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Drum beat time signature help

OK, I came up with a guitar chord progression I'm fond of and am trying to fit a drum beat to it. Bear with me because musical notation and time signatures aren't my forte (ahahaha... ahem).

So... the timing of the chords basically goes like this:

1-2-3 -- 1-2-3-4

The bold numbers are the stressed beats. You could get an idea of my rhythm/strum pattern by doubling it like this:

1-2-3 -- 1-2-3 -- 1-2-3-4 -- 1-2-3-4

If you want to put chords to that pattern to really imagine what I'm strumming it would go like this:

F F G G Em Em F F
1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4-

So musically it doesn't sound all that odd or irregular, but I can't find a standard or compound drum pattern that seems to fit.

I'm starting to wonder if the actual time signature of the whole measure is 3/4, with two added beats at the end... like this:

1-2-3 -- 1-2-3 -- 1-2-3 -- 1-2-3 -- 1-2

But those last two beats would be at a different rhythm/meter than the 3/4 part... they would sound spread out kind of. Lol, I'm sorry, I don't make any sense.

So....... any ideas what is the right time signature for this?? Thanks!

Comments

  • It looks like it could be a changing time signature from 3/4 to 4/4 or you might be able to use 7/4 but it really depends on where you feel the beat and rhythmic groupings and how it's accented. Any two people could feel and count time signatures differently.

    Hope this helps!

  • Hmm, okay, that's kind of what I was expecting, but I wish it could be just some concrete known time signature that I could find a loop for, haha... And I really have no idea how to program drums manually if the time signature is indeed split/changed in the middle of the measure.

    I did find this "4 over 3 polyrhythm" on youtube that worked pretty well, although that's not exactly standard either.

    When I get a chance I'll try to record a quick guitar clip so you can hear what I'm actually playing and see if there's an easier way to break it down. Thanks

  • While it's hard to know how to program it without hearing it, my understanding is you're stressing the '1' in each grouping of 3, and again on the last 2 beat phrase. If you're looking to program this into a sequencer or daw, I would program it as 4 bars of 3/4 followed by 1 bar of 2/4. I think that will make it easier to work with rather then trying to make it it fit 7/4.

    I usually go with either the "musical phrase" is (think Pink Floyd's Money which is 7/4) or the easiest way to track it in the program, such a breaking it down to [4bars of 3/4, 1bar of 2/4] as a repeating motif. Does that help?

  • Yeah that definitely makes sense, it's kind of like finding the lowest common denominator in a way. I'll give it a shot... I've mixed 3/4 and 4/4 in a song before in Cubasis, but it was entire large sections of the song (verse: 3/4, bridge/solo: 4/4) so it was a pretty obvious split. But I don't see why it wouldn't work for a single measure, if I can arrange each piece right in a drum app.... thanks

  • I'm not that familiar with Cubasis (I'm an Auria user), but could you create a template of the initial phrase and then just copy/paste it then just remove any note info? Might save some labor.....

  • It could be that your rhythm is in 14. This may seem to be a ridiculously large number but in Flamenco, for example, many of their rhythms are based around 12s. For many years it's been written as a composite rhythm, using a combination of 3s and 2s, but really it's a 12 rhythm. Maybe just create a rhythm that fits your strumming - I know that Drumperfect can create 14/4 rhythms for example. You could build it up using 3s and 4s within the 14 structure, but in the end step back from it and it's a distinctive rhythm over 14.

  • Would recommend you check out this app... Rhythm calculator. It's great.

    https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rhythm-calculator-advanced/id527973842?mt=8

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