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Posted by Jimb0b on Dec-24-2008 13:12:

Time Signatures...

Its not something I pay alot of attention to in all honesty, always just stick to a 4/4 signature, im not even too sure if im talking about the right thing here, but if you take a listen to guru josh - infinity (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5goywqfUhek), then this still has 4 beats to a bar, but has 5 bars to each phrase instead of the usual 4, would this be refered to as a different time signature ?

I cant quite get my head around how it sounds natural, and unobvious that theres an additional bar in there every phrase (each phrase = 20 beats instead of the usual 16)

Would you say this is common in dance music, and also have I got my terminology right? is a "phrase" your 16 or 20 beats / 4 or 5 bars (1 bar being 4 beats).

Also is time signature of 4/4, meaning 4 beats to a bar, and 4 bars to a phrase, in which case would the guru josh track be a 4/5 signature ? 4 beats to a bar and 5 bars to a phrase?

A bit n00bish question im affraid, but would like to get it straight in my mind!

Posted by Vortex_SA on Dec-24-2008 13:30:

its a reghular 4/4 its just that every 4 bars there is an extra "transition bar", it sounds good cos its not an actual part of the theme, pay close attention and see that on the parts without the sax there are plenty of 4 bar phrases, and its also a common thing to do phrases of 6 bars (not in trance, but generally..) 5 bars, 4 and 3 bars... as long as it sounds good it sounds good

Posted by hasbone on Dec-24-2008 13:47:

4/4 just means four crotchets (quarter notes)

Posted by Jimb0b on Dec-24-2008 13:53:

Thanks for the reply.

Im a right in saying that a "phrase" is 4 bars?

Posted by Vortex_SA on Dec-24-2008 13:58:

quote:
Originally posted by Jimb0b
Thanks for the reply.

Im a right in saying that a "phrase" is 4 bars?

A Phrase is a musical "saying" it can be 3,4,5,6,whatever bars

Posted by Jimb0b on Dec-24-2008 14:15:

Thanks, I just wasnt too sure if a phrase may refer to say 16 or 32 bars, as the majority of trance (a bit of a generalisation I know!), works in say 16 bars ( say 4*16 (64) bars for the intro, until the breakdown), I wasnt too sure if these 16 (or the 64) would be reffered to as a phrase, or maybe each 16 bar segment is just called a "part".

I sort of rambled on a bit there, dont know it that makes sense! lol

Posted by david.michael on Dec-24-2008 14:21:

A time signature of 4/4 means that there are 4 beats per measure, and that a quarter note is considered one beat.

A time signature of 6/8 means that there are 6 beats per measure, and that an eighth note is considered one beat.

Make sense?

Posted by Lolo on Dec-24-2008 15:24:

Belfunk from Sasha is also a 5 bar sequence. But Time signature remains 4/4

Funny is 6/4 with progressive trance. With the snare or clap at 4/6. Solarism was like that. 7/4 and 7/8 are extremely funny too for chillout and ambient.