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Explaining Super Mario Bros.' Underground Theme (Patreon)

Published:
2023-10-30 17:27:03
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Here's the latest video, enjoy!

Files

Explaining Super Mario Bros.' Underground Theme

DEHNEH DEHNEH DEHNEH 0:00 - Intro 0:38 - The Underground Theme 2:28 - "Let's Not Talk About It" 4:12 - Time Signature Evolution 5:17 - Real Music Theory Analysis 7:03 - How Did Koji Kondo Write That Ending Line? 9:31 - Outro PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/8bitmusictheory Check out my album: https://8bitmt.bandcamp.com/album/lets-play DISCORD: https://discord.gg/8bmt TWITTER: https://twitter.com/8bitMusicTheory #tearsofthekingdom #zeldamusic #8bitMusicTheory

Comments

Josh Jimenez

Really wish you took the time to actually look up interviews with Kondo about this one, or at least took the time to look at Nintendo's official sheet music. Koji Kondo himself talked about the time signature of the original Underground theme in the first Super Mario Bros. game and said it started off in 3/4 and alternated to 4/4, then back to 3/4 before the loop. It's not in 6/4. A bit disappointed by this because a lot of the analysis in this video is based off an erroneous time signature.

8bitmusictheory

It’s a matter of notation, not content. I wrote it out as 8th notes in 6/4 rather than 16th notes in 3/4 but they would sound identical. And 3 bars of 4/4 is equal to 2 bars of 6/4. But I didn’t know Kondo had talked specifically about the piece’s time signature, if I had seen that interview I definitely would’ve written it out the way he said!

Josh Jimenez

3/4 with 16th notes is still incorrect, that wasn't what I was referring to. Kondo wrote it as a fast 3/4 with 8th notes. Basically, take your 6/4 measures and slice them in half by putting a bar line after the eighth notes. It should be one measure of the six 8th notes, then a full measure of silence, then another measure of six 8th notes. Then the time signature switches to 4/4 when Kondo gets all weird and chromatic… and then right before it loops, there are two empty 3/4 bars. Kondo actually took this into account when making the "Edit" version of the SMB1 Underground theme in Super Mario Maker, as the first game was unique to have the alternating time signatures.