5/8

[mexicancounciloffood]

ok i've been practising counting in music and i've come across one i just don't understand. 5/8 ! now according to me this should mean that there are 5 eighth notes in one bar (or measure as ye americans like to call it!).
I don't know why i just can't get my head around it. is there any chance someone could type a one measure example with accents?

something like this would do...
4/4 {1 2 (3) 4} where {} denotes the bar and () denotes the accents

.....

[Roaddebris]

Isn't "Take 5" in 5/8. Yeah, I'm sure it is. Go to YouTube and enter "Dave Brubeck, Take 5". That's what it sounds like.

[bongobro]

Isn't "Take 5" in 5/8. Yeah, I'm sure it is. Go to YouTube and enter "Dave Brubeck, Take 5". That's what it sounds like.

Actually, RD, I think "Take 5" is 5/4 time...although the way Brubeck plays it, it sounds like 5/8 'cause it goes a bit faster...

[Daemon]

between 5/8 and 5/2 the only change is the accents and feel. Really its the same time signature in every other way.

[mexicancounciloffood]

Over complicating thing? i think you could be right.....cos i left trying to figure it out for a while....and then i came back back to it a few days later and it was like.....ohhhhh i see!!
I understand all the stuff like about the top number and bottom number. what they mean etc ...although the wording of the phrase "what note gets the beat" confuses me a little....i'll just take it as meaning "value of the note"... thanks...

[drummer]

[QUOTE=mexicancounciloffood]...although the wording of the phrase "what note gets the beat" confuses me a little...QUOTE]

It means "what note", as in quarter note, eighth note, 16th note, etc., is assigned to the beats in the measure. Remember; until you assign them a note, they're still just beats (or like slashes in a bar).

[funkymcstain]

count to ten and start over?

[drummer]

Mex, you may be over-complicating things. Think about the definition of a time signature. The top number means how many beats in a measure. Do this for me: Draw a bar and put 5 slashes like so: | / / / / / | These are your beats. 5 beats in a measure.

Now the bottom number of a time signature means "what note gets the beat" or "what note value is assigned to each of those beats". We've got to assign those beats (slashes) a note. This will either be a quarter note (4), 8th note (8), 16th note (16), or whatever. In the case of 5/8 time the bottom number is 8, so that means the beat (or slashes) are going to be eighth notes. So for every slash that you just made, you need to put an eighth note.

Now you will count every note 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
When you divide these in half, you get 16th notes. So the "ands" become 16th's (not 8th notes like in 4/4).

Is starting to make sense?

[amputechture]

is this wat u mean drummer

like would this beat be in 5/8

H|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x|
S|--------x---------x---------x|
B|x---------x---------x--------|

[BigTallG]

5/8 = .625