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Odd time signatures have an odd number of beats per bar. The word "odd" is used in the mathematical sense and does not refer to whether a piece of music sounds unusual. Some pieces sound unusual because of the placement of accents but are actually in common time (i.e. 4/4). Examples of odd time signatures are 3/4, 5/4 and 7/8: 3/43/4 is probably best known as a waltz. It is also fairly common in classical music such as the following Example J3 from the classical section. As with the other time signatures, the first number refers to how many beats are in each bar and not how many notes there are as this example has 5 notes per bar.
5/4
7/8
Other time signatures such as 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 are dealt with under the section on compound time. There is also more information about 3/4, 5/4 and 7/4 in the Jazz time signatures section.
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