I believe this is context driven.
While I have been trained to consider 5/4 as either a 3+2 or a 2+3, more than one composer asked me to group it 4+1 in several occasions.
In 5/8 this is simpler: either 3+2 or 2+3.
5/4 grouping
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John Ruggero
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Re: 5/4 grouping
The question seems to be shifting under my feet. I thought the original question was how to notate a long first note that takes 4 beats in 5/4 meter that has no internal grouping in either (3 + 2)/4 or (2 + 3)/4.OCTO wrote: 14 Sep 2026, 16:57 The question is even more problematic if we take in account different values combined.
What about a melody that sounds as:+
+
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Or:+
+
?
Now we have
In my opinion, rhythms like that impose their own division on a meter, so we are no longer considering 5/4 without divisions but rather composite meters and the rhythmic notation is fine as it stands.
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