I grew up listening to dub influenced electronic music and 2/4 is exactly the time signature that describes those genres. Thank You for really solidifying the difference between the two in my mind.
Hey, you should introduce the 6341 chord progression, which is used in On My Way by Alan Walker, that's the only western music I can find that uses this chord progression. But it is used more commomly in Japanese Music such as Teenager Foreve by King Gnu, 地上の星 - 中島みゆき，空と君のあいだに - 中島みゆき，it is also used in a lot of piano music such as Flower Dance by DJ Okawari It often ends like 63412636, or it migt be 6345 loop or 63456346 or 66334511. So 6341 is in a major key, but this chord progression is in a minor key so in minor keys it should be 1563.
I hadn't actually heard of Solfeggio but after a quick google it does seem like an interesting topic. I'll look into it! Thanks for the suggestion @@green856w
A famous example from video games would be "One-Winged Angel", the soundtrack for the final battle from Final Fantasy VII and theme song of Sephiroth, the game's main antagonist. The first minute of the song could almost be described as THE 2/4 section because it captures the essence of the time signature so perfectly, building the entire melody around the strong-weak dynamic to create an otherworldly sense of intimidation. Whenever you hear those legendary opening notes, you know immediately that shit just got REAL.
Good video as usual but I was surprised not to hear you mention marches. "A march" is another way of describing 2/4 time and is very often used for military music as it fits the "left, right, left, right" of marching and will usually have a marching tempo. Examples most people (in the UK) will be familiar with include Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No, 1" and "The Dam Busters March".
I was about to say pretty much the same thing. You even use a song called "Turkish March" as an example, but didn't mention that 2/4 time is called "March time," which surprised me.
@@stefanodigarbo4735 Fair enough, but a quick line would not have been out of place. "2/4 time, often referred to as 'March time' in classical music..."
I would assume that Stop the Cavalry is in 2/4 time because of its military theme, although Jona Lewie may have not realised this and was just imitating a marching beat.
I can't believe that Tango was not mentioned. Tango is so much 2/4 that it is often called "the two by four", not in music theory environments, but in cultural environments like the radio, TV shows and magazines.
Besides the polka, there's also the TANGO. It's always in 2/4 except maybe in Astor Piazzolla songs. He was like a vanguardist of a tango. Check it out. Beautiful music
The Mozart/Paul Simon/Outkast examples overlook an important consideration. Between Mozart and Paul Simon, you’re right to flag up how the requirement to state an explicit time signature falls away. However, I’m willing to bet that “Hey Ya” was recorded in a DAW, where the explicit time signature is very much in evidence again. It would be interesting to see how that 22-beat cycle is handled in the original project. I myself have a number of compositions that use such extended beat cycles. For example, a tune called “Headcorn” is based on a 13-beat cycle, and is treated as such in Logic, although it would also be fair to describe it as (3+3+3+4)/4 rather than 13/4.
The tendency of DAWs (and other electronic equipment eg, drum machines) to default to 4/4 time is a major reason why so much modern music is so boring (in my opinion).
I've had this conversation in bands quite a bit. My first drum teacher emphasized learning time signatures, because the vibe of the drums is dependent on your phrasing, and your phrasing will be dictated by the time signature, at least, on originals. So when I would be discussing aspects of the song, and refer to "the & of 2", sometimes I'd forget that the time signature in my head may not be the one in theirs. So we'd have to establish what we considered the time signature to be, then move forward.
I liked how you also isolated the drum part of Hey ya. It would be good if in your examples you also try to play more drum parts to show another dimension of a song’s time signature. The isolation of song parts makes that easier to discern. Thanks as always. Love your episodes!
Another excellent video on a very worthwhile topic. I know of a few tunes that use 2/4: -The verse of Heat of The Moment by Asia (you can find a video of Geoff Downes talking about this) -The intro to Oh! You Pretty Things by David Bowie -The intro to Firth of Fifth by Genesis has 2/4 interspersed with others -A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone (whole) -Farewell to Stromness by Peter Maxwell Davies (whole) And as you said earlier in your video there any many songs that use 2/4 at the end of a phrase or verse in an otherwise 4/4 song. My favourite example of this is the Eagles song The Last Resort. Also Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd.
You are fantastic man, I have never seen anyone explaining music so clearly, with proper music expressions and easy to follow, like you do. I hear this once and it is clear to understand everything. Well done, thank you for this.
I got a mandolin recently and have learned a few songs. The mandolin has a potential drone aspect to it, and Jimmy Paige never played a mandolin before and just sat down and wrote Battle of Evermore in 20 minutes. Completely capitalizing on this effect like I have heard in no other songs on Mandolin or any other instrument. Love to see a breakdown.
The mandolin is part of a family of instruments like the violin family: mandolin, mandola, (octave mandolin,) mandoloncello, mandobass. Drones sound even better on the lower ones. The mandobass (which has only 4 strings and doesn't really sound remarkable to me) is very rare these days. Mandola is still fairly common, mandocello is rarer but it has a gorgeous sound and produces a powerful drone. I have one right here, from Thomann. Octave mandolin was used by R.E.M., I think on "Monty's Got a Raw Deal." The Irish bouzouki (GDAD) can also substitute for octave mandolin (GDAE.)
You really have a nice channel with diverse topics, explained simply so that even non-musicians can understand them. Even though I've only been playing the piano for a year and a half, I've watched your videos for much longer. I don't know if you've talked about Rule of the Octave or Basso Continuo, or Thoroughbass. I seem to remember you have talked about it, but I recently have started learning it. I'll go back on your catalogue since it seems logical that you would have touched on how modern music has been influenced on ancient music.
Since you bring up the “one 2/4 bar in a 4/4 song” song style in pop songs, I should mention that “I want to know what love is” by Foreigner also does this in its verses.
I had forever been puzzled by 2/2, 2/4 and 4/4 time signatures on written and recorded music. This video made a very clear explanation through the examples. Thank you very much.
I have heard Josh Homme talk about the polka influence in his music and I can really hear that in songs like "No One Knows", which I think could very well be described in 2/4 time. What do you think?
Maybe Lady in Black by Uriah Heep could be best described as 2/4 (or even 2/2?) Made in 1970 with a drum loop which has a strong downbeat. Only 2 chords and a chorus with only one vowel. Pure genius!
Just saying, idk if you knew about this, my college (MTU Cork School of Music) uses your videos for lectures in the pop degree. Your stuff is really useful for understanding stuff, and I guess lecturers see that. Thank you so much for this channel 🙏🙏
It's interesting that you didn't phrase the Africa 2/4 bar with the final phrase of the vocals at 1:26, and then the instrumental break/riff that's heard in the intro is back in 4/4 which flows back into the next verse phrase in 4/4. That's personally always how I've heard it, but I realize it's subjective and I never thought of it your way 😊
Revolution was the first song that came to mind for me but I never realized that Assassin was 2/4, that was one of the first Muse songs I heard when I was younger so I couldn't tell it was in a different time signature but now I'll be sure to listen out for it next time I check out the song. Also, two others song that uses 2/4 are Bron-Y-Aur Stomp by Led Zeppelin (alongside a bunch of other time signatures like 6/8, 3/4 and 7/8) and Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
I can understand you're talking about pop and rock music mainly, but most brazilian modern music, such as bossa nova and samba are clearly in 2/4 time signature.
For me, it's like 2/4 is simpler and leaves almost no room for more subdivisions in between the beats, whereas in 2/2 you can still feel where those other quarter beats would go, but the melody sort of lilts over them.
@@scabbarae I've just remembered as well that back in the early days Johnny's back-up band were called the Tennessee two. I'm sure its just because there were two of them but maybe it was a nod to the time signature/meter as well?
Fascinating video. What I learnt from this is that music theory is like physics. The closer you look the more you realise there's actually nothing there.
In my senior recital at college I did an original song in 2/4. The drummer asked why it wasn't in 4/4. I said simply that there are some bars that get off that way. Looking back, I would say it is in mixed meter. 4/4 for a few measures then 2/4 for a few measures before going back to 4/4. I have gone back and forth on where those meter breaks hit specifically, but I would say there are entire sections in 2 and others in 4.
I really love your videos, taught me a lot about time signatures. I think it would be interesting if you could find and talk about music written in IRRATIONAL time signatures. Like 7/20 and 4/20. And explain how 4/6 works, lol.
I would assume that just means 4 dotted quarters in a measure lol. The top number indicated how many beats are in a measure The bottom number indicates the value of the note 4/4: 4 quarter notes 2:4 2 quarter notes 2:2 2 half notes 6:8 6 eight notes so with that logic 4/6 would be 4 dotted quarter notes
@@sharp9150 actually how time signatures work is the bottom note is a fraction of a whole note so therefore 4/6 would be 4 notes of a quarter note triplet because 6 notes of a quarter note triplet fit into 1 whole note
there really isn't any music written like that, usually time signatures are a certain amount of quarter, eighth, 16th, and so on, in a measure. not 20ths and 6ths. it's already rare enough for a song to be in something other than 4/4
For 4/4 songs that have bars of 2/4, I immediately thought of Billy Joel’s Piano Man. When used, the 2/4 bar at the end of one phrase is used to extend the anticipation for the next phrase.
Umm, Piano Man is in 6/8 throughout, not 4/4+2/4. The beat of the song is easily identifiable as being in a multiple of three, as the stronger beats always come three apart from each other.
Cool About It by Boygenius has some 2/4 bars sprinkled in the verses! I was just learning to play it on guitar today and saw that in the tab to my surprise. It definitely has the strong half-bar feeling now that I think of it.
That's very true and it's something beautiful in music : you can write things differently to say the same things cause even if it IS the same thing it won't have the same feeling depending on HOW you wrote it And that is wonderful
Not sure if mentioned but I wonder if, when 2/4 is used, it is because the meter of the lyric dictates it? It seems like, in the examples, that the 2/4 bar fits the rythym of he words nicely, and that a bar of 4/4 would actually be awkward.
Those odd 2/4 bars in a 4/4 song can also be described as 6/4 (if you think of them as combined with the preceding 4/4 bar). I believe you alluded to this a bit, but Kathy's Song and Stop the Cavalry could also be notated in 2/2. I'm glad you mentioned that 2/4 and 4/4 and 2/2 can all sound very similar. There are some songs and pieces that would work reasonably well in all 3 meters.
@@themobiusfunction it depends a lot of the time half a bar is just half a bar, so just put it as 4/4 + 2/4, and sometimes it's 6/4 it would be 3/2 if the song is mostly in 2/2
@@player12gaming89 From the perspective of a classical composer 6/4 for 4/4 + 2/4 doesn't really make sense, maybe it would make sense in a pop music context
I just noticed this time signature in «På ditt skift» by Kaizers Orchestra (Norwegian band). Being a viewer of this channel for some time now, this was cool to realize, cos it switches from 2/4 in the verse and chorus to 6/8 in the bridge (two signatures I used to think of as redundant).
10:10 In all fairness, time signatures make a lot more sense as prescriptive concepts. They're nearly useless as descriptive ones, but they're extremely useful when trying to convey intent to a performer.
As an interesting counter-example - "Everything at once" by Lenka has this 2/4 feel at the beginning with the bass/chord pulse but if you listen carefully, especially when it gets to the chorus it turns out that it all resolves to pretty perfect 4/4 measures.
Hippy drum circles are in 1/1. There might be a shaker, or a hand clap, or a doumbek-or various kinds of repeating fills between bass beats. And the fills might give an illusion of waltz, or 2/2. But that effect fades in and out, and there's never any bar established. Just one, one, one, one, one...
The dropping in of a 2/4 bar to punctuate is a stock trick for many of many early Ramones songs. 'We're a Happy Family' is a prime example And for a whole song the xmas dirge of Jona Lewie 'Stop The Cavalry
Two good examples of using a measure of 2/4 to break up straight 4 sections are Joan Jett's 'I love Rock & Roll' and Toadies song 'Possum Kingdom' I Love Rock & Roll alternates the end of the chorus line being in 4 and 2... its more obvious at the end of the song where they repeat the chorus a few times with the 2/4 ending which jump starts the next chorus. In the Toadies song one could argue the end of the loop 4/4 alternates in ending in one bar of 2/4 and two bars of 2/4 (instead of one bar of 4/4) as they make the 2/4 feel natural, then double it up in a sort of uncomfortable stutter on every other pass.
I would say that 2/4 is the default 2 in a bar meter. I would use a 2/2 time if i’m writing lots of 16th notes in 2/4. I could write it as 8th notes in 2/2 instead.
In Ballroom Dancing, the Samba is danced to music with 2/4 timing. Now often it might come down to what you said that it depends on how the music is interpreted (for dancing the clear alternation of a strong beat and a weak beat) rather than in what beat it is really written. Many of Sia's songs give that impression, like Cheap Thrills and The Greatest; All Would Envy by Sting, It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones are other examples. The song "Brazil" is the classical Samba song for competitions.
i am a bass player and will never forget the argument i had with a sax player who just would not accept the existence of a 2/4 bar within a 4/4 tune. the song was "fall at your feet" by crowded house. i challenged him to count through the section and he could not understand why he couldnt count through it in 4/4 exclusively
It's funny that the first example of 4/4 with a bar of 2/4 that you cite is Africa, because I hear that in reverse, 7 bars of 2/4 with the final bar of the phrase extended to 4/4. As it is the same as the first 4 beats of the intro theme. Maybe it's just me though, I hear that intro as alternating bars of 3/4 and 5/4, but I'm sure most people would just call it 4/4, and the drum groove is definitely 4/4 in the intro. Love your stuff.
6:30 I always find it interesting how different instruments can do different things, but cant be the only one responsible for that because you can make a song with one instrument piano and it has to have all these things. Very confusing but interesting.
If you haven't already, can you do a video on the chord progression that is in "slow dancing in the dark" by Joji. I think it's the same progression as "La Gata Bajo la Lluvia" a beautiful spanish song by Rocio Durcal. I would love to be able to do a mashup of those songs if possible. I think it may even be similar progression to Ahead on our Way from Final Fantasy 7.
Bluegrass is inherently 2/4 and since it's so fast in Scruggs banjo, it's just easier to think of everything in 2/4 rather than 4/4. I'm also surprised you didn't mention I've just seen a face. It's a toe tapper!
2/4 is a march or polka, just as 3/4 time is a waltz. In western popular music think of 2/4 as an extension or the temporary shortening of a phrase. The examples given Toto, Beatles etc all used the 2/4 bar to extend the lyric phrase. It also gives the song an interesting feel in the places it is used. Unless your John Williams writing a march or a German polka composer 2/4 is just never going to work in MOST (some will) pieces of music that want the usual 4/4 timing feel.
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For me, as a Czech, the first thing coming to my mind is the genre of wind-instrument-bands (Dechovka in Czech). Dechovka uses the 2/4 timing a lot, probably half of the pieces are in 2/4 and half in 3/4.
Good point about not knowing something is in 4/4 or 2/4 until you try playing it yourself or see the sheet music. “Jolene” by Dolly Parton is in 2/4 time, I believe.
The song “No One Knows” by Queens of Stone Age I feel could be argued to be in 2/4. It seems as tho every second beat it arrives to the strong beat; would’ve been a good inclusion in the video I think
There's an interesting song, meter-wise, called "Griechischer Wein", which contains a bunch of these 2/4 bars within, as well as switching to 3/4 sometimes.
My first thought is always Country music from the likes of Cash with that distinctive bassline and fast drums. They often use odd numbers of 2/4 bars to adjust to the lyris and unlike He-Ya, this does not break up any rhythmic pattern as all instruments tent to play quite fast, so it's not really a change from 4/4 tp 2/4 but rather 2/4 throughout.
My progressive rock band, The Aaron Clift Experiment, has a song called “L.I.A.R.” that’s in 2/4. I specifically wrote the chord chart with that time signature so that my bandmates would play it with this feel rather than 4/4.
I've seen a couple comments mentioning tango as an example, but I think tango is more interesting than that, and from what I've seen it's not so clear in what signature it is. In most places I've seen and heard, tango music is in 4/4. (btw, I'm an Argentine tango social dancer, not a musician, so my knowledge here is very limited). Also, there are 3 different types of music in tango. Tango vals, tango milonga and classic tango. Tango vals is the easiest to comprehend, it is in 3/4, a classic waltzer. Tango milonga is in 2/4 (although I've seen it called 2/2 or 4/4 too). We usually recognize it because those songs are much faster and very upbeat. And listening to them after this video, I can hear that strong-weak pattern like in polka music. And in classic tango we look at it as 4/4 and usually step on 1 and 3 and you can mostly notice that strong-weak-medium-weak pattern. I've also found an interesting article that says that tango music used to be written in 2/4, then they started writing it in 4/8, and from there went to 4/4. This explains my frustration when trying to understand these things as someone who knows nothing about music theory. As far as I see, they're all the same, it just depends on how you want to write it down. I would love to see someone do a deep dive into tango music so I can understand it better, but I'm afraid it's too niche for that. If anyone is interested in hearing some tango music that people actually dance to today, the most popular is the Golden Era of tango (from around 1935 to 1955). I would recommend Rodolfo Biagi and Francisco Canaro for vals, Juan D'Arienzo and Francisco Canaro for milongas, and Rodolfo Biagi, Juan D'Arienzo, Francisco Canaro and Carlos Di Sarli for tango. (Disclaimer: this is just my taste, and I'm not saying they are the best ones, just that I like them and that they were the first ones that came to my mind trying to think of representative tango orquestas).
There's a Queen song from 1982, on the Hot Space album, called Action This Day - I've seen it transcribed as being in 4/4, but I think it has a 2/4 feel to it.
I think there's still an argument to be made that time signatures are still descriptive, in that. You pick a tempo, a bpm and a time signature in the daw for the click when you're recording in most situations. Meaning, let's say, for Hey Ya! they likely added bars of 2/4 to the click manually in the daw when recording it. Which I'd think of the same way a composer writing in sheet music would. Of course the difference being, that sort of thing wouldn't be published in the same way to the public, but functionally, there's a similarity.
Another great video/explanation! I will add that it is my humble belief even Mozart and Beethoven my have “struggled” (although B perhaps more the M) to always “find/decide” the “right” time signature to publish their song on. And it’s interesting you picked out the Turkish March… When I first started trying to play that I often thought, why is it in 2/4 because I kept counting up in 4/4. But that said when it come to M, I very much do you get… And it probably was not a matter of convenience, or a matter of form… as B’s Turkish March is also in and marches are classically 2/4. No doubt, however you will hear performances of maple leaf rag, played more in the middle of the 4/4 than 2/4. But this song I think Peter Levine knew how to play in the head, but had a hard time writing down was Fur Elise. Is there a time where I think it sounds better to almost treat it as a it’s actually in 6/8 (within one measure). In the photo referring to is The third section where you keep pounding on the essay over and over again six time… is that best played as 2 sets of 3 or 3 sets of 2. The written meter would say. 3 sets of 2, but the fingering I learned says (3,2,1) suggest play it like 2 sets of 3. And of course, The main arpeggio pattern clearly requires The six notes per measure to be played as 2 sets of 3 not 3 sets of 2. At least for me, sometimes my brain spins when I hear that last part played as 3 sets of 2 … And many duplicate that way… But I think most people plant that way… But when I was being tight, I was told to pick him up at 2 sets 3 … Quite frankly like. No, I must go listen to your 2/2 video because that’s the other one I know what it means but it’s great to hear from you. Hope you understand how do I turn on is it… And that’s what you just did so well in this video!
Check out What You Need to Know Before you Learn Music Theory by Eric Fine: www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYRNBTKN 📖🎼🎶
I grew up listening to dub influenced electronic music and 2/4 is exactly the time signature that describes those genres. Thank You for really solidifying the difference between the two in my mind.
Hey, you should introduce the 6341 chord progression, which is used in On My Way by Alan Walker, that's the only western music I can find that uses this chord progression. But it is used more commomly in Japanese Music such as Teenager Foreve by King Gnu, 地上の星 - 中島みゆき，空と君のあいだに - 中島みゆき，it is also used in a lot of piano music such as Flower Dance by DJ Okawari It often ends like 63412636, or it migt be 6345 loop or 63456346 or 66334511. So 6341 is in a major key, but this chord progression is in a minor key so in minor keys it should be 1563.
Have you done, or considered doing, a video on the Solfeggio frequencies and scale?
I hadn't actually heard of Solfeggio but after a quick google it does seem like an interesting topic. I'll look into it! Thanks for the suggestion @@green856w
Here's another example: (I think) Beethoven's 5th!
A famous example from video games would be "One-Winged Angel", the soundtrack for the final battle from Final Fantasy VII and theme song of Sephiroth, the game's main antagonist. The first minute of the song could almost be described as THE 2/4 section because it captures the essence of the time signature so perfectly, building the entire melody around the strong-weak dynamic to create an otherworldly sense of intimidation. Whenever you hear those legendary opening notes, you know immediately that shit just got REAL.
Lll
Good video as usual but I was surprised not to hear you mention marches. "A march" is another way of describing 2/4 time and is very often used for military music as it fits the "left, right, left, right" of marching and will usually have a marching tempo. Examples most people (in the UK) will be familiar with include Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No, 1" and "The Dam Busters March".
I was about to say pretty much the same thing. You even use a song called "Turkish March" as an example, but didn't mention that 2/4 time is called "March time," which surprised me.
True. I guess that might be because David's videos ultimately focus on pop music, where marches don't belong.
@@stefanodigarbo4735 Fair enough, but a quick line would not have been out of place. "2/4 time, often referred to as 'March time' in classical music..."
And then there are marches in 6/8.......
I would assume that Stop the Cavalry is in 2/4 time because of its military theme, although Jona Lewie may have not realised this and was just imitating a marching beat.
The Nirvana version of "the man who sold the world" and "Pretty woman" have a 2/4 bar in their verses. I learned it the hard way
The original Bowie version has 6 beats at the beginning of verses. Maybe a 4+2.
@Thog25: I find it hard, it's hard to find. Oh well, overtime
@@tinamartini I agree, in a measure with chord A there is a 4+2 beats. I have done a piano cover of this song!
I can't believe that Tango was not mentioned. Tango is so much 2/4 that it is often called "the two by four", not in music theory environments, but in cultural environments like the radio, TV shows and magazines.
Yes, I love dancing Tango. One example is Alemeria by Santos & His Orchestra.
Samba and Bossa Nova also are in 2/4.
Besides the polka, there's also the TANGO. It's always in 2/4 except maybe in Astor Piazzolla songs. He was like a vanguardist of a tango. Check it out. Beautiful music
Yeah! Tango!
And too...
th-cam.com/video/-hDnSIwySEw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0-jxe3DM9aNtwUHn
Cool!
Tradicional Sampa is also all about the 2/4 pulse of the surdo ( a huge Bass drum).
I feel like ive discovered a secret lol
You have! 😊
The Mozart/Paul Simon/Outkast examples overlook an important consideration. Between Mozart and Paul Simon, you’re right to flag up how the requirement to state an explicit time signature falls away. However, I’m willing to bet that “Hey Ya” was recorded in a DAW, where the explicit time signature is very much in evidence again. It would be interesting to see how that 22-beat cycle is handled in the original project. I myself have a number of compositions that use such extended beat cycles. For example, a tune called “Headcorn” is based on a 13-beat cycle, and is treated as such in Logic, although it would also be fair to describe it as (3+3+3+4)/4 rather than 13/4.
The tendency of DAWs (and other electronic equipment eg, drum machines) to default to 4/4 time is a major reason why so much modern music is so boring (in my opinion).
I've had this conversation in bands quite a bit. My first drum teacher emphasized learning time signatures, because the vibe of the drums is dependent on your phrasing, and your phrasing will be dictated by the time signature, at least, on originals.
So when I would be discussing aspects of the song, and refer to "the & of 2", sometimes I'd forget that the time signature in my head may not be the one in theirs. So we'd have to establish what we considered the time signature to be, then move forward.
I liked how you also isolated the drum part of Hey ya. It would be good if in your examples you also try to play more drum parts to show another dimension of a song’s time signature. The isolation of song parts makes that easier to discern. Thanks as always. Love your episodes!
Another excellent video on a very worthwhile topic.
I know of a few tunes that use 2/4:
-The verse of Heat of The Moment by Asia (you can find a video of Geoff Downes talking about this)
-The intro to Oh! You Pretty Things by David Bowie
-The intro to Firth of Fifth by Genesis has 2/4 interspersed with others
-A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone (whole)
-Farewell to Stromness by Peter Maxwell Davies (whole)
And as you said earlier in your video there any many songs that use 2/4 at the end of a phrase or verse in an otherwise 4/4 song. My favourite example of this is the Eagles song The Last Resort. Also Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd.
You are fantastic man, I have never seen anyone explaining music so clearly, with proper music expressions and easy to follow, like you do.
I hear this once and it is clear to understand everything. Well done, thank you for this.
David Bennett not mention Beatles in any way challenge (Impossible!)
I got a mandolin recently and have learned a few songs. The mandolin has a potential drone aspect to it, and Jimmy Paige never played a mandolin before and just sat down and wrote Battle of Evermore in 20 minutes. Completely capitalizing on this effect like I have heard in no other songs on Mandolin or any other instrument. Love to see a breakdown.
@ethangullikson5933: If you listen to R.E.M., you'll be surprised
The mandolin is part of a family of instruments like the violin family: mandolin, mandola, (octave mandolin,) mandoloncello, mandobass. Drones sound even better on the lower ones.
The mandobass (which has only 4 strings and doesn't really sound remarkable to me) is very rare these days. Mandola is still fairly common, mandocello is rarer but it has a gorgeous sound and produces a powerful drone. I have one right here, from Thomann.
Octave mandolin was used by R.E.M., I think on "Monty's Got a Raw Deal." The Irish bouzouki (GDAD) can also substitute for octave mandolin (GDAE.)
What a pleasure to see an example from Blur's song
Love the First of October T-shirt!!!
You really have a nice channel with diverse topics, explained simply so that even non-musicians can understand them. Even though I've only been playing the piano for a year and a half, I've watched your videos for much longer.
I don't know if you've talked about Rule of the Octave or Basso Continuo, or Thoroughbass. I seem to remember you have talked about it, but I recently have started learning it. I'll go back on your catalogue since it seems logical that you would have touched on how modern music has been influenced on ancient music.
Since you bring up the “one 2/4 bar in a 4/4 song” song style in pop songs, I should mention that “I want to know what love is” by Foreigner also does this in its verses.
I had forever been puzzled by 2/2, 2/4 and 4/4 time signatures on written and recorded music. This video made a very clear explanation through the examples. Thank you very much.
My song Kitty also uses 2/4, thank you for teaching everyone this cool time signature!
The main (intro) riff of Charlie Brown by Coldplay is another interesting example of alternating between 4/4 and 2/4
I have heard Josh Homme talk about the polka influence in his music and I can really hear that in songs like "No One Knows", which I think could very well be described in 2/4 time.
What do you think?
Seeing you wear first of October shirt makes me so happy
Maybe Lady in Black by Uriah Heep could be best described as 2/4 (or even 2/2?)
Made in 1970 with a drum loop which has a strong downbeat.
Only 2 chords and a chorus with only one vowel. Pure genius!
Great Song & Example.
You are such an amazing teacher and musician. Thank you.
For me harmony also matters. If the chords change every 2 beats, it's much easier to hear it as 2/4.
as a big time outkast fan, I've never been a huuuge Hey Ya fan, but the more I learn about it, the more I love it. smart
David I love your videos. My favorite source of learning music theory. Thank you.
Thank you!!
Excellent video, thank you ,David.
Just saying, idk if you knew about this, my college (MTU Cork School of Music) uses your videos for lectures in the pop degree. Your stuff is really useful for understanding stuff, and I guess lecturers see that. Thank you so much for this channel 🙏🙏
It's interesting that you didn't phrase the Africa 2/4 bar with the final phrase of the vocals at 1:26, and then the instrumental break/riff that's heard in the intro is back in 4/4 which flows back into the next verse phrase in 4/4. That's personally always how I've heard it, but I realize it's subjective and I never thought of it your way 😊
Your way is the way I've heard it too, and I was wondering the same thing
Your videos are amazing, I love them!
Thank you!
Revolution was the first song that came to mind for me but I never realized that Assassin was 2/4, that was one of the first Muse songs I heard when I was younger so I couldn't tell it was in a different time signature but now I'll be sure to listen out for it next time I check out the song. Also, two others song that uses 2/4 are Bron-Y-Aur Stomp by Led Zeppelin (alongside a bunch of other time signatures like 6/8, 3/4 and 7/8) and Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
I always see the 2/4 half-bar when the passage ends. Nice to see
To me it seems a very usable way of making songs,although for sure also a pretty rare one as well.
Love this channel, thank you!
I can understand you're talking about pop and rock music mainly, but most brazilian modern music, such as bossa nova and samba are clearly in 2/4 time signature.
Great video as always David. Not sure if it's 2/4 or 2/2 but a few Jonny Cash songs definitely have a two feel and meter.
For me, it's like 2/4 is simpler and leaves almost no room for more subdivisions in between the beats, whereas in 2/2 you can still feel where those other quarter beats would go, but the melody sort of lilts over them.
@@scabbarae I've just remembered as well that back in the early days Johnny's back-up band were called the Tennessee two. I'm sure its just because there were two of them but maybe it was a nod to the time signature/meter as well?
Fascinating video. What I learnt from this is that music theory is like physics. The closer you look the more you realise there's actually nothing there.
all sambas, choros , bossa nova except in a set with measure 0
Brazilian music is in 2:4 time with the bass beats being weak strong along with constant 16th note percussion.
Cornflake Girl has a superb example. Hey Ya is my absolute favourite one though.
In my senior recital at college I did an original song in 2/4. The drummer asked why it wasn't in 4/4. I said simply that there are some bars that get off that way.
Looking back, I would say it is in mixed meter. 4/4 for a few measures then 2/4 for a few measures before going back to 4/4. I have gone back and forth on where those meter breaks hit specifically, but I would say there are entire sections in 2 and others in 4.
I can’t believe you did this video without a single mention of the Spongebob theme haha
I really love your videos, taught me a lot about time signatures. I think it would be interesting if you could find and talk about music written in IRRATIONAL time signatures. Like 7/20 and 4/20. And explain how 4/6 works, lol.
Or sqrt(2)/π
I would assume that just means 4 dotted quarters in a measure lol.
The top number indicated how many beats are in a measure
The bottom number indicates the value of the note
4/4: 4 quarter notes
2:4 2 quarter notes
2:2 2 half notes
6:8 6 eight notes
so with that logic 4/6 would be 4 dotted quarter notes
@@sharp9150 actually how time signatures work is the bottom note is a fraction of a whole note
so therefore 4/6 would be 4 notes of a quarter note triplet because 6 notes of a quarter note triplet fit into 1 whole note
there really isn't any music written like that, usually time signatures are a certain amount of quarter, eighth, 16th, and so on, in a measure. not 20ths and 6ths. it's already rare enough for a song to be in something other than 4/4
Idea for a video: repeating chord progressions that have more than four chords. I can't think of any; maybe you can, or least find some.
Hotel california is a big example of this, it has a 8 chord loop in the verses
A lot of early '80s kitchy dance music is in 2/4. One example is _Upstairs_ by Sparks. There are plenty more.
For 4/4 songs that have bars of 2/4, I immediately thought of Billy Joel’s Piano Man. When used, the 2/4 bar at the end of one phrase is used to extend the anticipation for the next phrase.
Umm, Piano Man is in 6/8 throughout, not 4/4+2/4. The beat of the song is easily identifiable as being in a multiple of three, as the stronger beats always come three apart from each other.
Nice video! 😊👍🏻
«La sirena varada» de Héroes del Silencio también usa un 2/4 mezclado con compases a 4/4 en los versos.
Cool About It by Boygenius has some 2/4 bars sprinkled in the verses! I was just learning to play it on guitar today and saw that in the tab to my surprise. It definitely has the strong half-bar feeling now that I think of it.
David Bennett as a First Of October fan isn't something I expected, but here we are.
Elmer Bernstein’s Ghostbusters theme is in 2/4.
In Texas, we have the “Waylon beat” which is in 2/4 that covers a whole genre of song and is a staple of Outlaw Country catalogs.
I really liked the end of this about distribution via sheet music vs recordings. Now to find some tangos and count them...
That's very true and it's something beautiful in music : you can write things differently to say the same things cause even if it IS the same thing it won't have the same feeling depending on HOW you wrote it
And that is wonderful
Never thought about the time signature of Mozart's Turkish march before.
Now all I can hear in my head is a Ska version of that piece!
I believe Dylan's acoustic of "Mr. Tambourine Man" is in 2/4.
Not sure if mentioned but I wonder if, when 2/4 is used, it is because the meter of the lyric dictates it? It seems like, in the examples, that the 2/4 bar fits the rythym of he words nicely, and that a bar of 4/4 would actually be awkward.
Those odd 2/4 bars in a 4/4 song can also be described as 6/4 (if you think of them as combined with the preceding 4/4 bar).
I believe you alluded to this a bit, but Kathy's Song and Stop the Cavalry could also be notated in 2/2.
I'm glad you mentioned that 2/4 and 4/4 and 2/2 can all sound very similar. There are some songs and pieces that would work reasonably well in all 3 meters.
I think that's 3/2 instead of 6/4
@@themobiusfunction it depends
a lot of the time half a bar is just half a bar, so just put it as 4/4 + 2/4, and sometimes it's 6/4
it would be 3/2 if the song is mostly in 2/2
@@player12gaming89 6/4 is 3/4 + 3/4 in most cases
@@themobiusfunction yeah but I was talking about 4/4 + 2/4 sometimes being more conveniently transcribed as 6/4
@@player12gaming89 From the perspective of a classical composer 6/4 for 4/4 + 2/4 doesn't really make sense, maybe it would make sense in a pop music context
I just noticed this time signature in «På ditt skift» by Kaizers Orchestra (Norwegian band). Being a viewer of this channel for some time now, this was cool to realize, cos it switches from 2/4 in the verse and chorus to 6/8 in the bridge (two signatures I used to think of as redundant).
Tango, from Argentina, is 2/4.
The machine gun riff in Metallica's One is in 2/4, at least at the start.
10:10 In all fairness, time signatures make a lot more sense as prescriptive concepts. They're nearly useless as descriptive ones, but they're extremely useful when trying to convey intent to a performer.
As an interesting counter-example - "Everything at once" by Lenka has this 2/4 feel at the beginning with the bass/chord pulse but if you listen carefully, especially when it gets to the chorus it turns out that it all resolves to pretty perfect 4/4 measures.
Love the outro piano music. Reminds me of Mike Lineup/Phil Gould of level 42. Beautiful
Loving the First of October shirt!
Hippy drum circles are in 1/1. There might be a shaker, or a hand clap, or a doumbek-or various kinds of repeating fills between bass beats. And the fills might give an illusion of waltz, or 2/2. But that effect fades in and out, and there's never any bar established. Just one, one, one, one, one...
The dropping in of a 2/4 bar to punctuate is a stock trick for many of many early Ramones songs. 'We're a Happy Family' is a prime example
And for a whole song the xmas dirge of Jona Lewie 'Stop The Cavalry
Missed the best 2/4 example: Thank god I'm a country boy - John Denver
Two good examples of using a measure of 2/4 to break up straight 4 sections are Joan Jett's 'I love Rock & Roll' and Toadies song 'Possum Kingdom'
I Love Rock & Roll alternates the end of the chorus line being in 4 and 2... its more obvious at the end of the song where they repeat the chorus a few times with the 2/4 ending which jump starts the next chorus.
In the Toadies song one could argue the end of the loop 4/4 alternates in ending in one bar of 2/4 and two bars of 2/4 (instead of one bar of 4/4) as they make the 2/4 feel natural, then double it up in a sort of uncomfortable stutter on every other pass.
I would say that 2/4 is the default 2 in a bar meter. I would use a 2/2 time if i’m writing lots of 16th notes in 2/4. I could write it as 8th notes in 2/2 instead.
What the "feeling" difference (aural/groove/etc.., not notational) between 2/4 and 2/2? Pulse have some difference?
“Aquatarkus” (the last movement of “Tarkus”) by ELP and the ending of “Fugazi” by Marillion are both in 2/4 to get that driving march feel.
In Ballroom Dancing, the Samba is danced to music with 2/4 timing. Now often it might come down to what you said that it depends on how the music is interpreted (for dancing the clear alternation of a strong beat and a weak beat) rather than in what beat it is really written. Many of Sia's songs give that impression, like Cheap Thrills and The Greatest; All Would Envy by Sting, It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones are other examples. The song "Brazil" is the classical Samba song for competitions.
i am a bass player and will never forget the argument i had with a sax player who just would not accept the existence of a 2/4 bar within a 4/4 tune. the song was "fall at your feet" by crowded house. i challenged him to count through the section and he could not understand why he couldnt count through it in 4/4 exclusively
Rain Dogs by Tom Waits is in 2/4
Great video! Very helpful for me. Using the polka vibe test, the Beatles’ Revolution actually feels 2/4 to me. I hear it as Strong weak - Strong weak.
Beatles’ Blackbird has that 2/4 pendulum feel about it. Maybe Paul’s foot tapping does it.
It's funny that the first example of 4/4 with a bar of 2/4 that you cite is Africa, because I hear that in reverse, 7 bars of 2/4 with the final bar of the phrase extended to 4/4. As it is the same as the first 4 beats of the intro theme. Maybe it's just me though, I hear that intro as alternating bars of 3/4 and 5/4, but I'm sure most people would just call it 4/4, and the drum groove is definitely 4/4 in the intro. Love your stuff.
You are a music theory genius!
6:30 I always find it interesting how different instruments can do different things, but cant be the only one responsible for that because you can make a song with one instrument piano and it has to have all these things. Very confusing but interesting.
Sousa-style Marches and Joplin rags strike me as probably the most obviously in 2, be it 2-4 or 2-2. However, some marches are instead in 6-8.
Right, or most (not all) marches for that matter.
@@seiph80, that being said though, I’m glad he mentioned Polkas.
What the difference between 2/2 and 2/4 in terms of pulse feeling ("groove")? Tks!
@@marciorjusto, no difference I know of. Arguably, 2-2 time might imply a more majestic tempo than 2-4 time, but no real difference.
@@mr88cet "Majestic" means "longer notes"? Or "longer beat"?
If you haven't already, can you do a video on the chord progression that is in "slow dancing in the dark" by Joji. I think it's the same progression as "La Gata Bajo la Lluvia" a beautiful spanish song by Rocio Durcal. I would love to be able to do a mashup of those songs if possible. I think it may even be similar progression to Ahead on our Way from Final Fantasy 7.
Bluegrass is inherently 2/4 and since it's so fast in Scruggs banjo, it's just easier to think of everything in 2/4 rather than 4/4. I'm also surprised you didn't mention I've just seen a face. It's a toe tapper!
2/4 is a march or polka, just as 3/4 time is a waltz. In western popular music think of 2/4 as an extension or the temporary shortening of a phrase. The examples given Toto, Beatles etc all used the 2/4 bar to extend the lyric phrase. It also gives the song an interesting feel in the places it is used. Unless your John Williams writing a march or a German polka composer 2/4 is just never going to work in MOST (some will) pieces of music that want the usual 4/4 timing feel.
For me, as a Czech, the first thing coming to my mind is the genre of wind-instrument-bands (Dechovka in Czech).
Dechovka uses the 2/4 timing a lot, probably half of the pieces are in 2/4 and half in 3/4.
Yes! ☺️👍💓My music teachers used to get so mad at me for bringing this point up! 😁
Can’t wait for the "Songs that use 1/4 time" video!
Bowie's "Changes" switches to a 2/4 at the end of each chorus for a bar
"All of My Friends Were There" by the Kinks. The verses are clearly 2/4 and it switches to 3/4 for the choruses.
Good point about not knowing something is in 4/4 or 2/4 until you try playing it yourself or see the sheet music. “Jolene” by Dolly Parton is in 2/4 time, I believe.
The song “No One Knows” by Queens of Stone Age I feel could be argued to be in 2/4. It seems as tho every second beat it arrives to the strong beat; would’ve been a good inclusion in the video I think
Came here just to say that! Drave Grohl's drumming has a distinct 2/4 feel.
Thank you David
There's an interesting song, meter-wise, called "Griechischer Wein", which contains a bunch of these 2/4 bars within, as well as switching to 3/4 sometimes.
My first thought is always Country music from the likes of Cash with that distinctive bassline and fast drums. They often use odd numbers of 2/4 bars to adjust to the lyris and unlike He-Ya, this does not break up any rhythmic pattern as all instruments tent to play quite fast, so it's not really a change from 4/4 tp 2/4 but rather 2/4 throughout.
My progressive rock band, The Aaron Clift Experiment, has a song called “L.I.A.R.” that’s in 2/4. I specifically wrote the chord chart with that time signature so that my bandmates would play it with this feel rather than 4/4.
I've seen a couple comments mentioning tango as an example, but I think tango is more interesting than that, and from what I've seen it's not so clear in what signature it is. In most places I've seen and heard, tango music is in 4/4. (btw, I'm an Argentine tango social dancer, not a musician, so my knowledge here is very limited). Also, there are 3 different types of music in tango. Tango vals, tango milonga and classic tango.
Tango vals is the easiest to comprehend, it is in 3/4, a classic waltzer.
Tango milonga is in 2/4 (although I've seen it called 2/2 or 4/4 too). We usually recognize it because those songs are much faster and very upbeat. And listening to them after this video, I can hear that strong-weak pattern like in polka music.
And in classic tango we look at it as 4/4 and usually step on 1 and 3 and you can mostly notice that strong-weak-medium-weak pattern. I've also found an interesting article that says that tango music used to be written in 2/4, then they started writing it in 4/8, and from there went to 4/4. This explains my frustration when trying to understand these things as someone who knows nothing about music theory. As far as I see, they're all the same, it just depends on how you want to write it down.
I would love to see someone do a deep dive into tango music so I can understand it better, but I'm afraid it's too niche for that.
If anyone is interested in hearing some tango music that people actually dance to today, the most popular is the Golden Era of tango (from around 1935 to 1955). I would recommend Rodolfo Biagi and Francisco Canaro for vals, Juan D'Arienzo and Francisco Canaro for milongas, and Rodolfo Biagi, Juan D'Arienzo, Francisco Canaro and Carlos Di Sarli for tango. (Disclaimer: this is just my taste, and I'm not saying they are the best ones, just that I like them and that they were the first ones that came to my mind trying to think of representative tango orquestas).
"Chiquitita" by ABBA.
There's a Queen song from 1982, on the Hot Space album, called Action This Day - I've seen it transcribed as being in 4/4, but I think it has a 2/4 feel to it.
Everybody by Solomon Burke is an interesting one. The emphasis could be argued as 2/4
I think there's still an argument to be made that time signatures are still descriptive, in that. You pick a tempo, a bpm and a time signature in the daw for the click when you're recording in most situations.
Meaning, let's say, for Hey Ya! they likely added bars of 2/4 to the click manually in the daw when recording it.
Which I'd think of the same way a composer writing in sheet music would. Of course the difference being, that sort of thing wouldn't be published in the same way to the public, but functionally, there's a similarity.
Another great video/explanation! I will add that it is my humble belief even Mozart and Beethoven my have “struggled” (although B perhaps more the M) to always “find/decide” the “right” time signature to publish their song on. And it’s interesting you picked out the Turkish March… When I first started trying to play that I often thought, why is it in 2/4 because I kept counting up in 4/4. But that said when it come to M, I very much do you get… And it probably was not a matter of convenience, or a matter of form… as B’s Turkish March is also in and marches are classically 2/4. No doubt, however you will hear performances of maple leaf rag, played more in the middle of the 4/4 than 2/4. But this song I think Peter Levine knew how to play in the head, but had a hard time writing down was Fur Elise. Is there a time where I think it sounds better to almost treat it as a it’s actually in 6/8 (within one measure). In the photo referring to is The third section where you keep pounding on the essay over and over again six time… is that best played as 2 sets of 3 or 3 sets of 2. The written meter would say. 3 sets of 2, but the fingering I learned says (3,2,1) suggest play it like 2 sets of 3. And of course, The main arpeggio pattern clearly requires The six notes per measure to be played as 2 sets of 3 not 3 sets of 2.
At least for me, sometimes my brain spins when I hear that last part played as 3 sets of 2 … And many duplicate that way… But I think most people plant that way… But when I was being tight, I was told to pick him up at 2 sets 3 … Quite frankly like.
No, I must go listen to your 2/2 video because that’s the other one I know what it means but it’s great to hear from you. Hope you understand how do I turn on is it… And that’s what you just did so well in this video!