one to many bars ????

[runningmonkey]

Not to sure if this was the right place to post this, but I thought here good a place as any

So iv just written a new song on my acoustic, and iv done it in 8 bar blues, the song works well, and i can play it in time using the metronome. there 4 verses each lasting 8 bars.....or so I thought. After a count up I realised the the first verses has 9 bars ?

Now this maybe a silly question but does this matter ?

I can still play the song in time and it still all fits together (or so it seems to me?)

[ICBM]

Doesn't matter at all. It just makes it a bit more interesting.

There are blues songs with all sorts of odd numbers of bars in them.

[RocknRollDave]

Some of the old blues guys used to just change to the next chord when they felt like it...made it a bit of a bastid for the band to follow, but if John Lee Hooker wants to play a 27.5 bar blues, I ain't gonna argue with him, are you?

[monquixote]

It probably speaks volumes about me that I assumed this thread would be about relational databases.

Weird numbers of bars is fine. Songwriters often knock a bar (or half a bar) off to surprise the listener with the chorus. (Foo fighters do this a lot)

[maltingsaudio]

Country and western songs are also full of this little trick no problem at all

[runningmonkey]

Cool thanks for the reply

[downbytheriver]

Check out Sitting on Top of the World by Howlin' WOlf - perfect example of a 9 bar (extra bar is in the turnaround). There are many examples of this - one favourite being Champagne and Reefer by Muddy Waters - a 15 bar blues created by adding an extra bar each time on the I.

[Alidore]

Lol, try looking up some old folk songs, I have a song with 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 bar versions

[ESBlonde]

I think I may have suffered this on a couple of lads holidays from back in the day.

[musophilr]

Isn't Deep Purple's wring that neck 17 bars?

Odd numbers of bars is fine, but I can't handle it when the bloke who wrote the song plays it differently each time. Sometimes it's 9 bars, sometimes its 10, other times its 9.5 bars. Make up your mind!