time sig help in concordance with progressive

Hi. I think Camel's " RAJAZ" album help you. The song named " RAJAZ" (instrumental)  is a good example.you can  listen to this song and then try to cover it.

How does changing the accents like if i'm playing a 6/8 riff over a 3/4 riff affect the mood of the music and such?

Beat stresses should be accented in the music ie. in simple 3/4 you would have a bass note on beat 1 with the melody and this would accent the music without necessarily playing beat one louder. So beat stresses are implied and the player doesn't have to play beat one louder and beats two and three softer. In modern music the drummer will usually accomplish the beat stresses simply by using the snare. When writing you have in mind what the standard stress is of any time signature and write accordingly. Note that standard stress is often thrown out the window in prog music.

Some people told me that with electric guitar distortion, you probably can't even hear note accenting.. I only have an acoustic.. is that true? =X

cjgone wrote: So, i'm learning guitaring and i'm interested in time sigs associated with prog.   I know some stuff about time sigs like 3/4 with 8th notes is grouped like   1 2 | 1 2 | 1 2   and 6/8  is like   1 2 3 | 1 2 3   There's supposed to be beat stressing on the notes.. Is that implied? Like when i'm playing 3/4 is it assumed without accents that the 1rst beat of every double is stressed? How do I know?   And like 6/8 vs 3/4, is it assumed to stress the first beat of each triplet?   How as the music player do I know what to accent when it's not like specified?   And do you just play the note louder or quieter with stressing? It sounds a bit easy, but like it's really hard for me.. I have to like memorize the stressings to play it and stuff. Makes my head hurt!

You don't need to accent anything unless the music mentions staccato.

 Otherwise I think your just trying to find different methods to count common time?

If there's no accenting whats the point of 6/8 vs 3/4 then? 

Edited by cjgone - October 14 2009 at 20:32

cobb2 wrote: cjgone wrote: Otherwise I think your just trying to find different methods to count common time? I wanna play progressive <3 but I don't know how I would use 3/4 vs 6/8 and stuff. It's all new to me. If there's no accenting whats the point of 6/8 vs 3/4 then?    Is there any like prog metal song that emphasizes the stressings if they're used? I was trying to see if I could tell the time sigs in Schism and Vicarious by Tool, but i'm not sure whether the accenting was just for the drumming or also for the guitaring. It's how you write it that is the point- the music itself should achieve the stressing. Let me go back to the simple example of 3/4- three melody notes, one bass (harmony) note at beat one- so the bass together with the melody accent beat one. Simple 6/8 (don't confuse this with simple time, as 6/8 is compound time, meaning two beats of a dotted quarter) would have 6 melody notes- eighths grouped in two groups of three to signify the beat count. Two bass notes on count 1 and 4, to accent the beats. As I said before beat stresses are implied in the music and the length of notes must be accurately applied when playing to achieve the rythme. The only type of stress a player needs to worry about and physically play louder are stress accents (>) placed above a note (not forgetting crescendo and diminuendo markings). Stress accents are there to change the beat pattern with the flavour of an off-beat accent (syncopation). addition: if you are truly interested you should get a good beginners book for classical guitar playing. I can recommend Frederick Noad's Solo Guitar Playing Book 1.

Ahhh... wait you can just stress a beat by playing a bass note at the same time? O_OOO

cjgone wrote: Otherwise I think your just trying to find different methods to count common time? I wanna play progressive <3 but I don't know how I would use 3/4 vs 6/8 and stuff. It's all new to me. If there's no accenting whats the point of 6/8 vs 3/4 then?    Is there any like prog metal song that emphasizes the stressings if they're used? I was trying to see if I could tell the time sigs in Schism and Vicarious by Tool, but i'm not sure whether the accenting was just for the drumming or also for the guitaring.

Cobb's explanation is good and more to your point.My point is you don't have to stress anything if your playing in 3 or 4,there isn't just one technique to play it.I don't understand why you have to stress anything.6/8 is 6 beats in a eighth note pattern as 3 is in a quarter note pattern.It is a difference but what ever makes it easier for you count in 3 or 6.

It's more to with tempo.3 quarter notes is different to 6 eighth notes.Eighth notes are play twice as fast then quarter etc.

Like I said stick with Cobbs,explaining on the internet can only confuse you more.

Wish I could think of some songs as examples.

Yes- you can write with any notes as long as the total adds up to three quarter notes per measure. This doesn't change the beat value. My examples were extremely simple- just keep an understanding that a measure 3/4  is counted one two three and the counts are placed on the quarter beat. If you write with eighth notes this doesn't change it to 6/8. Your eighth notes when written down will be grouped in twos as 3 groups of 2 eighths ie. 3 beats. Same goes for sixteenths or thirtyseconds or smaller- just remember they must be grouped (join the tails) to the value of a quarter note to keep the implied beat structure. The combinations of notes can be as varied as you want- they just cannot be more or less than 3 quarter notes per measure when added together

Edited by cobb2 - October 17 2009 at 22:19