Songs in 5/4 Time: 12 Tracks That Prove Five Beats Work
· time signatures · odd meter · song guides
Most music you hear moves in groups of four. So when a song adds a fifth beat to every bar, your ear notices — it feels like the ground shifts slightly under each measure, then catches you again. That is 5/4 time: five quarter-note beats per bar instead of four.
It is rare in pop, but it is not a novelty. Jazz, progressive rock, film scores and even a few chart hits run on five. Below are twelve of the best-known examples, plus how to count them and how to practise them without getting lost.
If you are new to odd meter, skip to the Mission: Impossible theme first — it is the only 5/4 most people can already feel. Take Five is the exam, not the lesson.
How to count 5/4
Nobody counts “1-2-3-4-5” on repeat — the bar falls apart. Instead, musicians split five into 3+2 or 2+3:
- 3+2: ONE-two-three-ONE-two (Take Five, Seven Days)
- 2+3: ONE-two-ONE-two-three (Mission: Impossible theme)
Find which split the song uses and the odd meter suddenly feels natural. Try it first with a metronome set to 5/4: set a real 5/4 click going at a slow tempo and count the split out loud until the extra beat stops surprising you.
Twelve songs in 5/4
1. Take Five — Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959)
The song that proved odd meter could be a hit. Written by saxophonist Paul Desmond, it rides a 3+2 groove — three beats on the piano vamp, two on the turnaround — at 174 BPM. If you learn one 5/4 song, make it this one: the grouping is so clear you can hear the “3” and the “2” as separate gestures.
Drummer Joe Morello deserves half the credit. His ride pattern spells out the 3+2 so plainly you can lock onto it within a bar or two — put the track on, count “ONE-two-three-ONE-two” with the drums, and the meter clicks into place. When that feels easy, try counting only beat one and feeling the other four. That is the whole skill.
2. Mission: Impossible Theme — Lalo Schifrin (1966)
Five-four as pure adrenaline. Schifrin’s theme counts 2+3, and the asymmetry is the whole point — it never lets you settle, which is exactly what spy music should do. Try counting it: ONE-two-ONE-two-three, repeat.
3. Seven Days — Sting (1993)
A pop song smuggling in 5/4 so smoothly most listeners never notice. The 3+2 lilt fits the lyric’s restless counting of days. Proof that odd meter doesn’t have to sound odd.
4. 15 Step — Radiohead (2007)
The opener of In Rainbows runs its beat-heavy groove in 5/4. The band layers it so densely that the odd bar length feels like forward motion, not a stumbling block. Arrangement hiding meter in plain sight.
5. Morning Bell — Radiohead (2000)
Kid A’s eerie 5/4, built on a repeating drum pattern with a 3+2 electric-piano figure. Slower and more exposed than 15 Step, so the five-beat cycle is easier to follow bar by bar.
6. Living in the Past — Jethro Tull (1969)
Entirely in 5/4, flute and all. Ian Anderson’s folk-rock shows the meter working at a brisk, danceable clip — odd time you could almost move to.
7. Animals — Muse (2012)
From The 2nd Law, a 3+2 political steamroller. The drums and bass lock the five-beat grid while the song’s unease does the rest. Good practice material: the grid never wavers, so you can test whether you waver against it.
8. Hanging Tree — Queens of the Stone Age (2002)
Dark, mysterious, and unmistakably in five. The drum line announces the meter within seconds — ideal for ear training, because there is no mistaking where beat one lands.
9. White Room — Cream (1968)
With a caveat: only the opening (and its two returns) are in 5/4 — verses, choruses and solos run in 4/4. That contrast makes it a perfect study piece: feel how the ground firms up when the band drops back into four.
10. River Man — Nick Drake (1969)
A 5/4 folk lament that drifts into 4/4 in places. The string arrangement floats over Drake’s cycling chords, and the meter contributes directly to the song’s haunted, unresolved mood.
11. Mars, the Bringer of War — Gustav Holst (1914–17)
The famous 5/4 marching ostinato from The Planets. Most marches are in two or four — Holst’s extra beat is what makes this one sound relentless rather than ceremonial. Film composers have been borrowing the trick ever since.
12. Halloween Theme — John Carpenter (1978)
Minimal piano in what analyses usually call 10/8 or a stretched 5/4. The instability of the meter is doing half the horror work — five beats never quite let you relax.
Almost 5/4: songs people get wrong
Not everything odd is five. These famous tracks get filed under 5/4 constantly — and aren’t:
- Money — Pink Floyd (1973). The cash-register groove is in 7/4, not 5/4. Two extra beats, completely different feel. If you can count Money, 5/4 will feel roomy by comparison.
- Solsbury Hill — Peter Gabriel (1977). Also 7/4. The acoustic bounce hides the extra beats well — which is exactly why it fools people.
- White Room — Cream (1968). Listed above because its intro is 5/4 — but the song keeps dropping back into 4/4. Call it a visitor, not a resident.
How to practise 5/4 with a metronome
- Set 5/4 explicitly. Open the metronome with 5/4 dialled in so beat one is accented — losing beat one is how you get lost in odd meter.
- Start at half speed. Pick a song above, halve its tempo, and count your split (3+2 or 2+3) out loud.
- Clap the split first. Before touching your instrument, clap beats 1 and 4 (for 3+2) until the cycle feels like one gesture, not five events. This is the step everyone skips, and the reason most people stay lost — two minutes of clapping saves twenty of fumbling.
- Subdivide. Turn on eighth notes so the gaps between the five clicks are filled — odd meters fall apart in the silences.
- Play against Take Five. At 174 BPM, comp the 3+2 piano vamp on any instrument and feel where the turnaround pulls you forward.