How To FEEL The 7/8 And 7/4 Time Signatures (And Write Groovy Music With Them)

Tommaso Zillio

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Some time ago I published a video on how 5/4 is the grooviest odd-time signature.

Well, I had to eat my words. One commenter on that video pointed out a fantastic piece in 7/8 that is even groovier... I can just say 'wow'.

It does not happen often that I'm surprised in matters of music... but this hit me like a ton of bricks.

It's a pity that many musicians think that 7/8 and 7/4 are unusable time signatures for most styles (except maybe for progressive rock/metal) when in fact using them - in any style - is much easier than you think.

Also, since time signatures based on 7 are uncommon (at least for the time being...), just by using them you create distinctive music instantly and stand out from the crow of people writing in 4/4.

So, for our video series on different time signatures, this week we see all the 7-based time signatures and how to apply them in practice.

Get ready to groove to some non-standard rhythms! And if you are skeptical that 7/8 can be used in music that makes you want to dance... just watch this video and I hope it will surprise you how it did to me:

And if you liked this video on the 7/8 odd time signature, check out also the previous video in the series about the 5/4 time signature..

Featuring some extremely groovy music that has been written to 5/4, and a few of the tricks used to make it sound better:

And now that you have some ideas about rhythm, to make a great song you just need to 'dress up' the rhythm with the right chords and progressions to make it sound great.

If you try doing that and you find yourself dissatisfied with the chord progressions ideas that you have at the moment, then I suggest you get your inspiration back by having a look at the Complete Chord Mastery guitar course.

Complete Chord Mastery is a full video course that teachers you everything there is to know about chords and harmony on guitar. In this course you do harmony DIRECTLY on the guitar fretboard, so everything you learn is immediately practical and you can use it in your own songs. If you have a minute, click on the link above and check it out.