I actually unashamedly sent Claire a piece for flute in 15/8. Wasn't that complicated in the other parts, was basically a bar of 4 beats and then a 4+3 quavers bar. But her part was in a sort of 4/4 polyrhythm over the top. The piece was also in Eb minor, so I'm actually still on the naughty step for that one.
Welcome Claire! Excellent explanation - especially helpful in regard to compound time. I love Eastern European folk music and some of the time signatures there are crazy - I seem to remember a 13/8! Looking forward to your next video. Hope you are going to stay around when Alex gets back 🙂 I could see you working together on these tutorials really well!
That's really interesting about Eastern European folk music - I'll have to look out for that, do you have any specific recommendations? Kind of love anything that shows that contemporary composers didn't just dream that sort of thing up 100 years ago, it goes back waaay further. Thanks for your lovely comment!
@@clairewritesmusic There are lots of traditional 7/8 songs in the Balkan region, e.g. ‘Makedonsko Devojce’, ‘Što mi e milo’ or ‘Ajde Jano’. Most of them are 3 + 2 + 2.
Congrats to Alex on his tour and welcome to Claire. Now we're going to need a collab video with Claire when Alex gets back. Maybe they could each write a melody for the other to harmonize. There's probably a way to make something like that educational 😁.
As a drummer I feel very challenged by learning to play Electric Wildlife by drummer Rodney Holmes (Santana amongst others). It has a real drive in it due to its 13/8 time measure.
Craziest time signature I've ever used in a piece would be 9/8, felt 2+2+3+2. Craziest time signature I've ever played in would be when I did Coltrane's "Countdown" in 13/8, I can't remember how it was felt though, it somehow worked...
The thing is, I've worked for many films but I always used 4/4. Sometimes I asked them to cut the scene, sometimes I found another way to synchronize it. Usually put a sound effect or changed the bpm. I will definitely try to change my measure in the next time.
As a teenager I fell in love with the early Genesis albums and other prog rock acts. If you once mastered playing along to all these odd meters, you will never fear them again. 😉 By the way, here’s a huge list of songs in odd time signatures for anyone interested: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_works_in_unusual_time_signatures
My question is about the example of using the 3/4 followed by the 6/8 because of the different pulse/emphasis applied. I know listening to it, it doesn't matter but when we score it would we need to show that in the score or just keep it all written as 3/4 but write the affected bar as if it were 6/8 with accent marks and rhythmic changes?
Very good question - you can absolutely keep it all written as 3/4, then just give your performers a little help in knowing how you want it to sound with accents as you suggest, or by beaming your rhythms differently. I.e., for the 6/8 style bar, don't beam anything across the middle of the bar!
I'm not sure what the craziest time signature I've encountered is. Probably something by Pierre Boulez when I was a kid in a choir. I instinctively improvise with mixed-time signatures. The hard part for me is figuring out the signature and tempi changes once in the DAW, recorded without a click. If anyone has tips on the matter, I'm listening.
I still kind of dont get the difference between having the "one" in 3/4 as a strong beat vs the "one" and "four" in 6/8. Is it literally just tempo at that point?
Not even tempo necessarily, as you can have a slow 6/8 or a fast 3/4 and vice versa. In many ways they are interchangeable, but in 6/8 you might have more of a feeling that the "one" is a little stronger than the "four", even though both are emphasised. So it can have a natural ebb & flow, like in a lullaby.
Claire, not sure about the size of the room you're shooting in, but one trick videographers use to reduce that giveaway that someone is using a teleprompter... is to use a longer focal length lens. That way, the deviation of the eyes away from looking straight down the lens is lessened.
Why is Claire a "British" composer? Yet Hans Zimmer is just a composer? How does the concept of this specific Union of multiple nationalist entities(Kingdoms) come into play in this field of composition education? Is Claire Scottish? Welsh? Irish? No? Oh she's English... The one culture not unique to Britain... Why not just say English composer? Better yet, why not just leave the weird chauvinism & inane nationalist ideology out of music education completely.
Haha we were actually making a joke in that everyone knows Alex is British so I'm "also a British composer".. but there we go, humour is subjective and all that!
Word has it that Claire Wickes is still clapping right now.
😂 can confirm.
Claire and Virtual Orchestration was the crossover we needed!
🙌🙌🙌
I’d love to see more content from Claire, she’s amazing.
Naww thanks 😁! Keep your eyes peeled in that case 👀
I actually unashamedly sent Claire a piece for flute in 15/8. Wasn't that complicated in the other parts, was basically a bar of 4 beats and then a 4+3 quavers bar. But her part was in a sort of 4/4 polyrhythm over the top. The piece was also in Eb minor, so I'm actually still on the naughty step for that one.
I had genuinely blocked this from my memory 😅
Hey, guys.
Thanks for the great lesson.
A lot of people will really benefit from the basics of night literacy, rhythm, metre.
Regards, Yaroslav.
Hey Yaroslav, thanks so much - I hope it proves helpful to a lot of people :)
Welcome Claire! Excellent explanation - especially helpful in regard to compound time. I love Eastern European folk music and some of the time signatures there are crazy - I seem to remember a 13/8! Looking forward to your next video. Hope you are going to stay around when Alex gets back 🙂 I could see you working together on these tutorials really well!
That's really interesting about Eastern European folk music - I'll have to look out for that, do you have any specific recommendations? Kind of love anything that shows that contemporary composers didn't just dream that sort of thing up 100 years ago, it goes back waaay further. Thanks for your lovely comment!
@@clairewritesmusic There are lots of traditional 7/8 songs in the Balkan region, e.g. ‘Makedonsko Devojce’, ‘Što mi e milo’ or ‘Ajde Jano’. Most of them are 3 + 2 + 2.
@@pop_polizei thanks for that- I'll check those out!
She is amazing!
Claire, she’s amazing great video and lesson , cool episode, thanks Claire!👌
Thanks so much for that, glad you enjoyed it!
We like Alex but we like you too, Claire welcome!
Ah thanks, happy to be here!
Time signatures have always been the most challenging topic for me.
Me too
Hope this might have demystified a few things, but feel free to fire any questions over if you're still wondering about something!
Pretty cool episode, thanks Claire!
🙏🙌
5:46 this was FIRE 🔥
Thank you so much for this break down!
Hope it was helpful! 😁
Claire!! ^ ^
👋
Congrats to Alex on his tour and welcome to Claire.
Now we're going to need a collab video with Claire when Alex gets back. Maybe they could each write a melody for the other to harmonize. There's probably a way to make something like that educational 😁.
I would love that! 👍🏻
I'm game if you are! 🤗
As a drummer I feel very challenged by learning to play Electric Wildlife by drummer Rodney Holmes (Santana amongst others). It has a real drive in it due to its 13/8 time measure.
Ouch 13/8 has gotta be painful. But the satisfaction when you get it right must be immense...
Craziest time signature I've ever used in a piece would be 9/8, felt 2+2+3+2. Craziest time signature I've ever played in would be when I did Coltrane's "Countdown" in 13/8, I can't remember how it was felt though, it somehow worked...
Haha lull us into a false sense of security with 9/8, then hit us with a 2+2+3+2 grouping - devious 😈
The thing is, I've worked for many films but I always used 4/4. Sometimes I asked them to cut the scene, sometimes I found another way to synchronize it. Usually put a sound effect or changed the bpm. I will definitely try to change my measure in the next time.
As a teenager I fell in love with the early Genesis albums and other prog rock acts. If you once mastered playing along to all these odd meters, you will never fear them again. 😉 By the way, here’s a huge list of songs in odd time signatures for anyone interested: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_works_in_unusual_time_signatures
Yes such a good point, prog rock TRULY goes for it with the insane time signature! Can't imagine a better way of training up in that!
My question is about the example of using the 3/4 followed by the 6/8 because of the different pulse/emphasis applied. I know listening to it, it doesn't matter but when we score it would we need to show that in the score or just keep it all written as 3/4 but write the affected bar as if it were 6/8 with accent marks and rhythmic changes?
Very good question - you can absolutely keep it all written as 3/4, then just give your performers a little help in knowing how you want it to sound with accents as you suggest, or by beaming your rhythms differently. I.e., for the 6/8 style bar, don't beam anything across the middle of the bar!
I'm not sure what the craziest time signature I've encountered is. Probably something by Pierre Boulez when I was a kid in a choir.
I instinctively improvise with mixed-time signatures. The hard part for me is figuring out the signature and tempi changes once in the DAW, recorded without a click.
If anyone has tips on the matter, I'm listening.
Interesting - which DAW do you use? I believe you can use smart tempo in logic, though that won't necessarily help you with time signature changes 🤔
@@clairewritesmusic I use Logic. Yes, I can use smart tempo, but it doesn't help with the time signature changes. 😢
@@Franck_Hoffmann if I come across a solution I'll pass it on!
I still kind of dont get the difference between having the "one" in 3/4 as a strong beat vs the "one" and "four" in 6/8. Is it literally just tempo at that point?
Not even tempo necessarily, as you can have a slow 6/8 or a fast 3/4 and vice versa. In many ways they are interchangeable, but in 6/8 you might have more of a feeling that the "one" is a little stronger than the "four", even though both are emphasised. So it can have a natural ebb & flow, like in a lullaby.
Hhahahahaa nice intro ;')
🙃
Flamenco music uses 12 beats.
If I can see you're reading from a teleprompter or a cue card then moving your head all around just looks silly. 😂
Will be sure to keep a rigid straight neck at all times in the future 👍
Claire, not sure about the size of the room you're shooting in, but one trick videographers use to reduce that giveaway that someone is using a teleprompter... is to use a longer focal length lens. That way, the deviation of the eyes away from looking straight down the lens is lessened.
Isn't it John Bedroom in English? 😂
Why is Claire a "British" composer? Yet Hans Zimmer is just a composer?
How does the concept of this specific Union of multiple nationalist entities(Kingdoms) come into play in this field of composition education? Is Claire Scottish? Welsh? Irish? No? Oh she's English... The one culture not unique to Britain... Why not just say English composer? Better yet, why not just leave the weird chauvinism & inane nationalist ideology out of music education completely.
Haha we were actually making a joke in that everyone knows Alex is British so I'm "also a British composer".. but there we go, humour is subjective and all that!
Hans is not _just_ a composer either 🤓