Songs that don't use 4 bar phrases 

Important note to add about Yesterday: The first word of the second verse is "Suddenly." It's more genius. Paul knows that that verse is starting a bar earlier than the normal convention of pop music would dictate and that it therefore begins suddenly. So the listener experiences a little jolt that parallels the narrator's sudden loss of his relationship.

These Beatles and Radiohead people make good music. You should feature them in more videos.

Speaking of Queen, Don't Stop Me Now is another one that uses 5 bar phrases, but for most of the song. It's impressive how smoothly integrated it is that it doesn't sound jarring or feel like it's stretching.

I was today years old when I realised that Yesterday has a 7 bar phrase. And I've been playing it over and over again in my head, counting in double-time, and half-time, trying to find out where it feels like it's been 'cut'. And I can't. That's crazy. And genius.

Last Nite by The Strokes is another example of a 5-bar phrase Babooshka by Kate Bush is another example for 6-bar phrase Ban All The Music by Nothing But Thieves is a good example of mixing it up within the chorus section of the song

You know the video's gonna be a good one when Macca's in the thumbnail :)

When I saw Bowie in the thumbnail, I guessed that Ashes to Ashes would be the example you talked about. However, I was expecting you to talk about its outro rather than the intro, because the outro has the added detail that the harmony repeats every three bars, but the vocals repeat every four bars. So the vocal phrase begins on a different chord every time it loops: |[Bbm] My mama said, to | |[Ab] get things done, you | |[Ebm] better not mess with | |[Bbm] Major Tom... | |[Ab] My mama said, to | |[Ebm] get things done, you | |[Bbm] better not mess with | |[Ab] Major Tom... | |[Ebm] My mama said, to | |[Bbm] get things done, you | |[Ab] better not mess with | |[Ebm] Major Tom... |

I especially like Bjork's Hyperballad... firstly the bass enters seemingly playing 3 bars, but when Bjork starts singing we realise the three notes of the bass are actually one 3/4 (3/2?) bar. But then if you count her lines... she sings 10 bars before she starts the chorus! I love it!

Kiss from a Rose is another great example! The verses are in 5-bar phrases.

I always found that 3 or 5 bar loops have a very cyclical feeling as opposed to 4 bar loops, which, to me, doesn't feel like it "loops" so much as it tells a linear story through musical notes. 4 bars feels like there is a beginning and end to the melody; 3 bars feels like it keeps swirling over itself, and beginning and end overlap. 5 bars feels like I got to hear a little more of the melody than I was meant to, only to start it again.

Yes! Sorry for pestering you about this for so long 😅 First time I counted out Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" I've been obsessed ever since.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears is in 3 bar phrases. Same with the chorus section the The Police's Roxanne.

I always loved that the shortness of bars in the beginning Yesterday is then followed by Paul singing the word 'suddenly'. Clever songwriting. I think you did another video touching on artists who use words in this way in songs (the obvious being when a singer says 'stop' and the music stops e.g uptown funk)

The intro to Massive Attack's "Teardrop" uses a looping three-bar phrase before switching to four bars for the verse.

The outro music you started doing in these videos is always a treat, but I especially loved today's. Could hear the principles you discussed in the video clearly, and the radiohead style perfectly compliments that kind of uneasy feeling that can come from the subversion of how you expect the piece to play out. Phenomenal!

Also Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" uses 11 bar structuring in both the verse and chorus!

The Beatles were like the rebels of conventional songwriting wisdom/theory, they would do the opposite of what others thought was "proper" and make it work! This is one of the reason's why I'm confident AI will not overtake or ruin music, it doesn't have the reasoning ability to make these types of writing decisions such as irregular phrase lengths or other neat tricks.

Another cool thing about Ashes To Ashes is at the end, he repeats a 4-line phrase, but does it over a 3-line melody, so no line gets repeated at the same melody. “My mother said/to get things done/you better not mess with/Major Tom.”

Foo Fighters are really good at implementing this in their songs. Time like These, as David mentioned, uses 3 bar phrases in both the riff and the chorus. Everlong uses 7 bar phrases in the verses and 3 bar phrases in the prechorus, which sounds awesome. And All My Life uses 7 bar phrases in the chorus.

The Four Horsemen/Mechanix by Metallica/Megadeth has a verse riff built on a 7-bar loop. The middle section of Natural Science by Rush is also built on a 7-bar progression.

I always liked how the chorus of “Here Today” by The Beach Boys lasts seven bars, with the premature ending coming right as the line “its here and gone so fast” is sung. I doubt it was an intentional composition choice by Brian, but it’s pretty brilliant.

The piano at the end is stunning. I would have listened for at least another four or five minutes. Probably more.

About Ashes To Ashes, what I like most is the last part of the song... the loop where the music has 3 bars and the lyrics have 4 bars. So it revolves around... after 12 bars it's "in sync" again 🙂 1) My mother said 2) to get things done 3) you better not mess 4) with Major Tom 1) My mother said 2) to get things done 3) you better not mess 4) with Major Tom 1) My mother said 2) to get things done 3) you better not mess 4) with Major Tom 1) My mother said 2) to get things done 3) you better not mess 4) with Major Tom .... .... (3 bar loop goes on without lyrics)

A really well-known example of irregular phrase lengths from the classical music world is Chopin's Etude in E Major Op 10 No 3, the main section with it's incredibly famous melody is in four phrases, that are 5, 3, 5, and 7 bars long respectively...

I was solving a crossword puzzle while watching in, and I was filling in BOWIE right when you got to "Ashes to Ashes". Strange...

1:40 - Several parts of James Taylor's "Never Die Young" follow a 3-bar loop. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3Yuwk4tAsf4.html&ab_channel=PurelyGOODMUSIC

Me and Your Mama and Redbone both have incredible outros. definitely some of the best ive ever heard, and it isn't often you can definitively say something like that

You should do a whole video dedicated to Tame Impala. He's such a talented composer, and uses "tricks" as one of his main techniques. Tons of interesting stuff to cover in almost every song, and such a diverse sound across his albums.

I have used this in my writing. I think anything that is unexpected but gratifying is a plus. Great vid Thanks for the affirmation.

Can't believe you made this video without mentioning Hey Ya! by Outkast.

Beautiful outro music - can I listen to the whole piece somewhere? And great video and videos in general, keep it up!

One of the best Music Channels! Keep it up with the good content 👏

You failed to mention Meshuggah on the Polyrhythm and Polymeter video, and now on this video… Despite that, great video as always!

The BEST channel! Explains music

Listen to/write out Let It Happen’s four three-bar phrases into three four-bar phrases, and it’s perfectly fine. To my ear, it actually sound ps more like the intention of the music. Similarly, Bowie’s throws in bars that are all rests, plus the one “extra”, just makes it a series of 5 bar phrases.

It's funny how The Beatles is probably the biggest mainstream band ever, but they have some of the most bothering and frequent wars on conventional music composition. Keys, bars, time signatures. The list goes on. Would compositions that odd succeed today? Who knows, they're interesting and catchy. And talking about key changes, I've been spamming too many comments about Symphony X on this channel, but I only recently realized how curious their compositions are. I just thought of them as prog metal band that has a lot of neoclassical vibes, but they really have a lot of variation built in. Of course there are a couple of well recognized classical themes put in as a sort of easter egg and marrying rock and prog into it, but I didn't even realize until I started learning some song that it's not rare that there's a main theme to the song, for example verse, and every time it plays it's in a different key. But I never picked it up when listening because it's the same melody and there's been a bit since the last time and the song travelled to a different place, but it seamlessly knit the theme to the new part. Having different patterns drop a beat, having odd bar number, odd signatures, odd sectioning etc. But somehow they make it sound groovy, which to me is unbelievable. To listen to something that's by design interrupting your brain's ability to go into snooze mode, yet not have it stand out too much, but instead make you admire the keyboard melodies and tap your foot to rhythms. And then you realize that it was a complicated pattern that just sounded like it flows naturally.

I think it's a bit of a strech to call the coda of Boulevard of Broken Dreams "defenitely inspired" by the Beatles. Mostly the part where you compare a white noise synth to a tremelo picked guitar with wah-wah and flanger, those sounds neither the same in timbre, intention, nor origin. Other than that a great video as always though!

I love how you demonstrate the topic of your video even during the sponsorship part

The ending solo of Deerhunter's Desire Lines uses a 5 bar pattern, which really helps the ending section have a sense of constant motion

Making a song in 3 bar sections! :D Thank you david!

I'd like to point out that Devo's "Gut Feeling" delivers a great five bar phrase for all but the chorus.

What about the verses of "All By Myself" (each of them is 5 bars) or the first riff from "Carry On Wayward Son?" (a 3-bar loop like "Let It Happen") Admittedly, Eric Carmen didn't actually have a choice about this, so it wasn't necessarily a mistake per se. Rachmaninoff was technically the one to blame! (Carmen took this from Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, I think.)

gouge away by pixies is a really clear good example of a 5 loop bar, such an awesome song

I’m wondering if these artists deliberately planned it that way or was it just how they felt when they wrote them?

I've learned more watching your channel than I did in music theory class! Another great video!!👍👍👍

Songs That Skips A Beat by DB : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N6Wtvs42Ne8.html

David! I just noticed you're nearly 3/4 of the way to 1M subs. Waltzin' your way there. Highly deserved and I love the covers you use for your vids.

In your conventional Radiohead example you could have picked Knives Out which has a very different 11 bar phases

last time adam neely briefly brought up this topic i immediately created a track with this kinda idea in mind (i used 3 bars per measure/phrase), but i havent really played with the idea since, so thanks for reminding me about this concept my guy :guuut: time to make 40 tracks in a row with 5 bars per phrase /j

- "Infinity 2008" is an electronic classic that plays 5 bar phrases through the entire track. - "Opus" by Eric Prydz made of 6 bar phrases, and starts from the 3rd one

Beautiful outro music - can I listen to the whole piece somewhere? And great video and videos in general, keep it up!

The outro is so beautiful! Can i find it on your Spotify?

Thumbs up. Love this. Exploring what I don't know but love. Music's language. Laid out in visual form with concise explanations.

The unanticipated jump to "suddenly" in "Yesterday" is genius -- the music surprises you and the lyrics reflect it beautifully.

Pop songs with irregular phrasing Cars - Gary Numan Kiss from a Rose - Seal Girls Just Want to Have fun - Cyndi Lauper (5 bar phrase and the whole song has unusual structure) Peek a Boo - Devo Sanctuary - Madonna (overlapping & irregular phrasing) In the Closet - Michael Jackson Young and Proud - Ace of Base Thursday's Child - David Bowie Naughty Girls - Samantha Fox Let the Music Play - Shannon Virtual Insanity - Jamiroqai Break me Shake Me - Savage Garden Spiderwebs - No Doubt Two Princes - Spin Doctors & of course lots of Beatles songs

Thank you for making this video. I never thought there would be a difference between irregular phrases and uncommon time signatures. I always put them hand in hand

Tori Amos' song Spark does 6 bars of 3/4 in the intro, then in the verse adds beats to extend certain vocal phrases to a very neat effect in my opinion. :)

Definitely a good tutorial video. However it was way to short for my liking. You could have made this one a lot longer David. It was really good. 👍

Just the kind of stuff I've been getting into as a songwriter! One of my favorite examples of writing like this comes from MARINA's song "Froot", which features a 20 bar chorus which I only found out by accident in counting

David Bennet...you are an inspiration to music lovers and players. Taking apart music pieces and examining them in depth. You are an old head on young shoulders. Thankyou.

Collapse the light into earth by porcupine tree has a nice 5 bar loop, follow me by muse also does the same thing in the bridge where an extra 2 bars gets added on to an 8 bar progression for resolving the sustained dominant 5th, follow me's verses also are in an 18 bar structure. Also that 3x5 + 1 structure was also used pretty well in the song plug in baby too.

I think the topic of this video is more about "persuading". If I am persuaded that the song is complete and smooth, I don't need to ask myself, if there is 4/8/16 bars in a section. I am glad that Queen made it into this video. I am (unfortunately) not a fan of Beatles, and a song of Queen always make my day.

That outro was beautiful!

I used breaking the rules in counting as an interesting surprise which also saved me the effort in fancy melodies and chord progression 😅

I think I've been using this without realizing on a lot of my compositions as I usually hardly ever think how many times/bars I've been at a motif or hook or riff, and rather focus on "just about how long does this need to go/hang on?"

Music That Sounds Like The Lyrics Prosody / Word Painting David video : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NMOMPMzR6oY.html

"I hate myself for loving you" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts has the verses and pre-chorus broken up into six bar phrases, with the main chorus being an 8 bar phrase.

I love the 6-bar chorus of “Voulez-Vous” by ABBA

Fascinating. I've thought a lot about different meters, but not about how different phrase lengths can affect the Melody. And your piano solo at the end is beautiful, as usual, David.

Always interesting and unusual ways of looking at how music works I am always impressed by your videos and your insight. Please keep up the amazing work.

I've never thought deeply of how many bar phrases should be used. This video is a great inspiration into a new wave of creativity that I didn't know was possible. Thanks David for spreading your wisdom

Devo has a good one called “Gut Feeling”. It’s a 5 Bar phrase, and the chord progression has a very diminished, unsettling sound. 👍

as always perfect man

I haven't finished the video yet so maybe you will mention them but I just had to take the time to bring up progressive metal titans Meshuggah here often composing many sections that are comprised of sets of uneven sets of bars using many odd polyrhythms that all end up adding to 4/4 and even segments of four bars through clever math and metric magic absolute gods of rhythm plus they are damn heavy.

Waiting on the day by Jon Mayer has mixed bar length and section length. 5/4 to 4/4 to 3/4 etc.

Everlong is another 7 bar song.

One of Russia's most famous female rock/alternative singers of the present time, Zemfira (Земфира), LOVES unusual structures like this, irregular number of bars. The best example is, probably, her song "Так и оставим" ("Let's Leave It as Is"). I really recommend listening to her music

Am glad you finally covered this. I find this effect far more interesting than, say, odd time signatures.

I like how when yesterday is “skipping a bar” the first time he sings “suddenly” because we are to the start earlier than expected

One interesting use of skipping a bar is to imply a rhyme that's too "naughty" to say in recording; examples include "Shaving Cream" by Benny Bell & Doctor Demento, and "The Bumble Invaded a Nudist Colony" by Billy Mitchell, each doing it once every verse. Bowser & Blue took it a step further with "Polkadot Undies," skipping three naughty words per verse.

The very populair 80s MTV-song Heat Of The Moment from Asia is a fast 3/4, 3/4, 4/4 loop from the start, with the only the chorus in 4/4. I remember, it was an impossible song to dance through, apart from that chorus. I recently found out why, after not hearing (or better: listening to) that song in decades.

I find this topic so interesting. One of my favourite examples is “Worst Comes to Worst” by dilated peoples. Like most hip hop songs, the instrumental is a loop but on this track its 3 bars and it sounds so cool especially because barely any other hip hop tracks do that

Most western music is based on 4, 8, or 16 bars…. The Blues has entered the chat and would like a word 😂😂😂😂😂😊😊😊😊😂😂😂

One of my favorite examples of this is Hard Lesson by Suddenly, Tammy! which has 4-bar phrases in the verse and a sudden switch to 3-bar phrases in the chorus. It has a surprisingly jarring effect that is hard to point to exactly unless you know what you're listening for.

Bitch I’m Lugubrious by Lil Ugly Mane I think is an interesting example of this, as the hook (3 bars I think) uses this aspect to be really really catchy

Interestingly, I’ve noted that in some of Tally Hall and Miracle Musical’s songs they actually use six bars almost as much as eight bars. This is most notable in Ruler of Everything’s chorus and The Mind Electric’s bridge.

Didn't Stravinky write a lot of music with irregular phrasing? I recall singing something by Copeland which was similarly composed too.

The chorus (the "I slipped and I got pulled" section) of "Pulled Up" by Talking Heads is four three-bar phrases.

4:00 - Heart of Glass is a curious song to have irregular meter, since it’s a fairly-disco-ish dance song. Might throw off “ordinary-plebe dancers!”

Eleanor Rigby reminds me of Columbo - "here's just what I'm saying, yadi yadi da... oh, one more bar" :)

The chorus of 'Limelight' by Rush uses this same approach Good video my friend

Awesome thanks David! The reason why writers can get away with this technique without sounding too jarring is because they are pairing these phrases in sets of two which eventually adds up to even bar counts. 3x2, 5x2, 7x2, etc.

And not a single word about Do You Know The Way To San Jose with its five times five bar phrases in the verse (25 bars)? So it's not the usual square practically good power of two phrase construction (4x4=16 bars), everything is consistently pushed higher by a factor of one. And let's be honest: who has noticed?

Main thing that comes to mind for me is Björk's Hyperballad with its 3 bar looping bass line.

Is there anything interesting from your perspective about “chaise longue”? They do 5 repetitions of “on the chaise longue” or “all day long” followed by a one beat rest. It just sounds odd to have 5 3-beat phrases followed by a single beat, but it adds up to 16 just fine

What about Gobbledigook by Sigur Rós? It's like a 3/4 polyrhythm with a 7 bar phrase

Well, here's the reason why Coroner (a Swiss technical metal band known as the Rush of thrash metal), chose to cover I Want You... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qamBmWt8Cwo.html

One of the most interesting examples ive come across is infinity 2008, an EDM song that breaks the typical phrase in a very subtle way. Its super weird as EDM tracks tried to be even less "innovative" in that regard, as it could ruin the groove.

You forgot one of my absolute favourite examples of irregular phrases, the cool outro of "Ethnicolor" by Jean Michel Jarre, the song that made my discover this. By the way, how would you say that verses of "TV på min sida" are built up?

I love these videos because they tell me what I'm actually hearing. Every single one of these songs mentioned I know and have liked for the reasons he explains I've just never been able to explain why myself. Now I can explain. If I'm honest I don't truly get the bars thing but I will. I'm enjoying these deep dives into music theory. It's where I belong. 🙂