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Help me understand something...
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Maine Coon
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Oct 6, 2010 00:33
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That's right.
If you are writing on staff paper and your time signature is 3/4, you cannot write whole notes - they won't fit into a measure.
You can use whole (4/4) notes in your composition, but you cannot draw them on paper. The way around this problem is to write a 3/4 note (a half with a dot next to it) in one bar, another 1/4 note of the same pitch in the next bar - and connect them with a legato sign across the border between the bars. Whenever you see notes of the same pitch connected by legato, it just means that the original note keeps playing with no break. That's the trick. 
Of course, you wouldn't have to jump through these hoops in a piano roll: you can place a single 4/4 "brick" across borders between bars and your DAW won't complain. |
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jekvan
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Oct 11, 2010 01:41
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On 2010-10-04 23:57:58, aciduss wrote:
I'm struggling a little to understand this.
In a 4/4 signature:
You divide a bar into 4 measures and:
- Whole note = 1 bar (4/4)
- Half note = 1/2 bar
- Quarter note = 1/4 bar
And so on... right?
But in a 3/4 signature...
I don't get the following issue: If a whole note equals the whole bar then in 3/4 the bar is divided in 3 measures not 4, right?
Then, why the heck is a black note considered still a quarter note when in fact it represents a third of a bar?
I'm thinking the subdivision of notes is not related to the actual beat division on a bar, which makes this a little confusing for me.
I'm trying to learn compound and additive rhythms but i just cant understand this basic concept and this i'm unable to move forward in my rhythm education.
Well, in advance thanks.
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The time signatures have nothing to do with length of notes.
If I remember correctly,time signature is there to:
In your DAW,your bar is constant size 4/4,which is not always the case in your "classic" manner.If you saw some time a note score (those 5 lines),in the beggining,there is a "key" which tells you what octave you should play.
After that "key" ,you have a time signature.Now,it changes from composition to composition.What da sheyze it means?IT MARKS THE SIZE OF YOUR BAR.
Your bar can be what size you want.Lets say,what does 3/4 means?It means:In one bar you have 3 quarters of a note.What does 4/4 means?It means,in one bar you have 4 quarter.What does 3/8 means?It means,one bar has-you guessed it,3 eights.
It is confusing,because your bar in your DAW (I meanwhile used one ,learning another one,and saw tutorials made in a third one,and they all seem to make same thing) is 4/4.You have one 4/4 marked with one color,next 4/4 marked with different color,that is the way it is quantized in DAWs.You are used to work with 4/4 bars,when in reality,you can write notes in bar size you want,just put the size of it in the beggining of the note thingy.
The bar size is your rithm.I don't exactly remember how it works,but I think you hit a first note in your bar a bit harder,which gives it sort of a rythm (Well,it's not exactly that,but that's at list the part I remember).
Look at youtube for time signatures,there are folks there who know their shit. |
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Maine Coon
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Oct 11, 2010 03:16
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In which DAW is it always 4/4?
One very sad DAW, if that's true... |
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jekvan
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Oct 11, 2010 03:40
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Quote:
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On 2010-10-11 03:16, Maine Coon wrote:
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In which DAW is it always 4/4?
One very sad DAW, if that's true...
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Well,as you pointed,you have no problems to lay a notes the way you want in DAW's piano rolles.
The thing is,you kinda get the impression you should work in 4/4.In reason,in flstudio,you have the piano rolles,where after 4 fourth note,the bar changes color.In flstudio for example you have a 4/4 bar in one color,then a different shade 4/4 bar,then again and so on...
Do a quantize to your tune in reason or flstudio,it will relocate "misplaced" notes to the nearest bar-which is 4/4 one.
Maybe I just haven't played enough to see you can change the bar sizes,but in those two,from what I saw,it is more easy to work 4/4 bars,they mark it for you,they made options that have 4/4 bars in mind,and so on.
After all,it is one of the most popular time singatures out there (I am not sure if it is the most popular,or 3/4 or 2/4 is most popular in music).For quantized music type,it is most popular time signature. |
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Maine Coon
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
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Posted : Oct 11, 2010 04:15
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You can set your own time signature. It just defaults to 4/4 (just because pretty much all EDM is in that signature). You can change it (at least, in Ableton).
You are still not completely free - it will not let you set the time signature to 11/12, for example. But 3/4 is a simple matter of clicking on "4" and typing "3" instead.  |
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Plasmorh
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
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559
Posted : Oct 12, 2010 02:11
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AHHHH music theory!!!!
 I want a spare brain.... or 2. |
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Pagan
Started Topics :
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98
Posted : Oct 12, 2010 08:12
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mudpeople
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Oct 24, 2010 16:40
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My DAW hasnt got a piano roll yet... Renoise displays patterns in the classic tracker view, which is sort of like a spreadsheet. It lets me set BPM and lines/beat, which I usually set to 8, but I guess if I really tried I could do other timesigs though I don't yet have an application for em.
My personal note regarding music theory; Its good to have at least some familiarity with it, but it is by no means necessary if you have a decent ear. Creativity shouldn't be constrained by textbook rules, sometimes learning too much about something gets in the way, holding back ideas that may not fit into textbook definitions. It IS a good idea to acquaint yourself with chords, scales, and the circle of 5ths, if only because it helps the workflow go faster when you know what other notes to include to make what chord and how to tune everything so nothing is out of tune (that is, if you want em in tune) and the whole mix harmonizes well.
Rules regarding any art are made to be broken, how else can their strength be tested? If they break, they weren't strong ENOUGH i guess  . Experiment!
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