Weird rhythm question.

[wickenspoet]

Okay, this question might be difficult to explain in words, but I'll try.

Say you're playing along with a steady beat on a metronome as if it were a 4/4 beat.

Then you start playing along with that same beat, but now with 3/4 triplet feel.

Then you go back to the 4/4 feel.

Then maybe you play the notes faster, giving the clicks on the metronome a 6/8 feel...

You never touch the metronome, you just go from treating notes in the beat from a 4/4 rhythm to a 3/4 rhythm, or vice versa.
I hear it all the time in songs, but is there a name for that in music theory or something?
Is there a way to figure out the 3/4 value of a 4/4 beat, say at a tempo of 120 beats per minute? Is the answer just simple division, then? LOL

If this doesn't make sense, then never mind this post, haha. It's not a big deal, I was just curious.

.

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

If you're in 4/4 that's what you're in. How you divide the rhythm has nothing to do with the time signature. Is that the question? Take Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven as an example. The first movement is a triplet feel in the melody and the piece is in 4/4.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

Are you talking about triplets?

[NickCormier]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

rhythmic displacement?

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

Play 4/4 bars, three times.. while playing 3/4 bars, four times. and they line up

[guitfiddle]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

the name you're looking for is polyrhythm...two differnt things happening that go together.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

"Where the Streets Have No Name" is like this --- the song is in 4/4, the intro riff has 6 1/8th notes, so it takes 3 beats to play.

Beat: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
_Riff: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

[andrizzle]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

the name you're looking for is polyrhythm...two differnt things happening that go together.

in polyrhythm you are talking about 2 things (melodically or harmonically) going together (or apart as it were).... NOT necessarily in reference to the tempo and/or steady beat that's going on behind it... I think the word you're REALLY looking for is syncopation

"Where the Streets Have No Name" is like this --- the song is in 4/4, the intro riff has 6 1/8th notes, so it takes 3 measures to play.

Beat: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
_Riff: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

Fixed

[J Moose]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

Are you talking about polyrhythms?

Or just changing feel & interpretation?

Playing dotted quarters or 8ths (or???) over 4/4 or any other signature doesn't mean you've changed time signatures. You'd still be counting 4 beats to a bar... rather then 3, or 7... and simply putting a different emphasis on the notes.

It's also entirely possible to layer rhythms... right now I'm working on a song with my drummer where I'm in I think 7/8 and hes playing 4... or something! It's sorta f'd up but will be really cool when we get it together!

[pzaxtl]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

Syncopation.

[PFDarkside]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

We need an example from the OP to determine if he means triplets, polyrhythms, syncopation or something like a hemiola.

Do you mean moving where the accent is, say with straight eighth notes?

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + to

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

???

[wickenspoet]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

"...polyrhythms, syncopation or something like a hemiola."

I'm going to have to look these words up, I think, haha.

[Karmadog777]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

commonly referd to as noodeling

oops no thats lead,
in rhythm playing "EETs CALLED JAMMIN' MON' "

[wickenspoet]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

I think it was, in fact, polyrhythms.

Check out this great youtube demonstration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn7YtjO6Mqc

Thanks for guiding me in the right direction.

[DankStar]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

just play everything in 1/1

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Weird rhythm question.

I think he used the word "meter" (in the video) to describe each rhythm element and together they equal poly rhythms. Poly being the operative word here.

http://cnx.org/content/m12405/latest/