f you handed someone a piece of sheet music with 29/8 on it, they'd laugh you out of the room. It would be the dumbest looking piece of music ever. That's why I thought the 2/5 comment was funny. It would have to come from some bizarro planet where the base case was to assume 5 beats per measure.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, that sure would be dumb. But it would still be easier to look at than something in 29/8!
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Haha, MVB, I posted that joke here once. I'd like to believe that that is where you learned of it.
Nope, sorry! I got it from Jazz Anecdotes by Bill Cole. (At least I THINK so - can't say for sure 'cause I just skimmed without buying.) And that bizarro planet was in fact Greece!
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Well
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:58 (sixteen years ago) link
In any case I just recently a variant answer to "How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?"
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:02 (sixteen years ago) link
"one, five, one, five"
The more common answer being: "None, the keyboard player can do it with his left hand."
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Since there is no "natural" notation for a 5th note, 2/5 is pretty much impossible to notate.
― libcrypt, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link
True. You might as well call it 2/4 (or maybe 2/2) and spare yourself the agita.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Unless you are in the Cyclops's cave in the Aegean Sea and they only understand 5.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Damn, what a disappointment if that's just a plain ol' joke and not a true story...:(
xpost
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
I only notate music in binary.
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
You and everybody else
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:55 (sixteen years ago) link
nice use of 9/8. (although it's more fun in bellydance and balkan brass stuff.)
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:57 (sixteen years ago) link
And Wagner.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:58 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, i like that 9/8 track.
― Jordan, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, who are those guys?
Nhhmbase? It's like a prog jam band?
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:27 (sixteen years ago) link
japanese prog something something
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:31 (sixteen years ago) link
I just noticed the post upthread but I had figured out that SDRE thing. Took me a little while though. It sounded not-too-uncommon but I was confused when I tried to actually count it! haha, moments in retardation.
― Sundar, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:41 (sixteen years ago) link
anybody know steeleye span's version of "one misty moisty morning"? it does one of my favorite rhythm tricks. it has a melody line of plucked quarter-notes, nice and straightforward, but then on one of the verses they shift so the quarter-notes are played on the offbeat, while the vocal line continues as before. totally simple move, but it sounds great and weird. my dad asked me to figure out what was going on and when i told him they were just playing the offbeats he didn't believe me because it sounds like they're doing something much odder.
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Beatles "It's Only Love" is in 4/4, but the guitar hook is syncopated and then the vocal comes in and takes over and is just straight quarter notes, having some similar effect to what you are describing, maybe in reverse.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Time Signature Cheat Sheet.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:09 (sixteen years ago) link
OK, I give up. This page lists some time signatures with really high numerators including some by Kyle Gann. If you go to http://www.kylegann.com/Gannscores.html you can actual see the score with the 29/4 time signature notated in black and white.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Maybe it's finally time to get the Moondog book.
The high numbers are just ways of saying it's a measure of 4/4 followed by a measure of 9/8 (ie 17/8) or whatever. It's speaking to form more than anything else, and I don't find it at all useful to think "oh, it's in 19/8, cool".
― Jordan, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:05 (sixteen years ago) link
And to think I used to believe that Kyle Gann was a down-to-earth kind of guy.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:09 (sixteen years ago) link
If somebody is capable of accurately counting out to large prime numbers in their head, I say more power to 'em.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:11 (sixteen years ago) link
my favorite time signature joke goes something like, "yeah, I got this hot beat in 7, check it out -- [while playing normal rock beat] ONE, TWO, THREE , FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEV-, -VEN!"
― Jordan, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:16 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't find it at all useful to think "oh, it's in 19/8, cool"
No one does except for tubbies filling out the Mars Volta entry on wikipedia.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:20 (sixteen years ago) link
i was gonna say rush fans, but i guess either/or.
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:28 (sixteen years ago) link
This Rush fan couldn't care less about the goddamn time sig.
― Bill Magill, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:30 (sixteen years ago) link
I just had a vision of Bela Fleck covering "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown" and changing the time signature.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Or Muddy Waters singing "She's Nineteen" in a slow 19/8.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Well...
I count one...
two...
three...
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:34 (sixteen years ago) link
four...
five...
...
...nineteen!
Too bad Scorsese left it on The Last Waltz cutting room floor.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Or "Hey Nineteen," where they really can't dance together.
― jaymc, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:42 (sixteen years ago) link
To say nothing of "19/99"
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link
21/12
― tipsy mothra, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:49 (sixteen years ago) link
"In the time signature 25/25 ..."
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
31/21
― Jordan, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
25/41 Big beats so dancers have fun
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:51 (sixteen years ago) link
Chronic 200/1
― The Reverend, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:52 (sixteen years ago) link
19/77 And we are going mad
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:53 (sixteen years ago) link