The most important thing is .... timing

^ I know a few modern composers that don't even play music.

Hello Mr Greece. There is more info (read: opinions) on this matter in the Music and Musicians exchange forum. So once ya have a good handle on it read through the 'Time signatures' thread to get confused again  


Edit: I meant to tell ya since you asked about other timmings in use about Rushs well known use of 12/8. They also use 7/8 9/8.  To me time signatures are acedemic. Its only a way to write music on paper to communicate musical ideas without sound. In other regards they are near meaningless (imho of course)



Edited by Flyingsod - May 10 2006 at 20:03

Empathy wrote: Right, tempo is independent of time signature. The difference between 3/4 and 6/8 is the subdivision of the beat. example: 3/4 ONE-and-Two-and-Three-and 6/8 ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six Does that help?

Bob Greece wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: There are also 5/8, 7/8, 9/8 or even 13/8.   How about 4/8, 8/8 or 10/8? Are these valid timings? And if not why not?   Another question - if you played 3/4 really fast, couldn't it become the same as a 6/8?

8/8 is NOT being used in notation. The only situation where it would make sense to use it instead of 4/4 would be a 5 + 3 rhythm ... but that would normally always be noted as 5/8 3/8.

And the whole thing doesn't have ANYTHING to do with speed. There are slow */8 rhythms and fast */4 rhythms.
    

heyitsthatguy wrote: Primus' song "11" is in 11/4 and it actually sounds really cool.

Their drummer really impresses me when they play that. Especially with the finesse that he uses in the intro.


Edited by Toob-Wurm - May 09 2006 at 21:50

my favorites are 7/8 and 9/8, have never heard of 3/3 or 10/4 mentioned above   Mike's comments think that cover the subject   the thing you should know Rob is that 'zeimpekiko' (Greek dance) is always in 9/8

10/4 Really is just a 5/4. A good example of 5/4 is the Mission Impossible theme.

As for 7/8, I've heard this time signature done many times, but almost never done well. It usually sounds choppy, and forced, but I have heard it used well. Some examples of 7/4 are "Money" by Pink Floyd, "Spoonman" by Soundgarden, and "Ticks & Leeches" by Tool.

I've heard some neat compositions with 9/8 (I can think of a tune that Bach wrote, but I don't recall what the name was). Sort of a triplet waltz.

A really obscure time signature is 15/8. I've heard this time signature used effectively only once. The song was "Sleep Is Wrong" by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. They actually managed to make it balance out. :P


Edited by Toob-Wurm - May 09 2006 at 21:44

my favorites are 7/8 and 9/8, have never heard of 3/3 or 10/4 mentioned above

I just don't think that there's a 10/4 rhythm that cannot be broken down in smaller segments.

^ I've never seen anything noted in 10/4. It may be 4/4 4/4 2/4 though.

Bob Greece wrote: goose wrote: No, 6/8 has two beats divided into three, while 3/4 has three beats divided into two   How's that work? 3 into 2 won't go.