7/8 Timing Composition Tips?

[kajiotaku]

All I wanted to know was how to start using 7/8 timing because it sounded neat and I wanted to expand my horizons and experiment. What's with all the arguing and such?

I want to try a new way of thinking. There's nothing wrong with that.

[Ogg Vorbis]

All I wanted to know was how to start using 7/8 timing because it sounded neat and I wanted to expand my horizons and experiment. What's with all the arguing and such?

I want to try a new way of thinking. There's nothing wrong with that.

I'd like to apologize for my personal negative message. Can you explain WHY you think that 7/8 meter is neat and not 11/16? Thank you.

[kajiotaku]

I'd like to apologize for my personal negative message. Can you explain WHY you think that 7/8 meter is neat and not 11/16? Thank you.

I heard some 7/8 dubstep and I felt compelled to try it out. It was just on a whim. Also: I never said 11/16 wasn't neat. As far as I can tell I haven't really heard any 11/16 (or at least knew that it was 11/16).

[Ogg Vorbis]

I'd like to apologize for my personal negative message. Can you explain WHY you think that 7/8 meter is neat and not 11/16? Thank you.

I heard some 7/8 dubstep and I felt compelled to try it out. It was just on a whim. Also: I never said 11/16 wasn't neat. As far as I can tell I haven't really heard any 11/16 (or at least knew that it was 11/16).

Ah, got it! I am going to have to look up dubstep...

[kajiotaku]

Ah, got it! I am going to have to look up dubstep...

Most dubstep is just in 4/4. This is the song I heard:

http://soundcloud.com/altair/outsider-part-1

Nice and smooth...

[kbaccki]

Hmm... a half time feel in 7/4?

Cool track. Fades out too fast though.

[Ogg Vorbis]

Ah, got it! I am going to have to look up dubstep...

Most dubstep is just in 4/4. This is the song I heard:

http://soundcloud.com/altair/outsider-part-1

Nice and smooth...

Assuming the pulse is quarter notes, I'd call that 7/4. Nice groove actually! It doesn't sound too forced into an odd meter.

[jens]

my own musical experience led me to explore the practical aspects of these types of things from a relatively early musical age... odd times, polyrhythms, whatever. OK, so I was listening to Moving Pictures, Stewart Copeland, etc., over and over.

that's the same for me - since I've been nine Genesis was and still is (one of) my most favourite band(s) and I also grew up listening to other prog such as Marillion, Pink Floyd ('money', here's your 7/8 in its most accessible form) Dream Theater, Rush, etc. - that's exactly why I make my points...

[jens]

As far as I can tell I haven't really heard any 11/16 (or at least knew that it was 11/16).

http://www.prinziphoffnung.com/mp3/frag ... lexity.mp3




Yes, it's age old (2003), but still...

[kajiotaku]

http://www.prinziphoffnung.com/mp3/frag ... lexity.mp3
Yes, it's age old (2003), but still...

That's awesome.

[HTBoogie]

that's the same for me - since I've been nine Genesis was and still is (one of) my most favourite band(s) and I also grew up listening to other prog such as Marillion, Pink Floyd ('money', here's your 7/8 in its most accessible form) Dream Theater, Rush, etc. - that's exactly why I make my points...

I realize that you (among others) are trying to help, but, whatever your intent, your original posts come across as the type of academic wankery that says that there is no place for academic wanking and unless you just feel the music you are nothing more than an academic wanker - better if you just happen to randomly find an odd rhythm in your composition and then voilà you finally "got it."

This kind of attitude helps no one.

Everybody, at one time or another from Mozart to Benny Goodman to Hendrix to Petrucci, asked questions like the OP and studied and discussed among their peers. The "shut up and play your guitar" idea ignores the fact that Zappa spent decades honing his craft before he wrote "five-five-FIVE."

Sorry, but stuff like 7/8 meter will always require studying it in addition to getting the feel down.

[jens]

yes and no - I absolutely agree that knowledge&theory is good and even often even neccessary.

However I still think that a more open, experimental approach is often the much better way, escpecially when it comes to autodidactic learning.

I still remember vividly that back in the 90s - before the dawn of DAWs - when I came up with a riff or pattern, and upon realizing it wasn't 4/4, I regularly asked the next person around (often my mother) to clap and loudly count for me, in order to be able to specify its time-signature.


So my general advice would be:

take any simple riff you just happen to think up and fool around with it - try to come up with variations, alternations where you leave away notes or add others i.e. try to make the riff shorter or longer - I think jerking is also important, i.e. let your body explore the rhythm (no, seriously)

[taotekid]

this

might be helpful to get the feel of the 7/8 pulse,
it's quite a fast tempo, too fast to easily count the 7 times,
but the pulse is there & (me thinks) it feels great

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

back-to-back 'tubular bells pt 1', as a kid, is the reason for me NOT being comfortable in 4/4

[jancivil]

musics which use times such as 5, 7, 9 break them down into groups of twos and threes generally