Members dragoro Posted September 28, 2010 Members Posted September 28, 2010 I know what 4/4 is and I can read it and makes sense to me. But when we get into 3/4 or 3/5, then Im not sure. The notes still count for the same right? whole note is still 4 counts, half notes are still 2 right? So what exactly is the difference between 4/4 and the rest of the time signatures?
Members jeremy_green Posted September 28, 2010 Members Posted September 28, 2010 the number on top tells you how many beats are in one barthe number on the bottom tells you what kind of note gets one beat. So there is not such thing as 3/5 because that would mean there are 3 - 5th notes (??) in a bar. For the bottom number:4 - means quarter8 - means 8th16 - means 16th (just like fractions) so 5/8 would mean there are FIVE - Eighth notes in each bar.So depending on the type of notes that get one beat would determine how to count it. Make sense? Why is this done?Well music pulses at different rhythmic feels. Most Rock is 4/4 (kick drum on one & three, snare on 2 & 4)1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 A Waltz is in 3/4 (strong beat on the one - Boom-ba-ba Boom-ba-ba Boom-ba-ba)1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3 etc. Its a way of grouping these strong and weak beats in a repeating pattern
Members JonR Posted September 28, 2010 Members Posted September 28, 2010 Just to pedantically modify Jeremy's answer...The note on the bottom is not necessarily the "beat". It's certainly true that it's the type of note that is counted by the upper figure. Eg. "6/8" means 6 8th notes in a bar. But there aren't 6 beats in a 6/8 bar, there are only two.This is because a time sig with an "8" on the bottom is a "compound" time sig. It generally indicates that a beat will comprise a group of 8th notes - commonly three.So there are TWO beats in a 6/8 bar, but each one contains three 8th notes - IOW, the bar consists of two triplets: "ONE-and-a-TWO-and-a".A bar with 6 beats in it should be written 6/4.This is why we have time sigs of 3/4 and 6/8. Both mean six 8th notes in a bar. But 3/4 means 3 beats in the bar (each beat dividing into two 8ths); 6/8 means 2 beats in the bar, each dividing into 3 8ths.The reason for this is that we have no dedicated sign for a "3rd" of a note. All our signs are half or double. So when a rhythm clearly has triple beats, we need to cobble together groups of 8ths to indicate it.If you want a clear demonstration of the difference between 6/8 and 3/4, you can hear it constantly in "America" from West Side Story, in which every bar alternates from one to the other:- "ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and"
Members Steadfastly Posted September 29, 2010 Members Posted September 29, 2010 Just a note as to why this is so important. Without the time signature, you have no idea, if you've never heard the music before, how fast or slow the music is to be played. Another plus over tablature. There just is no excuse not to learn how to read music.
Members EddieAteD Posted September 29, 2010 Members Posted September 29, 2010 Just to clarify for the OP - not sure if FlipFlopFly meant something else, but time signature has nothing to do with tempo (how fast or slow the music is to be played). Also, proper tablature (not internet ascii shorthand) shows the time signature, basically all rhythm notation on tablature is the same as on standard notation. I agree that learning to read standard notation is useful, but it's a non sequitur when talking about rhythm notation and time signatures, as both tablature and standard notation are the same in that regard.
Members JonR Posted September 29, 2010 Members Posted September 29, 2010 Just a note as to why this is so important. Without the time signature, you have no idea, if you've never heard the music before, how fast or slow the music is to be played. Just to echo what EddieAteD says, time sigs have nothing to do with tempo (or very little anyway). If there were no time sig on the music - and therefore no barlines - the problems would be worse than just not being sure of the speed:(1) you would easily get lost in the notation - "hold on, was I on the 20th note of that line, or the 21st?" -(2) (more important) you'd have no idea of the underlying rhythm or dynamic stresses - the "metre". That's the "canvas" or "background" into which the notes are placed, and within which their rhythms make sense.The point is that music HAS a pulse and rhythmic patterns within that pulse, and the time sig (along with barlines and note values of course) is just one way of notating that. Leave it out, therefore, and you leave out a crucial factor. It would be a little like leaving out the lines of the stave (the pitch "background"), and just guessing the pitches by how high or low they were...(Of course I agree with you that learning to read notation is extremely valuable.)
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