I've always wondered about time signatures. I understand the basics of what they represent but I'm not sure about the why's of it. For instance can't a song be looked at as different time sigs. Like "Twinkle, Twinkle"...can it also be written in 4/4?
Any other examples of various time sigs? Maybe some songs that we may have heard of? Or, simple songs like Twinkle... that make the point.
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Polka is actually a specific binary rhythm. Agreed polka bands PLAY a lot of 3/4 stuff, usually at viennese waltz tempo, but being played by an oompah band doesnt make a waltz a polka.
Crudely speaking the traditional polka rhythm goes One two three pause one two three pause where the pause is usually counted as an "and" but is actually over beat for.
Think of the refrain part of the classic can can, which whilst it is not a polka as such, does that "123 hop 123 hop" thing in a way that is easier to understand than my half assed explanation.
This one is 4/4 at about 136BPM, but with swung eighths or triplet eighths.
1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a ... with the snare mostly on the "a".
Or you could look at it as 3/8 time: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 ... with snare on 3.
I have really hard time wrapping my head around it. I know the motifs kinda fit inside four-quarter-note sections here, but it feels very rushing and um getting ahead of itself but can't guess how's it divided. I can grasp what 3/4 or 5/4 looks like, but totally can't keep up with those divided by 8s. Anyone knows good time sig tutorials for idiots?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zeekat
I have really hard time wrapping my head around it. I know the motifs kinda fit inside four-quarter-note sections here, but it feels very rushing and um getting ahead of itself but can't guess how's it divided. I can grasp what 3/4 or 5/4 looks like, but totally can't keep up with those divided by 8s. Anyone knows good time sig tutorials for idiots?
Crudely speaking the traditional polka rhythm goes One two three pause one two three pause where the pause is usually counted as an "and" but is actually over beat for.
Heh heh, that might, maybe, humm, really, do yo think, I wonder, could sort of true.
I wonder what would happen if you played the "Beer Barrel Polka" counting like that.
I'm singing in the pit at our community musical - a while back I asked a question about counting rests because I was obviously counting wrong and the lady in front said "It's 12/8 time." Turned out I could just count two and all was forgiven but I went out prowling online and came up with these great audio visualizations:
Songs like The Strokes' "Last Nite" and "Someday" are good examples of a 2/4 time sig. The only real difference between 2/4 and 4/4 is how a rhythm is accented. You can superimpose these two rhythms.
can you tell me a song thats in 2/4 time signature?
Isn't a time signature just a rather arbitrary starting place, or skeleton, with various other rhythmic ideas hung on it? No good song lets the time signature take over and control everything - because a good song has some conflict, some syncopation, some shuffling, or some change in beat, or some layering of one pattern over another.
That said, it would seem that a 2/4 would contrast with a 4/4 in the lack of a strong/weak alternation. Like in marches, as stated above.