EVERY Time Signature EXPLAINED (using Nintendo Music)

TEARS OF THE KINGDOM SPOILERS ON 23/8. SKIP TO 28:58 TO AVOID That is completely my bad, ironically I have no perception of time and thought the game was out long enough. Also Final Fantasy VII spoiler from 4:20-4:27 but cmon now the game has been out for almost 30 years and is THE most video game spoiler spoiler.

Splatoon’s Frothy waters has a time signature that increases every bar, making it use 10:8, 11:8, 12:8, 13:8, 14:8, 15:8, 16:8, 17:8, 18:8, 19:8, 20:8, 21:8, 22:8, 23:8, 24:8, and 25:8 all in one song.

Ahh, finally. A good video explaining time signatures in a clear, concise way. If there are any Great Value Blueberry jumpscares, I’m going to scream.

The reason why you get such strange time signatures almost exclusively for final boss themes is to in contrast with the rest of the games music, put you off balance and enhance the drama by being so different from the more comfortable time signatures you find in house settings, protagonist themes etc. It enhances the direness of the situation

Awesome music theory knowledge, and then... "Prime example" "This fusion" "Feeling of dread" 3 Metroid puns in one sentence, you hooked me. Subscribed

I think my favourite weird time signature is Frothy Waters from Splatoon 3. After the intro, it goes into a 10/8, then 11/8 for the next bar, then 12/8 for the bar after that, then 13/8, 14/8 etc. It just loops a melody adding another repeating eigth note every bar and it's is just... beautiful

it's incredible that music theory has managed to break down and categorize something that for the most part comes down to Vibes

Okay, so during the 11/8 section she brings up sagat's theme from SFII a peak game. What she doesn't mention is the cool as hell reason the composer decided to use 11/8 it was more than just a choice to make the song sound awesome (even though it does) in the original street fighter 2 hyper fighting, there are only 8 playable characters, however there are 4 final boss fights that are unplayable but still definitely feel like fighters, sagat is the third of these fighters, making him the 11th of eight fighters, aka 11/8 fighters. This is so awesome and I really wish she mentioned this, but now you know

I had no idea Moon was in 15/16. It sounds so clean and pure that I just assumed it was 4/4

A lot of other people have brought it up, but Mother 3’s "Strong One (Masked Man)" has an absolutely insane time signature, even more than Fishing Frenzy, and unlike that song it doesn’t give any good musical hints on how to count it. The game has a mechanic where if you time button presses to the music you get extra damage in, so the songs get progressively weirder throughout the game. This is the peak of that.

Time signatures is a way for your band teacher to torture you without getting arrested.

as a musician, that cut at 20:16 to that combination of music and 13/8 staring me in the soul legit made me jump!

i have an example of 8/8! In a concert band i was in a few years back we played a piece called Bulgarian Dances and I think it was the third movement that was written in 8/8 with subdivison of 3/3/2 which gave it a similar feel to 5/4 with that last beat rushing a little bit more than the others. Actually 8/8 is really interesting because of this structure built into it and the feel can change a lot depending on where you place the shorter beat in relation to the longer ones.

00:00 Intro 03:37 1/4 04:12 2/4 (Advent: One Winged Angel - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) 05:56 3/4 (Rosalina in the Observatory - Super Mario Galaxy) 07:13 4/4 (Main Menu - Wii Sports Resort) 08:51 5/4 (Gear Getaway - Super Smash Bros WiiU/3DS) 10:41 6/8 (Flipside - Super Paper Mario) 11:57 7/4 (Mother Brain - Super Metroid) 13:36 8/8 13:51 9/8 (Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker) 15:01 10/8 (Trainers' Eyes Meet (Psychic) - Pokemon X/Y) 16:22 11/8 (Forgotten Isle - Super Mario Odyssey) 18:28 12/8 (Remix 3 - Rhythm Heaven) 20:16 13/8 (Shrine Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) 21:55 14/16 (Yuga-Ganon Battle - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds) 23:22 15/16 (The Moon - DuckTales (NES)) 25:28 Intermission 25:45 "21/16" (Pokémon Mansion - Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green) 27:32 23/8 (Demon King Ganondorf (Phase 2) - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) 28:58 24/8 (Shrine Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) 29:57 31/16 (Fishing Frenzy - Splatoon 2) 31:24 Outro mightve did something wrong but i think this is right

I know this isn't what the video is about, but at 10:10, you brought up the Mission Impossible theme, which is comprised of two "long notes" and two "short notes". If interpreted as dashes and dots respectively, the simple 4 note loop is morse code for M.I. -- Mission Impossible.

as a musician this has actually helped me learn how to compose in unusual time signatures. i would never have figured out the ‘dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter-quarter’ tactic for 5/4, or the triplet/duplet difference between 3/4 and 6/8

Cool, I've noticed most of these examples when playing the games. I love odd time signatures and hope this video encourages people to experiment more with their compositions! 😁

I actually really appreciate this video. I've watched plenty of music theory time signature videos going "Oh I see!(I don't.)", so actually hearing songs I'm more familiar with their beats, makes this much MUCH more clearer.

This is the most thoroughly i’ve ever understood time signatures and general music sheet stuff. That being said, I still don’t understand a single thing about time signatures and general music sheet stuff. It’s a me problem though. You did a great job regardless

the section about 11/8 and Indonesian Gamelan was so fascinating! Huge props to Koji Kondo for incorporating that into such a huge game. great video !