Members Cyprien Posted July 8, 2004 Members Posted July 8, 2004 Just two really, How exactly does Key Signature work? Does it just specifiy what key a composition would start in and can change at any time, or should it govern the over-all tone of a piece? Also, very basic I guess, but how does Time Signature work? 4/4 is standard speed, is 2/4 double the speed of 4/4? while 2/2 is half the speed of 4/4? Would 4/4 mean 4 beats in what? At what parts of a piece can time signatures and key signatures change?
Members bdemon Posted July 8, 2004 Members Posted July 8, 2004 Originally posted by Cyprien Just two really,How exactly does Key Signature work? Does it just specifiy what key a composition would start in and can change at any time, or should it govern the over-all tone of a piece?Also, very basic I guess, but how does Time Signature work? 4/4 is standard speed, is 2/4 double the speed of 4/4? while 2/2 is half the speed of 4/4?Would 4/4 mean 4 beats in what?At what parts of a piece can time signatures and key signatures change? The key signature tells you what notes are included in a particular key--and which notes are left out. It can govern the overall tone of a piece or you can modulate to different keys. 4/4 time means FOUR beats per measure (the first/top 4), while a quarter note represents one beat in that measure (the bottom 4). Sort of like money, how we have dimes, nickels & pennies but we break everything down to how many dollars something costs. A given measure of music may have quarter notes, sixteenth notes, etc., but in 4/4 the sum of all those notes must equal four quarter notes.
Members Cyprien Posted July 8, 2004 Author Members Posted July 8, 2004 So does time signatures actually help determine speed, or just help aesthetically, wouldn't a quarter note be the same speed no matter what measure? Or, would 4 quarter notes in a 4/4 time signature become 2 quarter notes in a 2/4? What would 2/3 or 4/3 sound like?
Members Auggie Doggie Posted July 9, 2004 Members Posted July 9, 2004 Originally posted by Cyprien So does time signatures actually help determine speed, or just help aesthetically, wouldn't a quarter note be the same speed no matter what measure? No; time signatures determine a) how many beats in a measure, and b) what type of note gets the beat. The tempo determines the speed. Or, would 4 quarter notes in a 4/4 time signature become 2 quarter notes in a 2/4?Four quarter notes in 4/4 would remain quarter notes in 2/4; you would just need TWO (2) measures to hold them. What would 2/3 or 4/3 sound like? There are no such creatures; the bottom number of a time signature must be an exponential power of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8, 16...) You'll VERY rarely find something over 1 (2 to the zero power), and it's impractical to go beyond something over 16.Time signatures like 2/2 and 3/2 are 'cut time', wherein every notes value is halved. (yes, time signatures are essentially fractions).Signatures like 3/8, 6/8, 6/16, 9/16 (in other words, a multiple of 3 over 8 or 16) are called compound meters, but you don't want to worry about those just yet.
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