How The Beatles use Time Signatures
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- I take a look at the use of time signatures in “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, “She Said, She Said”, “We Can Work It Out” and “Here Comes The Sun”.
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George: ok this song is in 49/8
Ringo: ah shit here we go again
"ah shit here we go again with peace and love"
John: this one's in 439487295872985296/87349572026018760116098376
Paul: why don't you make the bridge 4310498209258386573/20575983928928729?
Ringo: Lunch Break!
This made me cackle 😂
Once again, the passage of time spreads knowledge of Ringo's greatness.
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He doesn’t get enough credit
Ringo wasn't the drummer from revolver lmao
He was the second best drummer in The Beatles! That's something!
@@walkispacheco88 who was?
If the tempo didn't drop, it would sound like this:
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes and she's gone
Lucyintheskywithdiamonds!
That sounded hilarious
@@Bronco541 Although I've got to admit, it didn't strictly sound bad, just off.
Channel 42 XD
I just laugh every time when I hear that.
I think is mostly like "lucyjdjdkkfnrjbrdiamonds"
George is so ludicrously underrated. Great chord changes, outstanding use of melody and time signatures. So good.
I totally agree with you! George was brilliant. My personal opinion is that because he was quiet he didn’t get the recognition that John, who was a publicity hound, did. When you see George playing with the Traveling Wilburys you see his genius front and center. He leaves Tom Petty in the dust. RIP for a beautiful, gentle person and an amazing musician.
@@monicacall7532 They were all amazing musicians. I wish today's popular musicians were as talented as they were.
Monica Call just curious how does he “leave Tom Petty in the dust?” In what way?
yeah I didn't even realize HCTS was a George song. He didn't get much say in the songwriting process, but he wrote some of the best and most famous Beatles songs
I've read in several places, Ringo was called 'The Human Metronome'.. He could always play exact tempo. The Beatles were extremely clever with time signature changes, music drop outss, changes to completely new songs sections and making it sound whole..
“Good Morning Good Morning” is another great example, as every line in the verse is a different number of beats long
Yes, but I think "Good Morning Good Moring" would take its own 10 minutes. "Happiness is a warm gun", "I Me Mine", "I Want You (She's so heavy)" and "Not Guilty" would also great candidates for talking about on this channel. If they got own videos, I'd definitely watch them.
Yes, this was also going to be my suggestion! A bunch of 5/4 and 7/8, along with 4/4, I believe.
@The ToxBloxer,
Yep, that's the first one that sprang to my mind when I saw the video title.
I came here to say this, absolutely!!
Good Morning Good Morning is actually in straight 4! The rhythm of the lyrics makes it sound like it's got a bunch of complicated time signature changes going on, but count it out in four and it's perfect.
Strawberry Fields Forever: The time signature in the first 14 bars shift like this: 4/4, 2/4, 4/4, 2/4, 6/8, 9/8, and 4/4.
I don't envy Ringo
@@jaschul You realize the only reason John, Paul, and George wrote all these songs and passages in such odd times is because they knew that no matter what they threw out there, Ringo could play it. As someone who played drums quite a long time ago, I definitely DO envy Ringo.
This was fascinating. You have a remarkable talent for teasing insights out of some of the most well known songs in recorded history, and make them be heard in a new light. You are a born researcher and educator. Thank you for your videos!
Richard Doan thank you!
I absolutely agree!
Happiness Is a Warm Gun would be a nice one to study. I believe it shifts even more than Here Comes The Sun.
Agreed, it certainly shifts much more than HCTS, and shifts amazingly. Great vid anyway.
Totally agree
This
This is what I was going to say. It’s also got far more fascinating time changes...it’s a bit mind boggling
Yup, that was the first one I thought of when I saw this video's thumbnail.
Every time I see a notification about the The Beatles I leave what I'm doing and go straight to watch it
Here another Carlos doing the same too.
The best thing about Beatles time signature changes is that they _flow._ They just "happen." They're not done in the bombastic way that usually happens when "prog rock" bands do them. There's no "look, we're changing time signatures!!!"
Fucking this.
TOOL manages very smooth time changes as well. A testament to the brilliance of their drummer, Danny Carey.
For sure. I always say The Beatles are more metal than most metal bands. As far as metal or prog goes, BTBAM is fairly seemless... but it is metal, so it's not for everyone.
There always has to be that one asshole who brings up Tool when nobody was asking
THIS
I'm really loving these videos of yours. I've adored the Beatles pretty much my whole life, but never got into HOW they made their songs so good. Learning about these techniques adds another layer of enjoyment for me, so I thank you for broadening my horizons.
“Good Morning, Good Morning” & “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” are two excellent examples of Lennon’s use of shifting time signatures. Def worth a separate video just on those two songs.
Ringo is better than a click track any day
True that!
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I am the fucking click
John missed him after the break up so he called him for help
If the Beatles used a click track, many of their songs wouldn't have worked, as modulating time is an important element of their music. If you use a click track, you stop unintentionally modulating your time without even noticig, and that can steal a lot of feeling from your music.
Happiness is a warm gun- definitely a great time signature and harmonic study
I wish you'd do more Beatles. You're a young George Martin … explaining the wonder behind the genius.
Willette J now that’s a compliment!
I’m just so impressed with your overall music knowledge
Ringo is such a badass
Beautiful illustration of yet another aspect of the Beatles brilliance as interesting and innovative composers.
This guy is a genius. Listening to sergeant Pepper since came out and I was a kid. Embarrassed I didn’t know these facts already this is why their songs sound so interesting. There’s a lot of craftsmanship
Beatles picked up a lot of songwriting and arrangement tricks by playing a diverse array of cover songs for their 8-hour sets in Hamburg. Movie songs, Broadway standards, rock'n'roll, Latin hits, bosanova, and George Martin helped them translate their ideas
thank you , my thoughts exactly
Damn past musicians and writers were so creative and innovative. Everything now sounds so quantized and perfect in tune
Brilliant. Thank you for the analysis. Very educational. The Beatles will never cease to amaze!
Key changes, tempo changes and time changes. This all goes to show how important Lucy was to the Pepper motif. We were suddenly in Pepperland. The journey was on!
I love this video and absolutely love the fact that you used The Beats covers for it! I'm from the same country as them and they don't get recognised enough for how amazing they are!
Vir LFC8 their covers are incredibly loyal to the original! They’re amazing
@@DavidBennettPiano they really are! I've seen them live 7 times and I regret nothing, they never disappoint!
I remember seeing a clip of George Martin discussing the bewildering meter changes in "Good Morning, Good Morning," so that might be fun. But this is a great video, and I was quite surprised by the hidden complexities of "Here Comes The Sun," which I happen to be learning at the moment, so thank you for that. :) Keep up the great work!
You definitely have to cover "Happiness is a warm gun" for the next Beatles video! It's a feast of tempo changes and even poly rhythmic bits
Happiness is a warm gun is a fascinating song. So much in it from complex metre changes and cross rhythms. I think Paul said it was his favourite song in the White Album
Can we all agree how good Ringo's drumming is amazing with all the time signatures.
Blue jay way has some very interesting stuff going on with time signatures / tempo.
David, Great analysis of the tunes! I recorded "Back In the USSR" and had no end of hassle with the break in the middle at: "back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR." I was using a pre-recorded drum part that was in 4/4. I had to edit one measure to 3/4 for that section. It worked after that. I like the vids on key changes too.
my friends like to sing that song at parties but it sounds so bad to me when they don't change the timing … I count two measures of 3, but maybe your drum machine was half the speed for the 3/4 measure ?
Nice - also worth studying like this would be Happiness is a Warm Gun, Yer Blues, Savoy Truffle, Martha My Dear and the end of Revolution 1 (the slower album version)
Also 'Good Day Sunshine'
This kind of videos makes me love the beatles even more.... THANKS!
Everytime you do a video analyzing a beatles song, you mention the first song and I think "oh I've seen this analyzed before," and then you take it apart in a way I've never seen that makes much more sense than other videos (like the lucy in the sky 2:3 section ratio)! Great work as always, I'd love to see your takes on Good Morning, Good Morning and Happiness is a Warm Gun.
Here’s my story: when I was a teenager I loved heavy metal bands, thinking they were far way better than the rest of the musical world.
Luckily I grew up: now I can appreciate the absolute genius of these pop music artists, in this case the Beatles.
Brilliant analysis. I tell my kids that the Beatles were geniuses. Your assessment points to the fact.
Wow, I've never thought of that "Here Comes the Sun" riff as in 3/8. It fits too nicely into 4 beats, it's just a hemiola.
It certainly can fit into 4/4 but I don’t think it’s very intuitive to count 4 over it as a performer. Also, I know what you mean when you say hemiola but a hemiola is a 3 against 2 counter rhythm. Here comes the sun isn’t a hemiola really... more of a set of accents.
I agree about the chorus, but we can't say the same about the later repeating pattern which not longer fits over 4/4.
@@DavidBennettPiano I tend to feel the first passage as accents against 4/4, but the second one no longer fits any convenient meter, so is easier to feel in 3/8. Especially as the first three notes now feel strongly like an upbeat bar of 3/8 to the next strong downbeat, setting up that pattern.
So nobody even bothered to mention "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" 😞
Another example would be I, me, mine where the song changes this time from waltz verse to 4/4 chorus. The focus of the song shifts aswell from a more gentle ballad to a straight ahead rock song. Funnily enough I, me, mine was also composed by George. It's interesting to think that many of the rhythmically most baffling Beatles-tracks were made by the guy who wasn't a frontman or main musical provider. Underrated song writer all in all.
The Beatles are the only band whom I consider to have four frontmen in it; they are the only band in the Rock Hall of Fame to have all members inducted as a band and as a solo artist.
@@cremetangerine82 Yep, it makes me so happy they’re all in there as solo artists as well
How is this video not blocked?? Is this an Easter miracle? Great job though man, keep em coming!!
The Beatles tempo and key changes are a staple of their sound.
I love the old analog recordings of my youth because they're so human in that the tempos aren't perfect.
If you tried to sync many of these recordings to a click track, it would probably be off. But why?
Because humans used to make music naturally and time fluctuations are human and actually help create the feel.
I'm not talking about tempo changes, I'm referring to time fluctuations.
Just as people have flucuations in tempo of their speech patterns, it's only human to fluctuate a bit in the tempo. It's called being human.
There are literally generations of great music, pre click track, that would lose the feel if the timing was click track precise.
Even a Philharmonic orchestra lead by a viruoso conductor probably wouldn't hold up to the scrutiny of a robotic time keeper.
I've made demos where, even to my protests, the producers insisted on a click track for various practical digital friendly edits they anticipated making.
But each and every time, the feel wasn't quite right because it's too mechanical and those slight time imperfections are necessary to the music because we're human and they're a natural occurrence of the human element.
Humans Feel, machines do not.
This is why ProTools and "quantizing" have killed rock as popular music (looking at you, Nickelback) and have ruined popular music generally. Minor time fluctuation (a groove, we used to call it) is gone.
Jason Schulman ok boomer
@@colejohnson66 no u
@@jaschul Blame the producers, not the tech. No one's forcing you to quantize anything.
Very interesting and instructive.
There are also a few "singularities" in some Beatles songs: in Martha My Dear the second measure after the vocal starts (always been my inspiration) is in 5/4 while the rest of the tune is in 4/4. The time signature on the intro to Drive My Car is a major enigma. Good Morning, Good Morning is a mish-mash of changing time signatures. And in many songs the timing seems to be off at the very beginning if you misconstrue the very first beat as a down beat: I Want To Hold Your Hand is a case in point.
These are really good videos! Keep a going.
How many tempo and key changes in Revolution 9?
anywhere between 69 and 666
Number: 9
Dude, revolution 9 is that one song from the Beatles that mesmerized me
∞
@Marquis De Sade Not Revolution 9!
Actually, fun fact about the rhythm shift in She Said She Said: it happens because it's two different songs stitched together! The bridge was a song piece George couldn't get anywhere with and John needed a gap filled in She Said She Said, so they stuck it in there and made it work.
I really wish John would have added George to the songwriting credit for that song. Poor George… why didn’t Brian as manager step in and say “Dammit John! Give that man his dues!”
@@thesilvershiningThey did. They helped George with his songs to make them as good as they could but never added their names to the credits, they remained wholely George songs. Calm down, we all remember George was in the band too.
I have been playing music since 1969. Your videos are excellent! I knew of the time and tempo changes but I never thought of them in the manor that you present them.
Another excellent video .Thank for this upload.
Dear David, many many thanks for this amazing course. Please more of this.
Excellent breakdown of those Beatles songs. Thank you again David!
It is amazing how the Beatles did everything possible in music theory!!
Thank you! This discussion is insightful and something I can use. Keep up the fine work.
I can think of a few. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "Two Of Us", "Your Mother Should Know", "I Me Mine" (also a Harrison song), "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Don't Let Me Down"
Happiness Is a Warm Gun is the logical one to study. It shifts so much it gave the Beatles themselves headaches and they did nearly a hundred takes and still (I believe) had to slice together different takes to get it just right.
Not a Beatles tune but I was listening to “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynryd the other day and there’s a notable time signature shift in that. Was wondering what you make of it.
Great, informative vids! Keep it up 👍
Plus the soloing is all done in the wrong key!
It really is
7:04 You could also conceptualize the shift to four 3/8 bars and to one 4/8 bar as one bar of 12/8 and a bar of 2/4, but as said with the 4/4 bars with different accents, most preformers probably wouldn't conceptualize it that way.
7:15 The bridge could also be conceptualized as a shift to 7/8, 6/8, 5/8, and then back to 4/4, or if you're feeling really saucy like me, you conceptualize it as a shift to 7/8, 9/8, 1/4, and then back to 4/4, but I'm not entirely sure if 1/4 is even a real time signature.
What I’m hearing is that the Beatles invented Prog Rock 👀
Well, they certainly contributed to it. They were not just rock musicians, they were MUSICIANS. The Beatles' musical education consisted largely of listening to performances and recordings by other musicians in a wide range of genres. Thus were they fans of both Little Richard and Peggy Lee, John Cage and Ravi Shankar. They even covered a Meredith Wilson tune ("'Til There Was You" from "The Music Man") on one of their albums. Their broad range of musical interests helped them keep their own work fresh and inventive, I think. They covered a lot of ground in just a decade.
@@ConwayBob There definitely wouldn't have been prog rock without _Sgt. Pepper's._ I think there's a consensus that that was the key LP that inspired prog. Listen to the earliest Yes albums -- like them or not, they sound like they're inspired by _Sgt. Pepper's._
@@jaschul -- I agree, St. Pepper's was a pivotal album not just for that one band but for many to follow after. The Beatles' music still stands up well over time as does the music of Yes, ELO, ELP, Rush, and a number of other 70s-80s prog-rock bands. I love 'em all.
They invented Psychadelic Rock and Metal also
@@moesalamander7012 psychedelic rock was invented by the 13th floor elevator.
Metal was invented by blue cheer and steppenwolf.
As always, a fantastic and interesting video! You are so musically intelligent. Btw, why do SO MANY people say "Ringo is the most underrated ..." and "George is the most underrated ..." ? No they're not ... they are bleeding great and everyone has always known that! What I think people sometimes mean ... and which is so very true ... is that they are "understated" with sometimes very subtle contributions. Subtle but necessary to some of the most memorable music in the last 200 years.
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" would be a good example too!
As these albums came out and I tried to sing along, I kept thinking "Hmm, something odd just happened." I had no musical training at all, however, perhaps because the songs were so well written, and I was such a fan, I just sort of brute forced myself to remember those spots where these tempo changes occurred, and now I have trouble noticing them.
Very interesting analysis.
Ringo & Stewart Copeland....for me, are _the_ most interesting pop/rock drummers I know. Or even just drummers period. They both share...something. It's total precision, but with feel, and being accurate...but loose. A lot is happening...but it's also basic and groovy. Like throwing sand in an enemy's face to stun them while you sneak behind them. It's quick...but weird and all over the place...but also very very...honed. Getting _very_ good....and then having FUN. And _that_ is what I love in music.
Wow. Listening to and playing Beatles music for over 30 years and I never realized that Lucy had a tempo shift or that the 3/4 time signature could be understood as triplets played in 4/4 time with no tempo shift. Great stuff.
Happiness is a Warm Gun is a great example of time signature changes!!
Got the thing about Lucy when you showed it using same crochet beat speed. A bar of 3/4 = half a bar of 4/4.
Tell you another song that does this - and it was only when my daughter (who plays drums for us now) pointed it out that we got the band coming in neatly, after the violin intro: Come on Eileen, by Dexys Midnight Runners.
There is a name for the four groups of 3 and one of four in Here comes the Sun -- Hemiola. It is also common in classical music.
Excellent work congratulations on a grand video
Fantastic analysis thanks
Another brilliant explanation. I can't believe I'm learning so much after so many years. Thanks again
Very Good Tutorial. That the group did this all without a click track further states how good they were at their craft. Thanks
I only just discovered you and I love your work.
You should do an analysis on how Tool uses time signatures. If you aren't familiar, you should check out their songs "Schism" and "Lateralus".
Your videos are always excellent David. Well done.
I know it was in your other video about time signatures, but ‘All You Need is Love’ is a great example.
Wow love the clap clap in the mad time signature bit at the end of here comes the sun
Thank you for these interesting and useful knowledge, and clear explanation. Great job.
Ittinan Intaranan
Music teacher
Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Thank you David. Really very helpful and educational.
Cheers!
Though Here Comes the Sun is a relatively simple song, drumming along to it is really difficult
not at all if you think of triplets during that 3/8 section...it feels fun lol
BuMp2RuN ya but if you don’t count it gets difficult
I think it’s easier to count if you keep it in 4/4 like he suggests. It definitely feels in 3/8 but counts very nicely in 4/4, especially if you’re looking at written parts. The repeated part then is 3 measures of 4/4 with an extra beat between the 2nd and 3rd measure (which he writes as 2/8, and you could really tack it on to make a 5/4 measure also).
@@evanreichelt8745 I've been playing Beatles songs since I was 10, and never had a problem with their time signatures, mostly because I'm largely self taught and played by ear. I also watched Ringo play every chance I could, and I discovered that he always led into fills with his left hand, not his right as a right handed drummer would. It's a big deal when playing Beatles, because it sounds right. Anything else sounds like you're trying to sound like Ringo instead of sounding like Ringo.
love how you make music theory fun!!!
Theres a thing Beatles do that mimics Bacharach (e.g. Say A Little Prayer), where what the writer hears as the melody is put into the song regardless if it falls into the endless 4/4. i.e. 4/4 is not the master - the melody is. Other time signatures are available.
Fascinating. Only goes to show more of the Beatles genius.
Would definitely dig a dive into tempo changes
Some time ago with one of my bands we decided tot do the Johnny Cash song Ring of fire. I'm a simple bass player and It took me some time to grasp the time signature changes in this song.
Great episode. I love it when you talk about the beatles!!
Really good video. It's interesting how much the Beatles wrote in 3/4 time. "She's Leaving Home" is one of my favorite songs of theirs, for my money the best waltz of the 20th century (sorry, Tennessee Waltz fans), worthy of Strauss and some of the other giants.
I agree! It’s so good, it could be a waltz in a Tchaikovsky ballet :)
Just a simply amazing breakdown of musical pieces.
I can’t wait to see my friends faces as I try to explain this to them.
It’s going to be epic.🤣👍🎸
Greatest band ever, by a mile
It would be really helpful to a lot of people of you made videos analysing the beatles songs "Eleanor Rigby", "I want to tell you", "here, there and everywhere" and "tomorrow never knows", as they are in the A level music syllabus. You explain things really well and I think it would help people understand what everything means instead of just memorizing things :)
Love the glittery numbers
This channel is absolutely superb!!!!!
very good rhythmic analyse
I love how we can dissect these patterns and changes through their music as if they had done it in the same technical manner. But they didn't, it was all feel and instinct - that's what separates them from the academics that dissect their music.
One early example is It Won’t Be Long: verses in 7/8
David, nice of you to see the link towards "we can work it out"...as it was a Paul song, BUT, John helped Paul out on that difficult middle part"life is very short"...So the time change there is Lennon himself....actually Lennon was a crazy time changer from birth..
Great artists have a lot of colors in their pallettes. And they paint with different brushes using varying pressure and mathematically vary the strokes.
David you are wonderful!
Brilliant analysis, David! 👍
Quick correction the first song is actually by Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts club band
David, fantastic videos, dude. Thank you. Learning a ton from you.
Congrats, mate! I really enjoy your videos!! Keep on going! :D
Ringo is a genius.
No click tracks. But perfectly on beat.
I remember my first impression of "Here Comes the Sun" when I first heard it. It was like, "What a nice little cute tune there!", but then I looked into the notes...
Magnificent! Thanks for this.