at all. 

[Synbinge]

@DiabolicBadger Actually, you can "feel" it in 4/4 when you find the right groove for it. Pyramid Song isn't straight 4/4, which is why it doesn't feel like it's 4/4. Instead, the song is in 4/4 swing (or 12/8). You can also get away with it in 9/8. Usually I would count it like this:

E. E. Q E. E. | E. E. Q E. E. |

[DiabolicBadger]

@Synbinge You can "feel" it in 4/4, if you fit the groove over it, a groove which is really not in the song itself. Of course, whether you hear it as 3/4-3/4-2/4, or as 4/4 - 4/4 with a syncopation is subjective, but a 4/4 "beat" like the uploader has added to the song really doesn't have much to do with it. As for the 12/8, you're right that the division of the beat is ternary (this is apparent later in the song), but 9/8? You would have to count 9/8-9/8-6/8, which is the same as 3/4-3/4-2/4

[DiabolicBadger]

@Synbinge I myself never quite know when to write 4/4 (with triplets) or 12/8. For me it tends to depend on how complicated the rhythms are. But I suppose 12/8 is technically more correct than 4/4. The ternary (or swing) feel doesn't have anything to do with it being in 4 though...

Also, I have no idea what you mean with those E's and Q's?

[Synbinge]

@DiabolicBadger

Dotted Eighth, Dotted Eighth, Quarter, Dotted Eighth, Dotted Eighth.

It's like that throughout the entire song.

[DiabolicBadger]

@Synbinge Oh I see. So yes exactly, and this can be expressed als 3/8 (two dotted eigth notes) - 2/8 (quarter) - 3/8, so 8/8. Only I prefer 8/4, because the beat is still divded into three so clearly

[Synbinge]

@DiabolicBadger I find it really funny. I was covering this song with a band, and I was counting it in 4/4, and someone else was doing it in 12/8, and another in 8/4 (the exact way you did it). And it sounded perfectly fine. I think it doesn't really matter how it's counted as long as everyone is following the same 'groove'.

[DiabolicBadger]

@Synbinge You're right, it doesn't make that much difference, but in a video called "Pyramid song 4/4 explained", I felt a little justified to be picky about it :-)

[sdofik]

@DiabolicBadger it doesn't make a difference, actually. nor does it matter how it's subdivided

[DiabolicBadger]

@sdofik Nothing makes a difference, we are all apes clinging to a rock falling through space. But if we're going to analyze music, we might as well do it correctly, no?

[divemasterjohn]

My main explanation: The phrasing of the song is in a series of 5s and 3s, in various permutations, which always add up to 16 in this case, and will thus fit in your 4 bars of a 4-on-the-floor beat (i.e. 16 beats).

Radiohead themselves said Pyramid Song has no real time signature.

I consider it to be alternations of 5/4 and 3/4...but it has even been argued as 8/8, which also goes with your demo.

[divemasterjohn]

@divemasterjohn To add: when it is just the piano at the beginning of the song, it is quite hard to suss out. When the drums kick in part way through the song, I think the permuations of 3 and 5 are felt more strongly.

(It would still match with the 16-beat, but the accents would not flow with a typical 4/4 beat.)

[futurfry]

my teacher and i figured it out

[cameronforbes4]

Pyramid song. The Greatest 'Time Shift' (A song that sounds in a different time sig than it is)ever created

[RaceXtreme520]

what bpm is that?

[westdax]

I'm glad to see there are other people who get this.

[mr2gti]

4/4 is the ability to count to 4,but an added bonus of being able to count to it 4 times.

[Arpeggi34]

you only count to 4 in 4/4. other than that this video is great.

[harrowdownhill16]

Well done, excellently explained.

[Davoravo86]

nice one! it easy to get lost as there's no real sense of meter behind the piano. but it all makes sense now!

[mr2gti]

Glad to help, it's just that musicians, as clever as Radiohead, retune there brains for tunes like this so they can do half beats, and swaps, which the Pyramid Song is full of.

Another great style of music for this, DRUM AND BASS :)

[kristiansharpe]

Nice job on this.... well explained....better than mine.