Musicians... help me understand time signatures..

[garycat]

please!

Stuff like 4/4 or 6/8 (waltz?) is pretty straightforward but how do you go about working out the time sig for a piece like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTUl-AMoJpU

Is it just the time sig that changes or the beat as well?

[GetCarter]

Probably the best way to write that so that people could read it would be a bar of 4/4 followd by a bar of 3/4, then back to 4/4 for two bars - then it repeats. The fact that the accents are not on the backbeat (ie 2 and 4 of a 4/4 riff) doesn't affect the time signature.

If you just count along and forget the accents it's just

1234
123
1234
1234

ETA - here is something I wrote nearly 20 years ago (hence sounds!) it's in 5/4 - and it doesn't matter where the drummer is accenting (which because it is neal wilkinson it's all over the bloody place) http://www.stevecarter.com/fivefour.mp3

Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 5th March 12:10

[iRoll]

@ GetCarter. Had a listen through some of the sample bits on your site. "Winter Sorrow" sounds very similar at points to the strings on "Way To Blue" by Nick Drake.

I approve of this.