What time signature is this, 4/4 or 8/8 ?

[hybrid3]

Hi all,

My girlfriend is taking a belly dance class and her homework from their last meeeting is to do a rough analysis of some music they are supposed to be using the next time.

Her instructor has indicated a certain part of the music to be in 8/8 or 4/8, though to me it sounds just like plain 4/4. Could someone please have a listen and tell me what you think?

www.sabelpoot.se/henrik/magdans.mp3

[Baxter]

Hello, hybrid3:

I agree with you. To my ear, this piece of music seems to have somewhat of a Western "pop" influence, and in that kind of music the snare drum tends to accent the "back beats," which are counts 2 and 4. This example represents a somewhat less common subset of this scheme, wherein the first back beat, which normally occurs on count 2, is played one eight note earlier, on the second half of beat 1, which is commonly referred to as the "and" after beat 1 (eighth notes most commonly being counted "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" in 4/4 time, at least here in America). Since this scheme doesn't vary within the audio example you posted, I see no need to change the time signiture, and thus I perceive the entire example to be in 4/4 time, with a somewhat moderate tempo of around 100 beats per minute.

Baxter.

[jancivil]

The reason a dance person would call it 8 beats is so they can hit the offbeats via counting.

[Lotuzia]

4/4

Dancers can count 8th notes if they want

LtZ

[jancivil]

NB., the OP/context: girlfriend is taking a belly dance class
instructor has indicated a certain part of the music to be in 8/8 or 4/8

There would be no objective difference, quite obviously. The subject is dance.

[hybrid3]

Hi all, thanks for your responses!

Jancivil, that does make sense as the instructor apparently divides everything into "danceable" units of 8's.

Mystery solved, then.

Talking about time signatures, I watched parts of a "Zappa plays zappa" on the TV yesterday. Really really cool, I gotta experiment more with this.

[xtp]

Hi all,

My girlfriend is taking a belly dance class and her homework from their last meeeting is to do a rough analysis of some music they are supposed to be using the next time.

Her instructor has indicated a certain part of the music to be in 8/8 or 4/8, though to me it sounds just like plain 4/4. Could someone please have a listen and tell me what you think?

www.sabelpoot.se/henrik/magdans.mp3

I lived with a girl for a while who was a belly dancer and she seemed to do a lot in 2/2 time. Maybe a different form.

[duncanparsons]

tbh, this comes across as 2/4 to me - it's a march, ornamented, but still a march. It reminds me of a Tango, as it goes.

But yes, for teaching and ease of breaking down for movement, etc, the teacher may well count it down in 8s

DSP

[PonyNoseMusic]

I've played percussion for some years, starting in the the 70's (yes, I'm an old fart) and I've studied Doumbek (the Middle Eastern belly dance drum).

This is a "standard" drumbeat that I've played before & can't quite remember the name. Hey, it's been 20 years since I've played Doumbek!

Anyway, this is 4/4.

[Sauhaq]

The name of this particular rhythm (Or Iqaa) is Saidi - And most commonly is referred to as 4/4. However, having worked with many belly dancers, they often break it down into eight counts, since the majority of emphasis on belly dance movement is on the 'up' beat, or 'off' beat - Which is not counted when counting out a steady 'four'.

So instead of counting: 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND 4 AND

They simply count: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
___





Hope this helps