What would the time signature for this piece be?

[Silas Martinez]

Ok, ok, I know its written in 4/4. But, if you look at the phrasing, it is more like 11/8+13/8 for each phrase .... could be looked at as 12/8, but the accenting is wrong for that.

Help, please?

[Rumblestiltzkin]

Based on the fact that are there 4 beats (8 eight notes) per measure, I'd say 4/4 is the time sig.

Time Sig Stuffs

Also I known from the symbol "C" after the bass clef means "Commom Time," or 1 beat = 1 quarter note.

[Rumblestiltzkin]

Originally Posted by khaspir

Ok, ok, I know its written in 4/4. But, if you look at the phrasing, it is more like 11/8+13/8 for each phrase .... could be looked at as 12/8, but the accenting is wrong for that.

Help, please?

No, I see nothing written here but a bunch of 8th notes. If the phrasing is "different" then this notation is wrong.
Just because the notes stop playing in the half bar and a half doesn't mean you start playing again. There are a full and a half measure rest in there dude.

[The BurgerMeister]

it is 4/4, or "common time" (symbolized by the "C" after the bass clef).

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well - it is just 8th notes and definitely in 4/4 - it looks as if there is a mistake in the second to last bar though - which needs a rest!

[The BurgerMeister]

it looks more like it isn't finished. it "ends" on what's seemingly the fifth. when i played through it, i was compelled to play an A at the "end."

[Jazzin']

If one were to listen to that without seeing what it looked like on paper, one would not guess it to be 4/4. It looks like a series of 6/8 and 7/8 ordered almost randomly.

[cowsgomoo]

it's 4/4

there's sometimes a wide gulf between phrasing and time signature... just because the phrases are in groups of 6 & 7 eighth notes doesn't mean the composer didn't have good reasons for sticking to 4/4, depending on what else is going on in the music

if you look at polymetric stuff like most of Stravinsky's 'l'histoire du soldat', the bass phrasing frequently bears no relation to the time signature... usually you're required to plug away in one meter while the rest of the ensemble implies another (or several) meter on top of it... all good fun

[dlloyd]

Given that it's written in Finale Notepad, I'm guessing that the OP transcribed it and the Common time signature and bar lines are probably a red herring.

There appears to be a repeated pattern in the bassline... Counting from the low 'E's, the first phrase is 13 eighth notes long and the second phrase is 16 eighth notes long. This is repeated, ABAB.

With no other context, and ignoring the bar lines as they are, I'd guess it was something like

||: 4/4  | 5/8  | 4/4  |      :||

Mind you, given that the bar lines are probably wrong, I'd have to wonder if the rhythm as written is accurate.

[Bruce Lindfield]

There's definitely a mistake in the notation somewhere!

Without knowing the peculiarities of the software or the original piece - it's difficult to say where, though!!

[dlloyd]

Bruce, do you mean because of the lack of a rest in the penultimate bar? Finale Notepad does that as you're editing.

The last note being pink suggests he's just entered that note and pressed print screen.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well as I say - I have no familiarity with that software so there's no way I could know that!

[Silas Martinez]

You're absolutely right, dlloyd - Finale notepad it is. This thread got an awful lot of attention while I was sleeping..

That is why I mentioned 'overlooking the time of the piece as written' - I'm pretty unfamiliar with the software, and could not get it to cooperate with me.

I also think you came close to the pattern, it is based on those low Es.

Not to derail, but can anyone recommend notation software that doesn't try to help out with time signatures?

I *know* the best way to do it is to write it by hand - but I have a strong preference for keeping things digital as far as record keeping, and don't have a scanner.

[dlloyd]

I'm thinking of trading up to the full version of Finale as Finale Notepad is pretty limited in its capabilities. Notepad can only deal with simple time signatures as far as I can work out.

Powertab is a pretty good free piece of software, but you have to enter the music as tab (although it displays the standard notation). It used to have a slight glitch where it would put the key signature in the wrong place on the bass clef, but is otherwise great.

[Silas Martinez]

Originally Posted by dlloyd

Powertab is a pretty good free piece of software, but you have to enter the music as tab (although it displays the standard notation). It used to have a slight glitch where it would put the key signature in the wrong place on the bass clef, but is otherwise great.

Ugh. Trying to stay away from Tab, as much as possible. I used to rely on tab, but haven't really touched it, nor wanted to touch it, in quite some time.

I suppose I could cope with it from an 'entering notation' point of view, but I do prefer to write with standard notation - it works that part of my brain, which is something I feel I need.

Maybe I need to do some research.

[lemur821]

I don't see what makes 4/4 a bad signature for this. I see several four-beat patterns here. Going by two-beat patterns I'm getting AB|CD|EB|CF|EB|CX|YB if I assign a letter name to each. A, C, and E appear only at the front of a measure, and B appears only at the end. It looks like 8 beat phrases to me, assuming this timing is right.

[MonetBass]

You might try Finale SongWriter. It's only $50 and will probably do what you need.

[Jazzin']

I'd call it 6/8 with random eighth notes added in, individually.