The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Here ya go.



I think I may have issues...

I've got drums tracked, and my vocals are written and half recorded. This is probably my best and most complicated one of the competition ...

Rabid Garfunkel wrote:
I think I may have issues...

Seek professional help immediately!!



Steve

hah! sweet cover art...

also, shouldn't the new title be posted in the (no comments) thread up top?... Just a thought cause i missed the title til now because of that.

I've only changed time signature in song once. .. heres hopin

NUR EIN!!

I would like to see Minty Handy in this competition.

Ken, that was an incredibly nice thing to say, and I'm flattered. I'm also annoyed as hell, because I just found out about this *today* -- I would have totally been in.

Then again, I probably wouldn't have finished a song for a short film soundtrack last night that was (ahem) about three months overdue -- so perhaps it was for the best.

Nevertheless, I've listened to round zero, and I wish I could have been in it even more, because it would have forced me to bring serious game.

ps - Ken, I still need to ping you about a collab or something, haven't forgotten, the whole family just got sick again after the tour and we're only recently healed.

MH, you could always play along at home.

I've already been doing that for SongFight proper the last several weeks...

I've figured it out - my start/end riff is officially in 15/8.

I'm not much of a muso so if I haven't written this correctly then thats because I don't know what I'm doing (as usual ) but this is what I'm looking at...

1 bar lead in 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
2 bars pause 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
1 bar pause 4/4
4 bars 7/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
3 bars lead out 4/4

spOOn wrote:I'm not much of a muso so if I haven't written this correctly then thats because I don't know what I'm doing (as usual ) but this is what I'm looking at...

1 bar lead in 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
2 bars pause 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
1 bar pause 4/4
4 bars 7/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
3 bars lead out 4/4

Without even hearing it, I can tell it is going to be the dancefloor hit of the summer for cerebral palsey sufferers.

Plat wrote: [url=http://en.[CENSORED].org/wiki/List_of_works_in_unusual_time_signatures]Huge list of songs CREPE using strange time signatures[/url]

You will notice one thing that every one of those songs has in common - they are all crap.

4/4 was good enough for The Ramones and Chuck Berry - I don't see any reason to go messing with it.

Caravan Ray wrote:Without even hearing it, I can tell it is going to be the dancefloor hit of the summer for cerebral palsey sufferers.

You don't know how accurate your assumption is

spOOn wrote:I'm not much of a muso so if I haven't written this correctly then thats because I don't know what I'm doing (as usual ) but this is what I'm looking at...

1 bar lead in 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
2 bars pause 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
1 bar pause 4/4
4 bars 7/4
16 bars 4/4
1 bar fill 4/4
16 bars 4/4
4 bars 4/4
4 bars 3/4
4 bars 5/4
3 bars lead out 4/4

I could be wrong, but a proper fraction always has a numerator lesser than or equal to, the denominator. IE: 5/4 would actually be 5/8, and so on.

edit: Double thinking myself here. If what I just said is true, how would you write out compound triple time? Would 9/8 be 9/16?

Any music theory pros here that can answer this?

By the way, I'm with Caravan Ray on his 4/4 was good enough for the Ramones, it's good enough for me.

That's true (I think). But time signatures don't follow the same rules as proper fractions.

As it's been explained to me, in the case of 5/4, 5 is the beats per measure, and 4 is the note that gets the beat (quarter note). I'm sure there are more literate SFers who can elaborate on this.

Those are Time Signatures, not fractions.

The top number shows how many beats are in each bar.

The bottom number shows what note value constitutes one beat.

So, 5/4 means five quarter notes per measure. 6/8 means six eighth notes per measure.

Ken

jimtyrrell wrote:As it's been explained to me, in the case of 5/4, 5 is the beats per measure, and 4 is the note that gets the beat (quarter note). I'm sure there are more literate SFers who can elaborate on this.

you are correct. The choice between 5/4 and 5/8 is complex and relates to issues of tempo, notation, context, and feel. For certain the concept of proper or improper fraction does not apply.
In some 20th century music there are even complex time signatures like 5-and-a-half/ 8.

Yeah, I'm a musical idiot. I just strum the crap out of my guitar until the strings break, and call it art.

I knew the top number means beats, but I guess I have the proper fraction on the brain.

I've just noticed how the dots go through the holes of the yin yang thing in your avatar, it's mesmerising

jolly roger wrote:I've figured it out - my start/end riff is officially in 15/8.

Hmmm... how is 15/8 different from a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/4?

EDIT: Oops, I meant a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/8, sorry.

Lunkhead wrote:

jolly roger wrote:I've figured it out - my start/end riff is officially in 15/8.

Hmmm... how is 15/8 different from a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/4?

You know, I believe I could explain that, but I have no idea whether it would apply to JR's actual situation.

Lunkhead wrote:

jolly roger wrote:I've figured it out - my start/end riff is officially in 15/8.

Hmmm... how is 15/8 different from a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/4?

Well, that only adds up to 11/4 which is fewer beats.

The top number is the number of beats in a measure. The bottom number is what type of note equals one beat.

So, 15/4 would be the same as 15/8. You would just be using one quarter note per beat vs. one eighth note per beat.


Steve

sdurand wrote:

Lunkhead wrote:

jolly roger wrote:I've figured it out - my start/end riff is officially in 15/8.

Hmmm... how is 15/8 different from a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/4?

Well, that only adds up to 11/4 which is fewer beats.

The top number is the number of beats in a measure. The bottom number is what type of note equals one beat.

So, 15/4 would be the same as 15/8. You would just be using one quarter note per beat vs. one eighth note per beat.


Steve

Except that it's contextual. I think the most likely reason to call a measure 15/8 would be if you're playing a two measure lick in 4/4 and then in one measure you play something the same, or similar that is one 8th note shorter. ito call it 15/4 would be different. It might make more sense to make it a measure of 4/4 and a measure of 7/8, but 15/8 could potentially make sense. If you make it 8/4 and 7/4 you imply that it moves into a sort of "half-time" feel, which may not be the case. By the same token, a measure of 7/4 could also be thought of as a measure of 3 and a measure of 4. It most cases it comes down to context and ease of notation.