really stuck with this

**pastor_bob** · 07-26-2007, 09:46 PM

Thanks, Tom. The one that blows me away is 6/8 time. I really have trouble even conceiving that one in my head! I know it must not sound too different from 3/4, but just enough to make me go

!

BTW, someone was asking about 3/4 time, and that, as I recall, is waltz timing, and a typical time signature for Country Western songs. Am I right?

**drummer** · 07-26-2007, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by pastor_bob

BTW, someone was asking about 3/4 time, and that, as I recall, is waltz timing, and a typical time signature for Country Western songs. Am I right?

Yea, there's a lot of 3/4 songs in country. There's a lot of 6/8 and 12/8 in blues. There are old big band waltzes that really emphasize the "1". Then there are latin bands that weave between 6/8, 4/4, and 3/4 in the same tune and you can't even hear the time change. Talk about making you go

! ... lol

**pastor_bob** · 07-26-2007, 10:06 PM

Dude, my mind is a whirl! All those time signatures are making me want to

!

Seriously, thanks for the free lessons, Drummer. I owe you, man!

**Stix518** · 07-26-2007, 10:31 PM

Drummer has done a truly awesome job at 'splaining things - couldn't have done it better myself! There's all kinds of time sigs - 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 (otherwise knows as half-time) are all pretty standard. 3/4 was big back in the big band era with waltzes and such. Jazz used some pretty funky time sigs - 2/4 was pretty regular. Time sigs are most important when you read music and scores. Watch some orchestras and bands - watch their feet, everybody keeps tempo with their feet. You can also watch a conductor set the tempo as well just before the song starts - in a 4/4 score, he'll (she'll) raise the baton up for everybody to get ready then move the baton straight down for the one, go to the left (or right) for the two, move the baton to the opposite side for the three and then raise the baton up for the four then come straight down for the one or downbeat again. Pretty cool stuff!

Stix

**livewire80** · 07-27-2007, 02:51 AM

Originally Posted by drummer

"4" means a "quarter" note and a quarter note falls on each beat. So, you will have 5 quarter notes in a bar of 5/4 time.

As long as the downbeats (1,2,3,4,5) are played on the click and the "&'s" are on the upbeat (off the click), you would be playing it correctly. You would count, "1,2,3,4,5" instead of 1,2,3,4 like in 4/4 time.

you beauty! i get this ok...nice, spot on thanks. how silly of me lol. really easy when you think about it.

Originally Posted by drummer

No. Again, you're trying to cram uneven notes in 4/4 time. This gets into polyrhythms (save it for later) but it's not odd time signatures. Odd time starts with an odd time signature. 5/8, like 5/4, still has 5 beats per measure, but the bottom number means eithth note (remember the pie example I gave). So the eighth note gets the beat. So now you will count 1,2,3,4,5 and each of those will fall right on the beat. If you want to double that, you'd now be playing 16th notes but the 16th notes will now be counted 1&2&3&4&5&. Yea, I know,... it gets tricky. It's best to stay with 3/4, 5/4, and 7/4 until it really sinks in. Then you can go on to 3/8, 5/16, 2/2, and so on.

5/8 im still a little confused with but i can just feel that its on the verge of coming to me. 5/4, I will land all the beats on each note and I can play that as 8th notes as long as the up beats and down beats are landing right on. 5/8however, I am still confused as to where the beats land exactly. I can say that 5/4 is a bar of 5 beats played on the quarter notes. So what is 5/8 a bar of?

Originally Posted by drummer

Livewire read my first post carefully, taking one step at a time. It should explain it. If not, take a few lessons with a local, experienced, and reputable teacher. They can help you through it. Once you "get it", it's all downhill from there. If it makes you feel any better, I struggled with it too when I was learning.

thanks drummer, I can say that I am really confident I have my head around the 5/4 , 7/4 etc feel but the 5/8 feel im still a little confused with. Only because I am unsure where the beats should be landing in 5/8 time sig. Ill stick to it, it shoud come eventually!

**Stevo42w** · 07-27-2007, 08:08 AM

Set a metronome up .... Say 1 2 3 4 5. as it gets to 4 clicks :P

Remember the first number is the seperation the second number is how many beats you have to come up with those numbers.

12/6. 12 beats within 6 counts.

It does get weird :S

**Stix518** · 07-27-2007, 10:36 AM

Steve... not really. 5/4 means that each quarter note gets one beat and a measure has 5 beats in it. So that means that each click gets one beat, not 5 beats within 4 clicks. The metronome doesn't care what the time sig is... it just counts off down beats pure and simple. You set the metronome by beats per minute - not the time sig. Then, DEPENDING upon the time sig, that's how many clicks are in each measure. Also, I'm not sure that there is a time sig of 12/6 (or 6/3) as I've not heard of a 6th note or a 3rd note. (bottom number defines which type of note is assigned one beat in a measure). Hope this helps.

Stix