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Thread: 5/8

  1. #1

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    Default 5/8

    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

    .....

  2. #2

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    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.

  3. #3

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    count to ten and start over?

  4. #4

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    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?

  5. #5

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    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--------|
    MY KIT: 5 Piece Westbury, Remo Ambassador Heads and Remo Muff'l Rings on all drums, Sabian AA 20" Metal-X Ride, Zildjian ZXT 16" Rock Crash, Pearl 14" Hats, Pearl 18" Crash Ride, Wuhan 12" China

    Band Website:

    The Torpedo Identity

    http://www.myspace.com/thetorpedoidentity
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  6. #6

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    Cool 5/8

    Quote Originally Posted by 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.
    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...
    keep the beat goin' ... Don't keep it to yourself!

    Charlie

    "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." --Henry David Thoreau, "Walden," 1854

    "There's a lot to be said for Time Honored tradition and value." --In memory of Frank "fiacovaz" Iacovazzi

    "Maybe your drums can be beat, but you can't."--Jack Keck

  7. #7

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    between 5/8 and 5/2 the only change is the accents and feel. Really its the same time signature in every other way.
    I really wish that we could actually show the pictures in here...

  8. #8

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    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...

  9. #9

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    [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).

  10. #10

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    Ah gotcha,
    so it would be fair to say, this...

    I've been playing drums for 3 to 4 years and guitar for 7 or 8. coming from the guitarist perspective i see notes as in how long you might sustain a note. ie: for a quarter note you would sustain the note you are playing for a quarter of a beat. since sustaining percussion is 99% of the time impossible all notes are relative to the note value you assign to a beat.....?

  11. #11

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    Wow ... a lot of this is really confusing.

    No matter what the time signature, the primary accent in any bar (measure) is on the first note.

    4/4 = 1 2 3 4
    3/4 = 1 2 3
    5/8 = 1 and 2 and 3

  12. #12

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    5/8 = .625





    Word to the wise : don't mess with the drummer.

  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by mexicancounciloffood
    Ah gotcha,
    so it would be fair to say, this...

    I've been playing drums for 3 to 4 years and guitar for 7 or 8. coming from the guitarist perspective i see notes as in how long you might sustain a note. ie: for a quarter note you would sustain the note you are playing for a quarter of a beat. since sustaining percussion is 99% of the time impossible all notes are relative to the note value you assign to a beat.....?
    You got it!

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jobby
    Wow ... a lot of this is really confusing.

    No matter what the time signature, the primary accent in any bar (measure) is on the first note.

    4/4 = 1 2 3 4
    3/4 = 1 2 3
    5/8 = 1 and 2 and 3
    Jobby, 5/8 is wrong. It follows the same pattern. This would be correct:

    4/4 = 1 2 3 4
    3/4 = 1 2 3
    5/8 = 1 2 3 4 5

    Just because it has 8 as the bottom number (meaning 8th notes) doesn't mean you count them "and". The 8th note "gets" the beat therefore you count every 8th note, 1 2 3 4 5. Sixteenth notes would be the "ands".

  15. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jobby
    Wow ... a lot of this is really confusing.

    No matter what the time signature, the primary accent in any bar (measure) is on the first note.

    4/4 = 1 2 3 4
    3/4 = 1 2 3
    5/8 = 1 and 2 and 3
    Not true. In most jazz the offbeats are accented. The accents are more about the style of music rather then the time signature
    I really wish that we could actually show the pictures in here...

  16. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by drummer
    Jobby, 5/8 is wrong. It follows the same pattern. This would be correct:

    4/4 = 1 2 3 4
    3/4 = 1 2 3
    5/8 = 1 2 3 4 5

    Just because it has 8 as the bottom number (meaning 8th notes) doesn't mean you count them "and". The 8th note "gets" the beat therefore you count every 8th note, 1 2 3 4 5. Sixteenth notes would be the "ands".
    Fair enough - much easier to count to 5 than count to 2 and a half.

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Daemon
    Not true. In most jazz the offbeats are accented. The accents are more about the style of music rather then the time signature
    Fair enough too - and to take more extreme examples, check out Edgard Varese or any other contemporary composer in the orchestral vein.

    But basic point remains that most songs in popular music (including rock, pop, metal, whatever - including jazz) have the accent at the first note in the bar. But there's an important distinction between what the individual instruments are accenting and the feel of the signature itself. For example, reggae typically accents the offbeats, but the signature accent always falls on 1 ... you can feel each new bar hit.

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