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Time signature workouts


neatobassman

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Is there any difference between 12/8 and 6/8 in feel? I can never tell the difference.

 

Try splitting the bar into groups. For example 7/8 can be grouped as | 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 | or | 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 | and so on. Much easier to think of it like that rather than 7 in a bar.

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Is there any difference between 12/8 and 6/8 in feel? I can never tell the difference.


Try splitting the bar into groups. For example 7/8 can be grouped as | 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 | or | 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 | and so on. Much easier to think of it like that rather than 7 in a bar.

 

 

yes 12/8 is accented like triplets played in 4/4 while 6/8 is accented more like a 2/4 march.

 

7/8 is typically played as 1212123.

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Ummm, there is one workout that I remember being awesome. Its more percussion based, though.

 

Keep a click going, at maybe 90 bpm. Its a division exercise, starting with one, then dividing that into doubles, then into triplets, quarters, quintuplets, sextuplets, and septuplets, and then working your way backwards to one again. Really good to get a hand on accenting and learning how much room you have between beats to get back to the one and make everything work.

 

If that's at all confusing, I'll make a demo or something. Pretty straightforward exercise though.

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Ummm, there is one workout that I remember being awesome. Its more percussion based, though.


Keep a click going, at maybe 90 bpm. Its a division exercise, starting with one, then dividing that into doubles, then into triplets, quarters, quintuplets, sextuplets, and septuplets, and then working your way backwards to one again. Really good to get a hand on accenting and learning how much room you have between beats to get back to the one and make everything work.


If that's at all confusing, I'll make a demo or something. Pretty straightforward exercise though.

 

 

I would love you so long.

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Keep a click going, at maybe 90 bpm. Its a division exercise, starting with one, then dividing that into doubles, then into triplets, quarters, quintuplets, sextuplets, and septuplets, and then working your way backwards to one again. Really good to get a hand on accenting and learning how much room you have between beats to get back to the one and make everything work.

 

 

Pretty much this. Practice going back and forth between 4/4 and 6/8 with your click. Play a measure in 4/4 and then the same measure in 6/8. Some of the best use of odd time is when it's part of a lick or otherwise contained within more regular time. You don't need to pound it into your audience's head that you're not playing in 4/4, try to work on making it subtle too.

 

I wouldn't totally agree learning a bunch of songs is the best way to practice different times. It can be helpful when you're starting out but make sure you're not memorizing the riff only in the context of the song. Always make sure you can apply what you're learning to your own music or improvisation.

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If you want to learn 12/8 you can always try to play along to zappa's bbc performane of king kong on youtube.

 

 

12/8 is the same as 4/4, just in triplet form.

 

As others have said, polyrhythms. Also, try taking something you've written, and take a beat out.

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Just count, I mean as far as exercises I've never used many other than just saying I wanna play in 9/8 then doing it. One thing I will say is either use a daw, drum machine or whatever is available, set it to one new time sig and play with it a lot just like you initially did with 4/4. Lots of people can play in odd time but grooving in those tempos, it feeling natural and not sounding like a robot is what is important to me. I have played with so many people who could play in 7/8 but all they did was play continuous eighth notes 7 times a bar. I mean you are playing in it but are basically a metronome. I would suggest really spending time developing a percussive voice in new time sigs, that way they sound more fluid and you are able to use them to their full extent.

Also polys are so much fun! I do tons of different things like cycling them. Ok so lets start with something simple, say the base is 4/4 well I'll take a 5:4 and 3:4 poly then alternate them each bar. On the first bar I will start playing 3 over the 4, then straight 4/4, followed by 5 over 4 and come back to 4/4 on the next bar before starting again at 3 over 4. It isn't very hard but interesting because you are increasing then decreasing the way you are dividing the quarters, in between you are just playing in standard. I use to do little exercises like that to work with shifting through polys. I also have some two hand tapping stuff I did like a 5:3:2 poly to get familiar with playing in multiple sigs at once with each hand. I have been meaning to tab it out for Fatso (not that he needs help with this stuff he's quite good) so he can play it, if I do eventually I'll give it to you too.

BTW, you don't have to just use polyrhythm either you can do polymeter and play a 10/8 over a 7/8 without including the subdivisions. They won't start or end exactly the same but it is cool for a melody line to move differently with each pass over a chordal section, then when you sync back up together on the 1 go to the head or where ever else you feel it needs to be taken.

One thing my band did in a song that I thought was neat is this. One guitarist played 10/8 while the other guitarist's melody was polymeter in 7/8, 6/8, 7/8 (10/8 was obviously played twice before both guitar parts locked back on the 1 together), our drummer played in 5/4 over the 10/8 after which he applied the 5:4 polyrhythm and finally just dropped the 5 of the 5:4 poly and was left playing straight 4/4 to the 10/8. He was essentially playing a poly to a time sig that wasn't even there, which to some may seem easy or boring but I quite liked the sound. By him doing that it grounded nicely creating a base that anyone could move/groove too while we expanded the rhythm making it a little more interesting.

Any questions? I hope all that made sense I am a little tired so I will read back over it tomorrow...

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I never could get 7/8 time

 

 

Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down| Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up| Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down|

 

Pay attention to the down and up strokes to begin with then on the seventh switch the feel to the upstroke being the 1. I had a friend who had trouble with it so I wrote it down like that for him and he figured it out. I don't know if that helps any in your case but he said once he started feeling the 1 flip from down to up it was much easier.

 

Also, I have heard people having trouble playing it because they are counting with their mouths. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 all have 1 syllable while 7 has 2. So when people starting in 7/8 are counting with their mouths to being with it can confuse them because the extra syllable in 7 makes it slightly off (time wise). 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, sev-en can throw you off initially, so just chop the 7 to only 1 syllable and it will smooth out the timing.

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