A friend and I are planning a jam session and he suggested Mother by Pink Floyd. His comment was “seems complicated but really not so much”. Hah. Certainly the chords are straightforward - G C D F. Lately I have focused on transcribing songs on my own instead of looking up on the Internet. It’s a challenge and goes a long way to learning a memorizing a new song.
I am pretty good with 4/4 and 6/8 which are the main time signatures for a lot of pop/rock music that I learn at this stage in my guitar journey. I know Mother really well and I can play it ok without thinking about the timing, just by feel. But when I started to transcribe it was messing with my head and ears. I started 4/4 which is way off and then I thought I had it with 6/8 but no go. I spent a good hour or more trying to clap out and tap out the timing but could never get it. I finally looked on the Internet to give me some clues and realized it is quite odd…no surprise, it’s Pink Floyd after all.
Wikipedia does indicate what the actual timing is but I did not look at it closely as I would like to see if I can work it out on my own. Just wondering if anyone ever tackled this song to transcribe and what method they used to work out the varied time signature. I imagine you just have to go slowly and take the song in small chunks and then put it together. Even this seems difficult. It’s hard between the verse lines to get a handle on the strong and weak beats. Maybe there are some other tricks that I am unaware of to work out odd time signatures for songs.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Attila
Cape Breton, Canada
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My main tip is to be aware that some music can accommodate an ‘awkward’ moment of time signatures by having consecutive bars in different time signatures. It does not have to be the same throughout the song (or verse, or chorus etc).
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Kestrel–cool post. I like the idea of exploring various “how’s”.
Give a man a fish, and all that.
And, of course, Richard responded like the teacher he is
Yes, it is the case with this song, at least according to the Wiki on this song . Includes time signatures 5/8, 6/8, 8/8 and 4/4 (solo). The Wiki also says that Nick Wright, the drummer of Pink Floyd, had a difficult time learning the timing of this song so they had to use another drummer. So if he had a problem I don’t feel so bad I am having a difficult time transcribing the timing 
I play this song all the time. To my ear, it is mostly played in 4:4 time with a 16th-note strumming pattern, except the 2 parts that start right after, “Hush now baby, baby, don’t you CRY”, which are in 3:4 time with 16th-note strumming. You could also define it as 8:8 and 6:8 with an 8th-note strumming pattern.
The timing of the music under, “Mother do you think they’ll drop the Bomb”, “Mother should I run for President”, and “Mother do you think she’s good enough” is weird (meaning I’m not sure how to describe it) so I just listen to the original and copy it. Perhaps this is the 5:8 part? It becomes 4:4 (8:8) right after.
YMMV
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Hey Fast Eddie, makes sense. I have tried strumming the 1st part of the verse like this DU DU DU Dx xU … its seems to work well and may work out as 5:8 as you wrote. It’s almost as if the verse line is quicker than other parts of the verse eg. Mother do you think they’ll drop the… I find the 3 DUups makes it sound quicker and I can sing the verse without the awkward transition from G to C which I was struggling with singing and strumming. (** just a note, the strum pattern above is not necessarily correct and I may vary it a bit but it does seem to work, I am also still uncertain it is 5:8 but seems to be)
I find it is easier to play this song by feel than trying to work out the actual timing. I would like to figure it out eventually but for now have to be content just to play it. Great song and melody, heavy lyrics but that is Floyd after all.
Thanks for your input. Attila