Time Signatures!

  • Thread starter Thread starter LoganCoykendall
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Besides 4/4 and 6/8, the only time signature I've found myself in is 5/4.
 
Interesting topic, I've actually experimented in 7/8 before, but I usually stay in 4/4 or 2/4....and sometimes 3/4.
 
Every time signature is worth working with, as long as you understand the strong grooves within them. The 5/4 most common groove is the Dave Brubeck Take Five piece. Which divides the 5 with 1-2-3..1-2 Or the Mission Impossible Theme Song which does the exact same division.

In 7 it gets even bigger since there are most division possible. Think of the song Money by Pink Floyd. I really feel like they hide it really well with that bass line. It doesn't even feel like they are skipping a beat.

Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale------) Awesome piece by the way, you'll be impressed if you could see the notation while listening to it. The bass mostly play a 2 pulse, but the time signature changes every bar or so.... IN NO STEADY ORDER...

Lastly, I remember attending a Dave Matthews concert. He's got a tune named 'Seven' (or Five.... I forgot) And the song has that time signature... I looked at people dancing and every two measures they had to stop and start over----) 1-2-3-4 1-2-3... To me, it meant that we need to make the music groove naturally in those time signature OR people need to learn how to dance and shake their heads in other time signature...
 
I always get the impression that people use oddball time sigs in a trying-too-hard attempt to be different. Just write a good song and be done with it.
 
Greg_L said:
I always get the impression that people use oddball time sigs in a trying-too-hard attempt to be different. Just write a good song and be done with it.
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But sometimes like Mission Impossible Theme, it cannot go any other way but there. I am in the midst of writing a children's musical and on one piece, the vocals need that extra time to make the next phrase... My song is now in 7 instead of 6.
 
Greg_L said:
I always get the impression that people use oddball time sigs in a trying-too-hard attempt to be different.
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Well, there's some truth in that. Sometimes 4/4 gets too bland, boring and samey and if you can come up with a different time signature, then all the better. But the music has to be there. It's easier to take an already existing bit of music and convert it to a different time signature than to just think of a weird time and write in it.
Mind you, having said that, that's happened to me a number of times too.
 
When I was younger all my songs seemed to be in 7/8, not by intention, it's just the way they turned out. A time I love now is 10/8, more for instrumentals than songs. In practice this resolves as 123 123 1234 and has a high energy. 4/4 is a good fall back when the harmony is the most important thing, (which it is for me anyway whatever time I'm in).
 
timtimtim said:
not by intention, it's just the way they turned out.
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Another thing that occurred to me as I was driving about today, if your parents were from a non UK/USA background, or you listen to lots of different forms of music from the world in which we live, then there's a good chance you may have absorbed music that often have 'unusual' {in a pop/rock context} time signatures and from time to time, they'll come out.
 
I can never force myself to write a song in a funky time signature. It always ends up just sounding forced with the same rhythm the whole time. The only weird time signatures I've written a song in are that way because that just happened to be how I played them...
 
Pengu1n said:
I can never force myself to write a song in a funky time signature. It always ends up just sounding forced with the same rhythm the whole time.
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That is dependent on whether or not you've written a song and not a time signature. Time signatures are not independent of the actual song. The song has to be there. Once the song is there, you can do all kinds of different things. I have long been fascinated by the way in which, for example, lovers rock and reggae artists in the 80s could take virtually any song of any genre and reggaefy them. Yes, every effort was made to make reggae versions of songs. But the key here is that those songs existed in the first place.
So returning to time signatures, the song, as always, is the wheel upon which everything turns.
 
I mostly stick to 3/4, 4/4 and the relative key signatures like 2/4 and 6/8 or 9/8. If they are 5, 7, 11 or 13 -- I'm afraid people can't relate to the music well. However, if I were to venture into that territory, I would first stick with 5/4, which is easier to deal with and it's easy to split up since it is essentially an alternating 2/4 and 3/4 pattern. Like a "Doo Chi Doo Chi Chi"
 
FilmMusician said:
If they are 5, 7, 11 or 13 -- I'm afraid people can't relate to the music well.
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Which people ? I think that non musician listeners of music care primarilly about one thing and one thing only - do they like the song ? Great melodies or grooves can fit into any time signature and even if something appears a little unusual initially, a few listens and it's just normal. I'd like to meet the person that says "I don't like this song because I can't relate well to 11/8 time" or whatever.
 
I have no idea - but my drummer says they change in the middle of the song sometimes... I just come up with the riffs and let him figure it out
 
grimtraveller said:
Which people ? I think that non musician listeners of music care primarilly about one thing and one thing only - do they like the song ? Great melodies or grooves can fit into any time signature and even if something appears a little unusual initially, a few listens and it's just normal. I'd like to meet the person that says "I don't like this song because I can't relate well to 11/8 time" or whatever.
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Personally, I would probably have a hard time grooving to a song set in 11/8 time. I think it's mainly because I have been conditioned to traditional time signatures that are either multiples of 2 or 3. And honestly, I can't recall a mainstream song (that enjoyed great success) written in the unconventional time signatures.

I do agree that the greatest musicians and composers would have the ability to utilize 11/8 time, or even 23/8 time or 47/8 time, to create a fantastic musical masterpiece.

Maybe I will give 11/8 a go and see what I can come up with.
 
I guess my favorite time sig is 5/4...

non-musicians that dont know any better dont usually REALIZE when something is in a time other than 4/4 (standard) time... nor will they recognize when 4/4 and 5/4 are being mixed, say one instrument in 4/4 and the OTHER istrument in 5/4 or 6/4...

...but they DO PERCEIVE that "something" is "going on"... they just cant put their finger on it.

the phrase "simple, yet somehow complex" will come out of their mouths...

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NOW, if you REALLY wanna get jiggy with it?

say it with me... "Polyrhythm". hee hee...

thats a reason i love composing on a computer... it allows one to set up and experiment with polyrhythms with ease...

the classic example of polyrhythm is as follows...

ONE instrument or melody line is doing "3 time", IE, 1....2....3 each measure.
BUT, another instrument or melody line is doing "4 time", IE, 1..2..3.. 4 each measure

this is represented as "4:3 poly" (or, 3:4 poly...) and it is interesting to not that every 12 measures (4 times 3 is 12) the different lines "line back up" where they started.

also interesting is how you can notate the resulting music score... you have your CHOICE or writing each part in 2 different time signatures? choosing whichever "makes the most sense" to the instrument line your looking at...

even MORE interesting would be writing a score using polyrhythm and bitonality at the same time... (a feat which i can PICTURE yet dont have the ability to pull off, LMAO)
 
I found out that I use 7/4 a lot,
But it just comes naturally, it has this feel that clicks something.

Also 5/4 is a big one for me, you don't hear a Tarkus every day :D
 
Yeah 7/4 (or more 7/8 in my case) is a pretty natural time for me. I never plan time signatures, they just occur naturaly. My stuff often changes time many times during the course of the song/piece, 4/4 to 3/4 to 7/8 to 10/8 etc. 4/4 throughout the whole thing I find gets pretty tedious and laborious. Just my opinion, but as usual I find myself in disagreement with most of the rest of the population of the planet.
 
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