|
User
Reviews 5
Approval 96%
Soundoffs 41
Album Ratings 313
Objectivity 77%
Last Active 02-05-09 5:24 am
Joined 05-23-04
Review Comments 347
| My Favorite Time Signatures to write in
Time signatures that I really enjoy in, be it whole songs, chord progressions, riffs, little pieces of filler - you get the gist. | | 1 | 9/8
Maybe it's something to do with 9 being a perfect square. Maybe it's because there are three dominant beats, each containing three smaller beats. For some reason, writing in 9/8 is just a blast. It can be easily run as three triple pulses, or as a bar of 4/4 with an extra eighth note added on. It can be done with 5 and 4. It's just got such a neat, crisp pulse, and you can do so much with it at any tempo. Tack on a measure of 8/8 (or 4/4) and you've got yourself a nice dropped beat for flavor. Throw on a bar of 6/8 or 3/8 and let the fun begin. This is my favorite of the compound times - incredibly easy to write in and simple to seperate into smaller units, and has a really great character to build off of. | | 2 | 4/4
This has been around forever. It's a classic, tried and true beyond all hope of novelty. 4/4 is really easy to navigate in, yet provides so much room to explore without much hassle. It's incredibly simple to catch a listener's ear with syncopations, as even non-musicians know 4/4 like the back of their hand, and come to expect it - you can either easily please the listener with very straightforward writing and explore harmonically, or you can dabble with syncopated rhythms and give them a thrill as their ear twists to keep up with the changes. Or both! | | 3 | 7/8
7/8 is almost a cliche outlet for avant garde, but I love finding ways to keep it fun. Carrying one chord over into the next to give a 7/8 work a feel of 8 and 6 is something I enjoy, and that opens up opportunities for spots of 8 or 6 to sneak in for variety. 4 and 3 is a bit passe by now, so 7/8 forces me to work harder if I want to be truly original with it. | | 4 | 12/8
12/8 has always had a really strong drive for me whenever I hear it. Most musicians like to feel it in 4 with a triplet pulse, and so do I - there's something very natural to the ear about a measure that feels in 4, and something exciting to ear about triplets. It's an elegant combination of familiarity and adventure, as well as being liberatingly simple to write in effectively. | | 5 | 3/4
"Waltz Time", as it were. Second in popularity in most music only to 4/4, 3/4 has a great knack for really snappy pacing and dance-like rhythm. It's a very functional time signature, fairly easy to write in, and has a nice kinesthetic touch to it. | | 6 | 13/8
13/8 has so many fun ways that you can divide it up using combinations of standard and/or non-standard counting units - 6 and 7, 8 and 5, 4 and 4 and 4 and 1, 6 and 6 and 1, 4 and 5 and 4... 13/8 has an interesting habit of both flowing wonderfully and providing a strong pull for the ear when written well. | | 7 | 11/8
I finally found out how to actually write in 11/8 and make it fluid. Literally just today. I'm really excited - 11/8 is awesome to use in the context of other meters like 12/8 and 9/8. It snakes its way in and throws in a surprise as a beat or two is dropped, depending on how you phrased it, across barlines or not - it's a strange world, and new, but I already love it. | |
Spectrum
10.12.06 | Okay, can someone explain why the descriptions I added for each one doesn't show up at all? Once again, I had a nice description for each one, and once again they fail to appear. | TurnTheOtherWay
10.12.06 | Descriptions never have worked and never will work. Get over it. | Spectrum
10.12.06 | Thanks, Iluvator. I'll keep that in mind from now on. | ScelusNefas
10.12.06 | Nice list idea. Don't you like 7/4? | Spectrum
10.12.06 | I haven't tried writing in 7/4 yet... I'm still experimenting with lots of new ideas. I'll have to try it out, it sounds, concpetually, pretty interesting. | wikuk
10.12.06 | 3/4 is great for headbanging, but personally I find 15/16 probably the best "strange" time signature. | YDload
10.12.06 | Good one punkbass! Although the occasional 3/4 or 6/8 is nothing to scoff at, some people try way too hard to make their music as awkward as themselves. | pulseczar
10.13.06 | I like writing stuff in 5/4 and 6/8 when it comes to varying time sigs, those two come very naturally to me. Thank you Jethro Tull! | wikuk
10.13.06 | @ Punkbass & YDLoad
Listen to some prog man, I'm not a nerd, just a musician genius ;) | C20H25N3O
10.13.06 | hmmm
7/8, 13/8, 11/8.....
....Are you by chance a fan of Math Rock? | MrKite
10.13.06 | i dont understand time signatures, never have, and never will. do you think it helps in making up cool riffs and what not? if so i might look into it. | Spectrum
10.13.06 | @ MrKite:
It certainly helps in understanding what you're doing. I wrote a riff one time that turned out ran 8 beats, then 6, but knowing that two bars of 7/8 would fit the riff in nicely and get a neat syncopation in the second half was certainly a bonus in making it a better riff, particularly when the rhythm section was added. You should study time signatures simply to better understand the nature of a lot of music.
@ Cocaine and Toupees:
I mostly get it from listening to Progressive. To my knowledge, I don't really know any so-called "Math Rock", but I do know what it implies and I can understand where you might think that. I see bands like Yes, Rush, and Tool doing really cool things with time signatures, and I'm currently experimenting with a variety of shapes and sizes and flavors in my music. These are the ones that I particularly enjoy writing in right now. | pinelake26
10.29.06 | it says in his profile that he likes proggressive rock...
good list rock on |
|
