Double Bass Odd time signatures rhytms

[AndyMopley]

I have been wondering why more common time signatures (2/2, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8) seem to please my American/European-trained taste in music, than the somewhat "unnerving" odd time signatures (5/4; 7/8 and the like)?

Perhaps they feel strange when they violate those well-learned expectancies (of regular rhytms) or when grouping is ambiguous.
When grouped clearly and learned (in time) through exposure and movement, they eventually become as natural as any other meter.

Is it fair to say that cultural heritage has a lot to do with it?

Perhaps someone here who has been exposed or is a practicioner of music sound therapy may be able to offer some insight into this.
Or you may want to comment on pieces you've written in odd meters and the challanges it faced from the players and the audience alike.

Regards to all

 

[Don Hergert]

My primarily bluegrass'ish band has recently done a couple of Christmas songs in 5/4... We Three Kings, Drummer Boy, etc., songs that lent themselves to a little tweaking. I was on banjo, so I cannot speak directly to the experience on DB, but we just arranged and worked them up in 5/4 because it was fun -- in fact this whole thing was suggested by our band's double bassist (who I admire greatly). There were no real cultural reasons behind doing this, but it was a challenge and doing a few songs in 5/4 gave us some background for arranging some other songs that way in the future.

 

[MonetBass]

For some reason I love odd time signatures. This is in spite of me growing up playing standard time sigs in the orchestra for decades. Sure, we played "Appalachian Spring" and "The Rite of Spring" and other pieces with changing time signatures in college, but for the most part, it was 4/4, 3/4, or 6/8. Those odd rhythms just speak to me, though.

 

[turf3]

As the Greek band leader said to the drummer, "Look, kid, just give me a simple backbeat on 3 and 7 for crying out loud!"

 

[Major Seven]

And then there are polyrhythms.

 

[Ben Noblit]

It's always fun when educated musicians come visit us hicks for first time and have to hang with tunes that are best described as being in the time signature of 1/1.

 

[lurk]

I have a Greek drummer friend who's phone number is 123.121-2441

 

[Sean Riddle]

It’s all cultural context. For us, 4/4, 2/4, and 3/4 are what we are familiar with and have established dance cultures around. But also, we in the west have tried to intellectualize snd externalize rhythm. It’s something you have to calculate rather than feel.

Now if you go to the Balkans for example, they play in what we consider to be odd meters but they don’t think of it that way. For them it’s groupings of 2 and 3, or short and long beats for dancing. Check out this insane video of Ivo Papasov playing and try to count along with the meter changes and modulations (hint it’s next to impossible). To our ears and aesthetic preferences, this sounds like absolute chaos. But if you go to a wedding in Bulgaria for example, everyone will be dancing along!



This thread is also reminding of a great lesson on rhythm during my time at CalArts. I was taking a class on Tala (Hindustani rhythmic solfège) and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri was in town and teaching the class. We were still focusing on Tin Tal (a 16 beat rhythmic cycle) and having us work on modulating to different speeds in the cycle so that it resolves on beat 1. He challenged us figure out where we had to modulate to 1.5 speed and I vividly remember all of us trying to do the math in our heads to figure it out. One grad student was super confident he figured it out and Swapan had him demonstrate. As soon as he started he realized he was wrong and Swapan was laughing. He then perfectly executed the task without a second thought proceeded to tell us that he doesn’t believe in math. He justified it by telling us if we think of these calculations in our head while performing, we stop being present with the music and most importantly aren’t feeling anything. Lesson learned.

 

[Don Hergert]

In bluegrass or old-tyme fiddle, we just call that a crooked song.

 

[sean_on_bass]

our life experience definitely contributes greatly to our perception of music

 

[Ben Noblit]

In bluegrass or old-tyme fiddle, we just call that a crooked song.

Why ya putting a "y" in oldtime?

 

[porkynuggets]

Why ya putting a "y" in oldtime?

Thyme smells nicer than time

 

[Don Hergert]

Why ya putting a "y" in oldtime?

Hey Ben, it's regional, but most of the OT fiddlers I play with spell it that way.

 

[Ben Noblit]

Hey Ben, it's regional, but most of the OT fiddlers I play with spell it that way.

Well I can always use a reminder that it's a bigger world than I think it is apparently. Never seen that one before, you from somewhere with heavy English influence?

 

[Don Hergert]

.... you from somewhere with heavy English influence?

Nah, just an active jammer in Southern California. Our local bluegrass associations do have a good share of OT fiddlers.