What Time Signature is This?

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Yeah, it's 4/4 with a triplet feel.

You could maybe claim that it's in something like 5/4 with each of those slow triplet notes being a beat, but that's just needlessly obfuscating it.
 
Interesting, I didn't think it was 4/4, because it does have a weird feel to it. Thanks a lot guys.
 
It could be 4/4. But I would prefer to score it as 7/8.

The score looks a bit more sensible in 7/8 rather than 4/4.

However, what is missing is context (e.g. like the rest of the song), and that would give some clues as to how one should view the tempo.

Sample 7-8 copy.jpg

sample 4-4 copy.jpg
 
It could be 4/4. But I would prefer to score it as 7/8.

The score looks a bit more sensible in 7/8 rather than 4/4.

However, what is missing is context (e.g. like the rest of the song), and that would give some clues as to how one should view the tempo.

View attachment 96700

View attachment 96699

Are you sure that 7/8 time is right? I was trying to conduct the sample and it was rough. What I did to smooth it out was really almost the same as conducting 7/8, I broke it down into 3/4 | 4/4...repeat and rinse. That may be wrong but it did conduct more smoothly.
 
It's definitely 4/4, not anything else.

Put a metronome on and play that pattern. It will fall perfectly in 4/4.

I don't have notation software, so the best I can do is this.

!=note.....x=rest.

This is the pattern.

16 16th notes.

!xx!xx!xx!xx!x!x

(4 triplets and 4 16th notes=16 16th notes)

4 triplets>!xx!xx!xx!xx + !x!x <4 16th notes = 16/16 = 4/4.

(When I say "4 triplets", they're not actual triplets. They're just 16th notes accented in groups of 3. So, I say "triplets" because of that, but they're not really triplets, just 16th notes.)

It can't be anything other than 4/4

There's nothing unique about this pattern. It's been done a hundred times, and they've all been 4/4. A time signature isn't a matter of "opinion". It's either 4/4 or it isn't. This one is.
 
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By the way, neither here nor there, but just for the fun of it, what you're doing is almost identical to the intro to this song:

https://youtu.be/LAzPX37YuLc

You start your quarter note triplets right on the 1. They start theirs on the 1 "and".
 
+1 to Rami. Nothing odd going on. Simple 4/4.
There's no genuine triplets either, as you say.

There's emphasis on 1,4,7,10 (13+15) but they're still just plain ol' 16th notes.
 
Funny how it puts another song straight in your head!
I immediately thought of 1:55 in this track.


V3nge, if it helps they alternate between that pattern and a straight beat - 4/4 all the way.
 
Just to be contrary, I figured I would put together something the way I heard it.

30 sec sample in 7/4

My sister, when discussing timne signatures, always used to say it depends on how fast you count.

Nevertheless I agree it's 4/4
 
Just to be contrary, I figured I would put together something the way I heard it.

30 sec sample in 7/4
It's not the same pattern. It's similar, but not the same thing at all.

My sister, when discussing timne signatures, always used to say it depends on how fast you count.
Sorry, she's wrong. That doesn't even make sense. You count to the tempo. You can't make up your own speed to count something. Yes, you can count 16th notes or 8th notes instead of quarter notes. So, you can technically say a song is 8/8,16/16, etc....but the lowest common denominator is still what it is.

Nevertheless I agree it's 4/4
It can't be anything else, no matter how someone tries to change it, count it, explain it, or rationalize it. This is a perfect example of something extremely simple being made into something less simple.

For me, there are two indisputable truths about music:

1) Music is math. If 16 notes fit into a pattern, you can't change that.
B) Time doesn't wait or stop. You can't change that.

This is in 4/4.
 
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You can't make up your own speed to count something.
I do that all the time. I don't know tempos or time signatures or how to figure any of it out, but I can count, and when most people count 1-2-3-4, I count it as 12341234. That's just the way I've always done it. I guess I live by the 8th note? If I'm doing a song that is technically 160 bpm, I'll set the clicker to 320. I'm just more comfortable like that. :o:RTFM:
 
I do that all the time. I don't know tempos or time signatures or how to figure any of it out, but I can count, and when most people count 1-2-3-4, I count it as 12341234. That's just the way I've always done it. I guess I live by the 8th note? If I'm doing a song that is technically 160 bpm, I'll set the clicker to 320. I'm just more comfortable like that. :o:RTFM:
Yeah, you can do that. I explained that above. You can count 8th notes instead of quarter notes. It doesn't change the lowest common denominator. You'll come up 8/8 because you counted 8 8th notes. That's still the same as 4/4. You didn't count at some sub-division weird-ass speed that made you come up with 11/8 or something. You're not doing anything wrong.
 
I can't for the life of me see where Gecko gets 7/8 from. 7/8 is one short of an eight count - it's definitely not doing that!
 
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