Overview of Odd Meter Pack 1


Don't forget: BIAB doesn't know meters greater than 4/4. In order to have odd meters, you have to "truncate" the odd meter to fit 4/4 or 3/4. It looks weird, but sounds great. Some info on all the styles:

JS13S6.STY Funky sounding 13/8 style, inspired by the gorgeous ballad Lionel Loueke wrote: Forgiveness. So beautiful. Think of it as a 12/8 or triplet style 4/4 if you wish. There's an extra beat at the end. WARNING: BIAB doesn't display odd meters! So it's 13/8 Spice up mid tempo songs by reducing chord duration: best is two chords per bar (you can go four chords per bar, but that won't sound good. Stella By Starlight, Autumn Leaves, All The Things you are (you don't have to reduce chords for All the things)

JS11S6.STY Inspired by Marcin Wasilewski's wonderful Night Train to you. It's a song in 11, full of energy and vigour, nervousness even. It moves like a train, it does. 11 sounds scary, but think of it as a triplet feel 4/4 that's missing one triplet. Or a 12/4 that misses one 4th note. Sounds good on 6/4 tunes too. Use it on all 4/4 tunes with a triplet feel or on 6/4 tunes: Footprints, April in Paris, African Skies, Autumn Leaves and all others.

JS5M8.STY Inspired by Lyle Mays' Teiko. Is 5/4, pressed into 4/4 meter. Biab doesn't know odd meters, remember? Thing is, it's totally different from Take 5. Take 5 is 3/4+2/4. Many of you already know how to play that way. When you take this style, it puts you Works with any 3/4 song. Expand or reduce the chords (mostly reducing) so that it sounds like a strange 6/4. The first chord (2 chords per bar) will sound shorter and the second chord (2chords per bar) sounds like in any 6/4. For 4/4 songs, you will have the feeling that there's an extra step.

JS5S14.STY Fast 5/4 lively Kick Drum Accented 5/4, driving style. Bass is modal, groove oriented, funky Any 4/4 song that you want to "change": medium fast tunes are great. What's New? I didn't know what time it was.

JS5S14B.STY The "real" Take 5 drum and bass parts. Lots of variation. As is the case in BIAB, the software doesn"t know odd meters. So 5/4 is pressed in 4/4. Nevertheless, this works great for swing tunes with a lot of chord changes (2chords per bar) Take 5, I didn't know What TIme it Was, works with a lot of swing tunes with lots of chord changes too! 2 chords per bar... April in Paris,

JS7M10.STY Great sounding 7/4 style, inspired by Joshua Redman. The trick here is that the bar is divided into 3/4+4/4. Many 7/4 styles start with a 4/4 and end on a 3/4. That gives the impression that you're in a regular meter with the end cut off. This style is "Works best for songs with a 6/4 feel. Try it on 4/4 medium swing tunes: I can't get started, I love you, In your own sweet way."

JS7S11.sty Fast 7/4 style, symmetrical: 3,5+3,5. You see it sometimes notated as 2+3+2, but to me it is really 3,5+3,5. That means, it is like a 4/4 style but with a skipped beat at the 2nd and 4th bar. Takes up to 4 chords per bar! Good for modernising driving fast songs, like Impressions, mr PC, Yardbird Suite, fast blues, LadyBird

JS7M11.STY FUNKY 7/4 STYLE w/ touch of Samba. Inspired by pianist Gerald Clayton, a funky 7/4 style with grooving bass and driving drums. Remember: BIAB doesn't know any meters above 4/4. This style works great with 4/4 tunes. It's like skipping a note on the 4th beat... If I Were A Bell, Song for My Father

JS8M7.STY Odd meter style with a division of 2 3/4 parts, followed by a 2/4. You could look at it as 6/4+2/4. Since BIAB doesn't know odd meters, everything is pressed inside a 4/4 meter. The style is inspired by Eberhard Weber's Seriously Deep. It stems from Indian music, where they divide a bar in several packs of 2's, 3's, 4's. Lovely substitution for a 3/4 tune. For 4/4 tunes, it can work wonderfully.


Inspired by Jeff Tain Watts' version of African Skies (WDR big band). Plenty of toms, great bass drum and snare. Very Lively and driving. Not a real "odd" meter, but, then again... Suits all 6/8, 6/4, 3/4 tunes that need that special Jeff Tain Watts treatment. Footprints, African Skies, My Favorite Things, Afro Blue, Simone, Caldo's Revenge, Ju-Ju

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