Why do I feel uncomfortable doing something else than 4/4?

[Chris Walton]

I don't know what it is ... maybe it's because of the amount of 4/4 music out there, maybe it's because we're wired that way, maybe because it's just me that's wired that way

All these years I've done many attempts at music that is non-4/4, that has multiple time signatures, and stuff like that, I pretty much failed. I felt uncomfortable, I couldn't get into the beat, whatever, even though I do listen to music with different and/or multiple time signatures.

Last night I forced myself and I came up with this experimental little piece, it does 4 bars 10/8, 4 bars 3/4 throughout (but see, there's still that prominent "4" number there!). I had a really hard time getting going. I did the arpy synth lead first, then I tried to play bass over it. I probably spent 20 minutes just trying to play 8 bars of simple bass, but I finally got a hold of the beat, and the rest of the song unfolded in another 10 minutes or so.

If you want to listen: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/8/31/ ... mesigs.mp3

So, why is it that 4/4 music is so common? Why is it difficult for me (and probably some others) to conceive something other than 4/4?

[stanlea]

Maybe because we just have two hands and two feet...

[stk]

No point trying to force it if you're not feeling the rhythm. You just end up looking like a dick trying to be clever. Prog rock, like. vomit.

Sometimes you just come up with melodies or rhythms that happen to be in an odd time sig.

[Vibro Larynx]

4 to the floor!!!!!
Ehm, no I really have no clue.

[KKeene]

So, why is it that 4/4 music is so common? Why is it difficult for me (and probably some others) to conceive something other than 4/4?

The human brain likes things to be simple and symmetrical.

<----Why is this post inside a rectangle and not a circle, triangle or cloud shape?---->

[Dewdman42]

You'd be surprised what you can come up with if you spend some time working with it. Film music is chock full of major changes in meter all over the place. one minute of music can easily change 10 times between 4/4, 3/4, 5/4, 2/4 and some crazy ones can even jump to other times as well. and somehow it can be done in a way that sounds completely musical and normal to the listener. It just depends on how you write the music on top of that framework.

Rock/Pop music is unlikely to sound normal, but there is some stuff that does. Rush and some other mainstream artists have managed to use non 4/4 meters quite frequently and the listener has no idea because it is expertly composed and just sounds like normal music. It still flows and makes sense in that meter.

Keep at it!

[Acrobat]

Start from 3/4, it's easier, the 5/4 is pretty understandable too. I suggest you to listen to a bunch of classical music to clearly understand the real potentials of music then apply some of what you learn from, say, Liszt or Grieg to your composition. Also folk music from your countries has lots of strange tempos, listen to traditionals from your origin country, it's easier fro your brain, those things runs in your blood even if you don't know. Classical music is just the internationalization of folk.

[Cordelia]

My problem is threes and sixes. I could write 10 CDs of waltzes.
If I write away from a sequencer, it's much more natural to come up with different time signatures. When I'm just playing guitar or piano, the time flows. I won't realise until later, when I add drums or play it with other musicians, what the time signatures actually are.

[Acrobat]

Maybe because we just have two hands and two feet...

That means we should prefer the "2-step", no?

[Acrobat]

Anyway if you analyze the most 4/4 pop song you'll notice there are lots of "internal" time signatures, everytime different. I.E: Take "Like a Virgin", the vocal part has a very weird, really cool andamento and didn't care too much of the bass part. Music is layered and, more, every layer has lots of deepening.

[paveloso]

Maybe because we just have two hands and two feet...

Yeah, that is one theory. Another one is that it's because our hearts beat in 4/4.

But then again, you go to Greece and see all these people dance very comfortably to tunes in 5/8 or 9/8. Same goes for Arabic drumming and belly dancing.

Closer to home, there are also some examples that sound quite natural, partly because we are so familiar with them. The theme for Mission Impossible (which is in 5/4), for instance. Hell, even waltzes and polkas are in an odd-time signature: 3/4.

... (Last night I forced myself and I came up with this experimental little piece, it does 4 bars 10/8, 4 bars 3/4 throughout (but see, there's still that prominent "4" number there!).

Dude, you are NEVER going to get rid of 4s in denominators, simply because that's how Western rhythmic notation works! (Unless, of course, you come up with a really avant-garde new notation system).

That is simply how music is divided: by multiples of 2. You can write stuff in out-there time signatures, like 17/16, 13/16, 9/8 and such, or a drummer can play triplets or quintuplets, etc., but the REFERENCE to which these are played is always a multiple of 2 ("3 against 4" rhythms, for example).

[Acrobat]

but the REFERENCE to which these are played is always a multiple of 2 ("3 against 4" rhythms, for example).

What about african 5 over 4? When a drummer hit 4 times, the other drummer is hitting 5 times and that runs very fine, it's incredible... I heard lots of people doing that very well here by Kenyan people on the beach here in Rome...

[paveloso]

but the REFERENCE to which these are played is always a multiple of 2 ("3 against 4" rhythms, for example).

What about african 5 over 4? When a drummer hit 4 times, the other drummer is hitting 5 times and that runs very fine, it's incredible... I heard lots of people doing that very well here by Kenyan people on the beach here in Rome...

Yes!! Africa is king when it comes to percussion polyrhythms! Those guys truly rock, man.

But again there's that big 4 (multiple of 2) in the denominator.

[jinxtigr]

You're lucky, I only feel comfortable IN odd times. Too much Crimso and Yes as a lad...

[Acrobat]

You're lucky, I only feel comfortable IN odd times. Too much Crimso and Yes as a lad...

I love "Heart of the Sunrise" from Yes, that's majesty!
Oh Fripp is a new Paganini, of course!!