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Old 06-09-2006, 04:55 PM
tawei82 (Offline)
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What timing is this?

When i hear dream theater or yanni song, I often hear this timing:
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and.......
They miss 1 "and" in the 4th beat. I certainly make the music more lively and push music up (or upbeat i would say). how to write in the theory? and when or how to make use of it?
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Old 06-09-2006, 05:13 PM
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It’s very common in folk music from the Balkan countries, and is notated in 7/8. Stravinsky also uses it in e. g. the ballet Petrouchka.



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Old 02-11-2006, 03:12 AM
stevel (Offline)
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Originally Posted by tawei82 View Post
When i hear dream theater or yanni song, I often hear this timing:
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 1 and.......
They miss 1 "and" in the 4th beat. I certainly make the music more lively and push music up (or upbeat i would say). how to write in the theory? and when or how to make use of it?
As Thorolf responded, it is usually 7/8. Rush and Tool are also bands that use this a lot, as well as things like Pink Floyd's "Money" which might be better considered 7/4 (or alternating 4/4 and 3/4).

Often 7/8 is called an "asymmetrical meter" which means it is divided into smaller segments that are uneven. For instance, 3/4 is usually grouped as 3 groups of 2 8th notes. 7/8 is very often (especially in pop music) grouped as 2+2+3 - so if you were counting 8th notes you might count:
12 12 123 (evenly of course), or:
1 and 2 and 3 and and (so see how it's like 3 "unequal" beats?).

Other groupings are common though - 3+2+2, and 2+3+2 are possible.

Another way to use it is to treat it like a "dropped" beat (or half a beat in this case) as your Dream Theater examples. They also do this thing often where they ADD an 8th note, son they play 9/8 as if it was 4/4 plus a half a beat, like 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and and (whereas 9/8 is historically 3 groups of 3 when symmetrical).

You can have some fun with this - take "normal" meters and add or subtract half of a beat: If you see 4/4 as 8/8, you can change it to 9/8 or 7/8. Likewise, if you think of 4/4 as 16/16, you can change it to 15/16 or 17/16.

Best,
Steve
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