Questions tagged [meter]
The rhythmic organization of music into regularly recurring measures dictated by a time signature.
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What is the difference between "Asynchronous" and "Syncopated" meters?
While working the above problem, I found it difficult to understand the difference between "asynchronous" and "syncopated" meters. I understand that the first meter is a simple ...
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What pickup time signature is this [closed]
How can you have an eighth note quadruplet and three eighth notes after. And how can you have a quadruplet with a dotted half note and two quarter notes?
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What are common pop/rock cadences and metrical stresses [closed]
I'm going through Joe Mulholland & Tom HijNacki's "Berkelee Book of Jazz Harmony" Chapter 1 and I have a few questions...
I see the various plagals, half cadence, deceptives, etc...Are ...
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Is there a notation for borrowing a beat from the next measure?
First off, just to be clear, this is a purely historical/theoretical question. In the example I'm going to give, I think it would universally be considered clearer just to write it in 4/4, maybe with ...
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Question about beats and their inheritance of accents on the rhythm
I see that I've created a lot of confusion with my original question, so I have decided to send the author of "How to read Music in 30 Days, English 2022 Ed." a detailed question that should ...
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Is there any name or theory around every other chord changing "early", on the four-beat?
Is there a name for the following chord change rhythm? I was trying to see if I could make an acoustic-strummed version of "King of Wishful Thinking" sound good, and I couldn't help but ...
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What is it called when the main melody is playing in a different time signature from the harmony?
For example, in the Phantasy Star Online Intro song, the main melody starts to play in 3/4 time, whereas the overall song (and the harmony) remains playing in 4/4 time. (starts after 10 seconds, at ...
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How do we know where line breaks occur in lyrics?
When looking up written lyrics of songs, multiple sources tend to put line breaks in the same place. My question is how do the people transcribing the songs know where to put the line breaks?
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What is the conventional way to notate a meter with accents on every second 8th note?
In rock music (or jazz, or pop, or funk) it is a common practice to make accents on every second quarter note in 4/4 time signature. But it is also quite common to make accents on every second eighth ...
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How do "dotted-crotchet = one beat" teachers address "irregular compound" meters (e.g., 5/8)?
"Ordinary" Compound Meter
I was taught that 6/8 time, for example, meant "six beats in a measure; the eighth note (quaver) gets one beat." Similarly, 9/8 would be "nine beats ...
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How did Western music come to embrace metrical rhythm as its primary metric structure?
Western music generally uses a limited set of metrical rhythms — simple and compound meters in accent groupings of 2, 3, or 4.1 With exceptions, of course, this is true in the bulk of classical music, ...
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Can I use/when can I use dotted rests in time signatures such as 5/8 or 7/8?
I'm writing a song that changes to 7/8 and I'm wondering if or when dotted rests are appropriate (assuming that dotted rests are appropriate for compound meters).
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Metronome/tempo markings
What does the following equation mean, as shown in the second to last line? What significance does this have in music? I have also seen this for different values as well.
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Notation question: Adding half a beat to a bar?
I've run into a quirk in a piece I'm writing, something I've never had to deal with—any ideas?:
The piece is in 4/4. One bar has an extra half-beat (with 18 sixteenth notes rather than 16).
4.5/4 = 9/...
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Gnossiennes and Free Time
I'm looking at Erik Satie's Gnossiennes, specifically Nos. 1-3, but for simplicity let's just consider Gnossienne No. 1.
Most editions (see IMSLP) are engraved without a time signature nor with any ...
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Eliminate ties via additive meter?
I'm making a piano arrange of 裸の勇者.
Many times, I put ties in the middle of the bar:
These ties are noisy; I'd like to remove them. But I placed them there in the belief that they're required for ...
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How are beats divided in simple/compound/odd meters supposed to sound different?
This is a question somewhat difficult to explain, in music theory it is said that simple, compound and odd meters subdivide into beats that are grouped into 2s for simple, 3s for compound and 2s 3s or ...
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Is there such a thing as back beat hypermeter?
The idea of hypermeter is that there is a metrical structure at the level of the measure. In other words, instead of counting 1–2–3–4 as beats in a measure of 4/4, we can actually count "1" ...
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How can you tell the difference between 3/4 time and 6/8 time? Or 3/2 time and 6/4 time?
When given any sheet of music without the time signature and you are given the choice of 3/4 and 6/8, how would you know which one would be the appropriate choice?
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The Actual Purpose of the Bottom Number in Time Signatures [duplicate]
I understand that 4/4 time signatures mean that there are 4 beats per measure, and that those beats are quarter notes. However this is the point where I get confused as I’ve listened to and have seen ...
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Add bar lines with the beats below each measure
Hello, I need to complete these exercises. I need to add bar lines and label the beats.
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What time signature should I use with partial triplets?
Say I have six groupings of eighth note triplets, 18 total notes. I want to play 16 eighth note triplets, leave off the last two notes ("partial triplet"), and repeat the section.
To my ear, ...
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Orchestral score has inconsistent time signature changes and note lengths
I'm learning music notation and as both a fan and enthusiast I bought the Star Trek: The Motion Picture film score from Omni Music Publishing. Unfortunately, I've encountered a confusing bit of ...
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Adding missing rests to 9/8 meter
I am trying to figure out the missing rests in the time signature. I think for the first bar there will be a dotted quarter rest. I am not too sure about the next one. Any hints or directions ...
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What's the best personal practice technique to improve performance of rapid meter changes?
In UK Brass Band music it's very common to have rapid meter changes in close succession, e.g. one bar of 5/8 then one of 7/8, then 2/4 then 9/8 and so on. When we're rehearsing these in person, the ...
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How do lyrics differ from prose?
Lyrics don't require meter as does poetry so what separates lyrics from prose? Reputation? Rhyme? Does meter even matter?
Example: lines 2 and 4 vary quite a bit in length
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How does one indicate time for a melody without a consistent meter? [closed]
I wrote a melody. I have trouble figuring out which time signature it belongs to. I tried different rhythms, this rhythm sounds the best. It is safe to say, this is the rhythm of this melody. But this ...
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What is it called when a sequence of notes lands on a different beat every measure?
Meshuggah does this a lot, where they will have say a 5 note sequence in 4/4. It will look like this if each note is given a number:
1234|5123|4512|3451|2345|1..
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Is there a term for repeated melodies of different length
Inspired Flight's "An Outlet" is an example of what I mean.
For the first few measures, a melody of 16 eighth notes is established in middle register (if I ...
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Fracanapa tango meter and how to write it
This is the first measure of the accordion part of Fracanapa, a Tango from Astor Piazzolla (you can easily find it on YouTube).
In the first 19 measures the meter of the accordion part is 3,3,2 and ...
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How does the bottom number of the time signature affect counting?
I have learnt all the complicated mathematics subjects in my school, but that bottom number, I can't understand.
Ok, the notation will be different, and it will say what kind of note gets the beat, ...
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Can someone tell me the meter of the verses, chorus, and bridge in "A Night in Tunisia" by Ella Fitzgerald [closed]
I have a project for my music class where I need to analyze a song and I am having trouble figuring out the meter of each section. Could someone help me out?
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Is there a name for arranging a triple-meter piece into quadruple meter?
Is there a technical name for when a piece originally in triple meter is arranged into quadruple meter? (Usually this is done by doubling the first a beat.)
For example, the quadruple-meter ...
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Just how specific is the term "hemiola"?
In Name and structure of staggering beat in Ramones' “Merry Christmas,” the rhythm in the second measure of the following example is described as a hemiola:
But to me, these are just triplets and not ...
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Is 7/8 an example of measured rhythm or metrical rhythm?
Wikipedia provides the following definitions:
Metrical rhythm, by far the most common class in Western music, is where each time value is a multiple or fraction of a fixed unit (beat, see paragraph ...
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Can irrational meters use any positive integer or only certain integers?
As I understand it, an irrational meter is when the bottom number on the time signature is not a power of 2, i.e. 1,2,4,8,16, 32, etc. An example irrational meter that I've seen is 5/24. According to ...
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Can beats in fractional meters be grouped? If so, are the groups integers or not?
I learned recently that time signatures can be fractional in the top number. For example, 2.5/4 meter.
For normal time signatures, they have integer grouping structures. For example,
4/4 meter has a ...
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Can 15/8 meter be regrouped into 3 beats each with 5 eighth notes? If so, what kind of meter would this be?
Suppose I was in 15/8 meter, so compound quintuple meter. This would be a grouping of 3-3-3-3-3. But suppose instead I wanted to group my meter 5-5-5. This would not be simple or compound. I was under ...
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Is there any evidence that humans perceive meter using a metrical grid?
I have been perusing Ray Jackendoff and Fred Lerdahl's book A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. In this book, they propose some rules for meter and one of their assumptions is basically that musical ...
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Are the correct Takadimi syllables notated in these exercises?
Did I put write in the correct takadimi syllables for these two exercises? Some of the syllables I wasn’t sure.
Exercise 350:
And this one number 371:
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Counting 2+3 and 4 over a beat of 4 at the same time
I'm rearranging a piece of mine from 12/8 to 4/4. This works pretty fine for the harmony since those were arpeggiated chords, 4 groups of 3. But I notice the melody is rather complicated to transfer ...
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Why does "Modern Man" from "The Suburbs (2010)" have missing beats?
I used to feel "Modern Man" from "The Suburbs (2010)" by Arcade Fire had an interesting "beat skip effect". But now when I really count the beat, there are indeed missing ...
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Rewriting in Compound Meter
I am confused on how to rewrite a piece in compound meter. Here are a few examples I have which I need to change to compound meter.
I think I need to just compound 2 measures together?
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3:2 polymeter in a single 6/4 time signature, which accent pattern would be which meter?
I've noticed that 6 allows me to have a 3:2 polymeter in a single time signature. I've thought of perhaps doing it for the Saturn movement of my Planets Suite, where some instruments have a 3/4 ...
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How to write a pickup measure with 5/16 duration in Lilypond?
I'm trying to write sheet music for a piece with a pickup measure of 5 sixteenth notes. Lilypond has the \partial command for this, but it only accepts a single duration. That duration may be dotted, ...
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What meter is it when the accented beat is the fourth beat out of six? (one-two-three-FOUR-five-six)
In this song when the drum comes in, the accented pulse is the 4th beat out of 6 in a measure. 6/8 has the accented beats on the 1st and 4th beat, but there is no accent on the 1st beat in this song. ...
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What's the time signature for "Son of Flynn" and "Recognizer" in the TRON: Legacy Soundtrack by Daft Punk? [closed]
What's the time signature for "Son of Flynn" and "Recognizer" in the TRON: Legacy Soundtrack by Daft Punk?
It seems to me that "Son of Flynn" is clearly in a mixed meter: ...
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Rhythmic/Metric Stress Patterns
The attached images are a page from Jack Perricone's Melody in Songwriting. I am familiar with the concept of stress patterns in music, but, honestly, have no idea what the hell he's on about here.
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Problem with Tempo in the Adagio from Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001 from Bach
I'm starting to studying the Adagio from Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001.
Normally I have some rhythm problems, and in this case I don't feel the pulse, my teacher has told me to study with 16 ...
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What is the name of this notation in this example by Couperin?
Consider following excerpt from the beginning of the 2nd leçon of Couperin's Leçon des ténèbres pour le mercredi saint:
As you see, it uses a rather strange notation where, for instance, a bar of 3/2 ...
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