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humans and time signatures

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David_Dovey:

--- Quote from: Misereatur on 13 Oct 2006, 18:41 ---What I was trying to say is that every player needs to find a way to count those time signatures in a way that wont be confusing to him. I mean, if I'll play somthing in 7/4 and count them as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 I would'nt be able to get past the first bar. Counting 7/4 like 1-2-3-4-1-2-3 (or even 1-2-1-2-1-2-3) is easier to me.
Also, timehat, unless the band leader/composer/song writer tells me otherwise, that's how I'll count 7/4 (1-2-3-4-1-2-3). Same with 6/8 (1-2-3-1-2-3).I can count those time signatures in loads of other ways, it all depends on what I as a player feel is right for the song, or what the composer decided.

--- End quote ---

Well, most time signatures (in particular compund time sigs) have a pretty set pulse to begin with, and that's why a lot of time signatures exist that at first glance seem kinda superfluous, such as 8/8. Although 8/8 on the surface is just a silly version of 4/4, the pulse in it is 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2. Ditto the distinction between 7/4 and 7/8.

timehat:
I used to think that way too, but apparently certain things are easier for performers to read. I was working on a composition and had a section in 7/4, and the way I wrote it was obscuring the beat pretty badly, so my teacher said, "Well, first, let's see if this is 3=4 or vice versa," but the rhythm shifted to the off beat before 3 beats, so it didn't really work out very well. So what was decided was that I should turn it into two measures of 7/8, which would make the beat easier to see and represent the rhythm more clearly. At the 8th note level, I could probably split it into 3 and 4, but a measure of 3/8 at that tempo would go by so fast that it would probably be ridiculous and make reading it even worse since you'd have all these time signature notations in the way constantly.

Dimmukane:
Time signatures don't bother me at all.  I listen to all of them at one point or another.  And when Paul Simon went to Africa to try and figure out the time signature for african drumming, he got something like 7/15 and gave up.

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