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There’s also an advantage when using conductors. Its significantly easier to do a slow cut time feel rather than fast 4/4. It’s also clearer to the ensemble
In my strings class in 7th grade we played “Drunken Sailor” in 2/2 at 104 half notes per minute, and at the end it slowed down to half the tempo, conducted in good old 4/4 at 104 quarter notes per minute.
Something that even a lot of Brazilian musicians seem to get wrong is that most Samba is actually also in 2/2, with the second beat being emphasized. Interesting to learn how country can be kind of similar to samba in this way!
Yes, a lot of Bossa Nova tunes are notated wrongly in 4/4. The more I get into the genre, the more I despise the tyranny of 4/4. And iReal Pro puts most tracks into 4/4, my looper defaults to 4/4 and my DAW loves 4/4 above all. 😖
@@Rodrigoooous well, to be honest, I don't really know the actual difference between 2/2 and 2/4. What I know is that Samba is counted in groups of two.
@@vitormelomedeiros fellow br here, I had the same doubt over here. but the explanation of using larger value notes was a bit satisfying for that question, although David didn't adressed it
Glad you went over this topic. Would appreciate a follow-up video where you address notating the same piece in 2/4 (where note values would be halved) vs 2/2. I know some of the differences in choosing the time signature likely come from style and convention, so it would be good to hear about that as well. Thanks!
I got into your channel recently and right now I'm binge watching the time sig videos, it's kind of hilarious to be getting more and more complex, all the way up to 19, and then falling back down to 2/2.
That was an awesome and eyes opening episode, especially that comparison of that great song by John Denver in 2/2 time signature vs. that of 4/4, Many Thanks😊😊😊
That's really down to the backing that is more driving in the 4/4 version than its 2/2 counterpart. The phrasing and articulation of the vocal line is still very much the same in both renditions.
Very clearly explained . 2 2 is perhaps the time signature that corresponds most closely to the rhythmn of walking which might be one of the roots of rhythmn
Great video. When translating it to 4/4 at the beginning you doubled the tempo, but i was feeling it more like couting the first two 2/2 bars as one 4/4 bar, and doing so i wouldnt be doubling the tempo but simply couting in a 4 way instead of 2. It also helps with the strong beat situation once it is not uncommon to accentuate the 1 and 3. At least it sounds comfortable for me. I would definitely write it in 4/4 if i was given the task
I always interpreted Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Jolene as a half time 4/4 and Country Roads as double time so learning they’re actually 2/2 is cool to know. Always enjoy these kinds of videos for that reason, you always learn a lot more than you already do
@@zzzaphod8507and good chance no one making real musical decisions on the original compositions even wrote down a time signature (maybe someone writing auxiliary parts for the studio but good chance Dolly or her main rhythm players would have done it all by ear).
@@stephenbeck7222 Agree. In pop/rock/country etc. the people involved with writing the songs don't generally bother notating sheet music, and I take less stock in decisions made later on by a transcriber or arranger, in terms of which time signature to choose.
I might notate Country Roads in 4/4 time, with the bars twice as long (e.g., the first full bar of the excerpt starting on "roads" and the second one starting on "home"), so "roads" would be a dotted quarter instead of a whole note tied to a half note. Not sure if that has been considered. Notating it in 2/2 misses that some "downbeats" are stronger than others (the beginning of "roads" is stronger than the third beat of "roads"). Same with Folsom Prison Blues: "hear", "the", "train" etc. can all be eighth notes and that excerpt can be 3 bars of 4/4 instead of 6 of 2/2.
I'm quite surprised that you didn't mention any marches, specifically the ones by John Phillip Sousa, those are always in cut time and are a perfect example of cut time vs 4/4
I was thinking of this as well! Some marches use a triplet feel notated in 6/8, but duple time marches use cut time so often that I've even heard it called "march time" before. As for Sousa, I'm indifferent on the "circusy" sound, my beef with him is that I'm a horn player, and thus am contractually bound to be annoyed at the thought of him.
@@MyRackley well maybe I'm a bit biased because of Monty Python but if you compare how his marches sounds compared to German, Russian, Finnish and Swedish marches, which I think sound more grander and noble, Sousa kinda falls a bit flat imo. With that being said though I still think marches such as the liberty bell and stars and stripes forever are fun to play
Hi David Bennett Piano, I have struggled for years to understand how and why and when to use 2/2 notation versus 4/4 notation. Thank you for this explanation, but it hasn't really done it for me. For example, in your longest and most detailed example, Country Roads, you give audio examples of it in 2/2 time, but you've changed the way it sounds for your example (you've removed the percussive hits that happen on both "and" counts). And then when you give the audio demonstration in 4/4 time, you've added equal emphasis chord and percussive hits on every quarter note, which is something that is rarely done in any kind of music. What the song actually does on the original popular recording is give base notes on the 1 and the 2 counts, but give various percussive hits on all four quarter notes "1" "and" "2" "and". These percussive hits emphasize "1" the most with the lower pitches, also strongly emphasizing "2" with lower pitches, but emphasize both "and" counts about equally with higher pitched percussion including finger snaps. This pattern is also very common in pop 4/4 time. I suspect that the written time signatures 2/2 versus 4/4 have a greater effect in the performers mind and thinking while playing than they do on the actual sound of the music, so when people that are very musically literate like yourself hear music that is in 2/2 time versus 4/4, if you are able to tell whether it's 2/2 or 4/4 then the same kind of mentality happens in your mind when you listen. As you listen "in" 2/2 or "in" 4/4, your mind greatly exaggerates the distinctiveness of the 2/2 versus 4/4 sound and feel, where as to a musically dyslexic person like myself, most of the time music sounds very similar or identical between 2/2 and 4/4. For me, as a result when I try to play music in 2/2 or 4/4, I struggle to know how to play them differently. For example, here is what Country Roads actually sounds like, and you and your viewers will note that it sounds almost exactly halfway between your two 2/2 and 4/4 examples: th-cam.com/video/1vrEljMfXYo/w-d-xo.html
I really enjoyed this video, David! I was hoping you would do a video on 2/2 time and was very excited to see this. I remember right before the pandemic hit, I was gonna be in the pit band for a production of School of Rock the musical that my music school was doing, and one of the songs, “Where Did The Rock Go?” was notated in 2/2 time
Very fast pieces are sometimes counted "one in a bar". I have heard conductors say this before starting a piece to indicate how they will be conducting it.
@@chrisisbell3080 Occasionally fast pieces are even counted one beat for every TWO bars, believe it or not. Beethoven Harp Quartet third movement middle (C major) section, for example. One recording I checked goes about 184 bars per minute so it's more convenient to beat every 2 bars (92 per minute). It's in 3/4 so that's about 552 quarter notes per minute, the fastest I've seen.
Maggie's Farm is interesting in that it's solely the bass guitar that gives it that 2/2 quality. The drummer is doing a standard 4/4 pattern. Which goes to show how important instrumentation is.
I just realized a lot of modern dubstep is in 2/2 due to the kick and snare usually hitting on beat 1 and 3, as well as people headbanging at raves moving on beat 1 and 3 as well. Of course some will still be in 4/4 though due to other percussion or basses having a 4/4 feel. Some pretty good examples are versa - the pit, samplifire & evilnoiz - helheim, papa khan - rain, and akeos - soul material
I was always told this was called 'Marching Time' and of course a lot of big band songs from the WW2 years etc. yield to that. :) Another great video, thanks!
You don't answer the question I was scratching my head about : why 2/2 and not 2/4 considering it's always quite uptempo and that the half-note (or minim) is quite a long note. If you play a very fast country song, why not even 2/8.... Please answer ;)
2/2 because of the emphasis of the 1st and 3 rd beats... 2/4 would be the same as 4/4 with twice as many bars/measures and 2/8 the BPM/tempo would be cut in half to get the same results as 2/4 or 4/4. (pertaining to the songs mentioned in the video).
In a way, 2/2 is closer to 2/4, with each note value doubled. Both count in 2 beats per measure. 4/4 counts in 4. Rach III in 2/4 would then sound the same (adjusted for note length and tempo), whereas 4/4 does not.
A fun example of a metal band using 2/2 is Sabaton, whose songs often have a march-like tempo to go with their lyrical themes of military history - 'Carolus Rex' and 'The Last Stand' being two such examples :)
Africa by Toto uses 2/2. It is able to have odd numbers of bars without it sounding weird. If it was in 4/4, it wouldn't add up and sound like something's missing.
Don't know how much this counts, but reading Breve to me (breh-veh) reads as "half" purely since I'm a barista at my day job, and a latte breve is a latte made with steamed cream (half-and-half in NA) -- I don't speak Italian myself, but there's a correlation there
I like to think Waylon Jennings did this a lot with his songs. As a drummer I always called it the “Waylon Beat”. I can think of so many of his songs that have that 2/2 feel or “cut time.”
El 2/2 tiene mucho sentido y -por tanto- y utilización en la música académica, pero en la música popular no tanto, la mayoría de las canciones (incluídas las de los ejemplos) se pueden escribir en 2/4 sin problema.
Some sea chanties are also in 2/2, for example “Drunken Sailor” (at least how I learned it in 7th grade strings class, which was my first introduction to 2/2 written as such, rather than a C with a line through it) and “The Wellerman”.
Excellent job Dave !!!👍 I’ve always been a stickler about these matters, but many are desensitized to it. Kudos and keep up the great work in music education! 👨🏻
In a lot of music of the classical and romantic periods (c. 1750-1910), there is a very big difference between the performance of common and ‘alla breve’ time.
What would really help me as a complete beginner in music is to have a metronome click on the beats. I've watched (and enjoyed!) a number of your time signature vids and I always wish you'd played a version with clicks to follow, as well as a non clicked version :-)
Country roads, folsom prison, Maggie's farm, and Jolene are 4/4. All these songs were written primarily with guitar accompaniment, which is always 4 count on folk or country style songs.
Yep! Not sure where he's getting 2/2 from. The melodic phrases in Country Roads are clearly in 4/4 time. The words, "Roads, Home, Place, beLONG" are all on the 1 beat of 4/4 time where the words like "Coun-try" and "Take Me" are on 4. This isn't the first time David has mistaken pickup notes as down beats.
Having played a bunch of folk, country, and bluegrass songs as a bassist I can tell you that the bass usually makes it sound like it's in 2 when the rest of the instruments are in 4. At least that's what my ears were hearing, it doesn't really matter what the numbers actually are if it sounds right 😅
@0neirogenic yes, that's because you are choosing to play bass notes on the 1st and 3rd beat, as is the style of country or bluegrass. You can play more if you want. I think that's what this video is trying to say, but the feel of a song isn't necessarily the time signature.
Embarrassing confession I guess, but I was in school band/other performing groups from ages 10 to 22 and have engaged with music as an occasional hobby since then and 2/2 was never really explained well to me and remained the one basic music theory thing that I've never been able to explain. So this FINALLY made it made sense. Earlier today I was driving and was listening to my Liked Songs playlist on Spotify and had two 2/2 songs appear back-to-back (Mucho Mungo/Mt Elga by Harry Nilsson, which actually switches between 4/4 and 2/2, and On the Bound by Fiona Apple) and I was like ohhhhhhhhh I get it now
Also, before recorded music, musical notation wasn't the only way of recording how the composer intended to be played as human memory also provided an account for those who heard it under the baton of the composer.
@davidbennettpiano Could you show us a comparison of Country Roads in 2/2 vs 4/4, but with only a single vocal part and no accompanying instruments? The completely rewritten bass and drum parts in the video's example made it difficult to get any sense of how the time signature affected the feel of the song.
By this definition of 2 2, though, with a strong and weak beat, the drum part of most songs in 4 4 would be in 2 2. Like Billie Jean, for example, the emphasis is on those two beats, so it's pretty much played in 2 2, but notated in 4 4 eother way. Which goes to show that a time signature, lile chords or modes, is something you play and not sonething that's intrinsic to the music.
good video, I recommend that you analyze the music of the band the Wise Tone because it uses time changes as in the theme Waste of time 5/4 to 4/4... They also make time changes as in the How Long theme from 100bpm to 75bpm etc. They apply many harmonizations with interesting style and similar to The Beatles, you could start listening to it and see how it is
Also all of the Latin American music can preferably be written in 2/2 since the feel of the music is really two and f.i. in Cuban music the clave can be turned around by just adding or leaving a bar instead of having to change the time signature...
Total music agnostic here. I find you videos very informative. I'd be interested to know if you have done a video about the various symbols used on sheet music and what they mean.
You know your whole life is a lie when you've been counting most popular tracks as 4/4 and learning years later from David that these time signatures can exist outside classical music
Another gem! Here’s my question- i always learned the 2/2 or cut time signature was just a way to write music in the more readable form than 4/4- Would you do the great example of how it’s more than that. I find myself counting 2/2 time as 1+2+3+4+ across two measures…because that tends to lineup with the two in the four on the drum beat. But when you played the 4 beats as would normally be played on country road I was like that’s just awful! Lol. Nice work again
Great video! But the thing is you never mentioned 2/4 or even 2/8 time. Most of the songs you showed were not of slow tempo and I would say I felt a lot of them as more of a 2/4 personally.
In 2/2, the beat is a half note (that's the bottom number of the time signature) and there are two half notes per bar (that's the top number of the time signature). In 2/4, the beat is the quarter note, and there are two quarter notes per bar.
As someone who plays by "ear", this is something I wish I would have studied harder as a youth in band class, instead of just memorizing the feel and sound of the song. Time signatures always seemed like rubbish to me but the reality is is that it helps to understand how the music really flows.
It’s also common to find polka music in cut time. One example is Schultz’s Polka by Western Senators. That’s the most obvious example. But a more subtle one, now that I’m looking is Rosamunde Polka by Oktoberfest Party. I originally thought it was in 8/8 time. But now that I know what 2/2 time is, I know that just about every polka I’ve heard is in cut time.
I realistically think that a polka could be notated in 2/2 or 2/4. It just depends on how the beat is felt by the person notating the song because it’s not very likely that everyone will feel the same meter. What you’re saying does make sense though.
I'm pretty sure you could play the same song in these two different time signatures, 2/2 and 2/4 and it would sound exactly the same. If you would have the 2/4 in a sower tempo. the only thing is that the notation would possibly be more complicated but they would sound exactly the same. Emphasis on the first beat in both of them. - Someone correct me with a good argument if they think that I am wrong.
If you truly want to appreciate the difference between common and cut time, trying learning “drops of Jupiter” by Train on the piano. It is in cut time. Count it in 4/4 and you will be completely lost.
I'm Italian, the correct pronunciation of "Alla breve" is "Alla brɛvɛ" (like bed is bɛd). By the way "breve" means short referred to a time duration: "a very short song" is "una canzone molto breve"
I thought exactly the same thing - and yet (in the UK) we pronounce "semibreve" to rhyme with "leave". But I would always pronounce "breve" like "Rev". He also said "tempos" where I would say "tempi".
hello david. could you make a video on how to figure out which chord extension to use. there are so many that sound amazing but I have no idea which ones to use for my chord progressions
This video made me realise that Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween" (for The Nightmare Before Christmas) is probably in 2/2 time (or at least can be transcribed to 2/2 rather easily?) Time signatures are going to be the death of me tbh
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There’s also an advantage when using conductors. Its significantly easier to do a slow cut time feel rather than fast 4/4. It’s also clearer to the ensemble
In my strings class in 7th grade we played “Drunken Sailor” in 2/2 at 104 half notes per minute, and at the end it slowed down to half the tempo, conducted in good old 4/4 at 104 quarter notes per minute.
Something that even a lot of Brazilian musicians seem to get wrong is that most Samba is actually also in 2/2, with the second beat being emphasized. Interesting to learn how country can be kind of similar to samba in this way!
Yes, a lot of Bossa Nova tunes are notated wrongly in 4/4. The more I get into the genre, the more I despise the tyranny of 4/4. And iReal Pro puts most tracks into 4/4, my looper defaults to 4/4 and my DAW loves 4/4 above all. 😖
I was taught that samba is in 2/4
You're a great teacher, knowing to answer the ultimate Why?
@@Rodrigoooous well, to be honest, I don't really know the actual difference between 2/2 and 2/4. What I know is that Samba is counted in groups of two.
@@vitormelomedeiros fellow br here, I had the same doubt over here. but the explanation of using larger value notes was a bit satisfying for that question, although David didn't adressed it
Glad you went over this topic. Would appreciate a follow-up video where you address notating the same piece in 2/4 (where note values would be halved) vs 2/2. I know some of the differences in choosing the time signature likely come from style and convention, so it would be good to hear about that as well. Thanks!
Note value isn't halved in 2/4. The bar/measure length is halved...
Like other comments, would appreciate a video on the difference between 2/2 and 2/4. Not so much the theory, but the feel and articulation.
Me too
Could you do a video on waltzes?
The best part for him is that John Lennon loved waltzes.
3/4
Good idea 😊
@@DavidBennettPiano Eliott Smith neeeds to be there!
@@DenKulesteSomFinstotally, he did write so many songs in 3/4
I got into your channel recently and right now I'm binge watching the time sig videos, it's kind of hilarious to be getting more and more complex, all the way up to 19, and then falling back down to 2/2.
That was an awesome and eyes opening episode, especially that comparison of that great song by John Denver in 2/2 time signature vs. that of 4/4, Many Thanks😊😊😊
That's really down to the backing that is more driving in the 4/4 version than its 2/2 counterpart. The phrasing and articulation of the vocal line is still very much the same in both renditions.
In 4/4 it sounded like Hawkwind😊
Very clearly explained . 2 2 is perhaps the time signature that corresponds most closely to the rhythmn of walking which might be one of the roots of rhythmn
Great video. When translating it to 4/4 at the beginning you doubled the tempo, but i was feeling it more like couting the first two 2/2 bars as one 4/4 bar, and doing so i wouldnt be doubling the tempo but simply couting in a 4 way instead of 2. It also helps with the strong beat situation once it is not uncommon to accentuate the 1 and 3. At least it sounds comfortable for me. I would definitely write it in 4/4 if i was given the task
ok ive always wondered what that "dup dup" sound was, now I know its 2/2 time.
I always interpreted Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Jolene as a half time 4/4 and Country Roads as double time so learning they’re actually 2/2 is cool to know. Always enjoy these kinds of videos for that reason, you always learn a lot more than you already do
Unless the songwriter labeled it as 2/2, not sure I would say they are "actually 2/2". There's often more than one reasonable way of notating it.
@@zzzaphod8507and good chance no one making real musical decisions on the original compositions even wrote down a time signature (maybe someone writing auxiliary parts for the studio but good chance Dolly or her main rhythm players would have done it all by ear).
@@stephenbeck7222 Agree. In pop/rock/country etc. the people involved with writing the songs don't generally bother notating sheet music, and I take less stock in decisions made later on by a transcriber or arranger, in terms of which time signature to choose.
The official story I heard was "...Dixie, double 4 time"
@@GizzyDillespee I approve of that reference, great song
I might notate Country Roads in 4/4 time, with the bars twice as long (e.g., the first full bar of the excerpt starting on "roads" and the second one starting on "home"), so "roads" would be a dotted quarter instead of a whole note tied to a half note. Not sure if that has been considered. Notating it in 2/2 misses that some "downbeats" are stronger than others (the beginning of "roads" is stronger than the third beat of "roads"). Same with Folsom Prison Blues: "hear", "the", "train" etc. can all be eighth notes and that excerpt can be 3 bars of 4/4 instead of 6 of 2/2.
0:37 beatles example
I'm quite surprised that you didn't mention any marches, specifically the ones by John Phillip Sousa, those are always in cut time and are a perfect example of cut time vs 4/4
I was thinking that too except for the Sousa part, his marches sound too circusy
@@torstenlandsson9757 I don't like them either lol, I just think they were important to be mentioned
@@torstenlandsson9757 As in Monty Python?
I was thinking of this as well! Some marches use a triplet feel notated in 6/8, but duple time marches use cut time so often that I've even heard it called "march time" before.
As for Sousa, I'm indifferent on the "circusy" sound, my beef with him is that I'm a horn player, and thus am contractually bound to be annoyed at the thought of him.
@@MyRackley well maybe I'm a bit biased because of Monty Python but if you compare how his marches sounds compared to German, Russian, Finnish and Swedish marches, which I think sound more grander and noble, Sousa kinda falls a bit flat imo. With that being said though I still think marches such as the liberty bell and stars and stripes forever are fun to play
We use to call this a polka beat(oompha oompha)
Japanese girl with blue hair holding a vegetable in her hand and singing in a high pitch (ACTIVATED) 🎶 Levan Polkka… 🎵
Great comparison of 2/2 and 4/4 time. I have always struggled with that. Thank you for making it much clearer for me 👍
Hi David Bennett Piano, I have struggled for years to understand how and why and when to use 2/2 notation versus 4/4 notation. Thank you for this explanation, but it hasn't really done it for me. For example, in your longest and most detailed example, Country Roads, you give audio examples of it in 2/2 time, but you've changed the way it sounds for your example (you've removed the percussive hits that happen on both "and" counts). And then when you give the audio demonstration in 4/4 time, you've added equal emphasis chord and percussive hits on every quarter note, which is something that is rarely done in any kind of music. What the song actually does on the original popular recording is give base notes on the 1 and the 2 counts, but give various percussive hits on all four quarter notes "1" "and" "2" "and". These percussive hits emphasize "1" the most with the lower pitches, also strongly emphasizing "2" with lower pitches, but emphasize both "and" counts about equally with higher pitched percussion including finger snaps. This pattern is also very common in pop 4/4 time. I suspect that the written time signatures 2/2 versus 4/4 have a greater effect in the performers mind and thinking while playing than they do on the actual sound of the music, so when people that are very musically literate like yourself hear music that is in 2/2 time versus 4/4, if you are able to tell whether it's 2/2 or 4/4 then the same kind of mentality happens in your mind when you listen. As you listen "in" 2/2 or "in" 4/4, your mind greatly exaggerates the distinctiveness of the 2/2 versus 4/4 sound and feel, where as to a musically dyslexic person like myself, most of the time music sounds very similar or identical between 2/2 and 4/4. For me, as a result when I try to play music in 2/2 or 4/4, I struggle to know how to play them differently. For example, here is what Country Roads actually sounds like, and you and your viewers will note that it sounds almost exactly halfway between your two 2/2 and 4/4 examples: th-cam.com/video/1vrEljMfXYo/w-d-xo.html
I really enjoyed this video, David! I was hoping you would do a video on 2/2 time and was very excited to see this.
I remember right before the pandemic hit, I was gonna be in the pit band for a production of School of Rock the musical that my music school was doing, and one of the songs, “Where Did The Rock Go?” was notated in 2/2 time
Jack Bruce's "As You Said" has one bar of 1/8 in it. It is used perfectly and cannot be omitted in any way.
I'm waiting for the 1/1 time signature video
john cages 4'33" is on 0/1 time
Borodin's 2nd Symphony 2nd movement is in 1/1. About 108 bpm, so 432 quarter notes per minute.
I once conducted a piece that had many different time signatures including one bar of 1/4. Fun!
Very fast pieces are sometimes counted "one in a bar". I have heard conductors say this before starting a piece to indicate how they will be conducting it.
@@chrisisbell3080 Occasionally fast pieces are even counted one beat for every TWO bars, believe it or not. Beethoven Harp Quartet third movement middle (C major) section, for example. One recording I checked goes about 184 bars per minute so it's more convenient to beat every 2 bars (92 per minute). It's in 3/4 so that's about 552 quarter notes per minute, the fastest I've seen.
Dont get it. I need a VERY patient teacher in front of me-a piano and about 3 hours
Maggie's Farm is interesting in that it's solely the bass guitar that gives it that 2/2 quality. The drummer is doing a standard 4/4 pattern. Which goes to show how important instrumentation is.
0:11 He said Tutu time
I just realized a lot of modern dubstep is in 2/2 due to the kick and snare usually hitting on beat 1 and 3, as well as people headbanging at raves moving on beat 1 and 3 as well. Of course some will still be in 4/4 though due to other percussion or basses having a 4/4 feel. Some pretty good examples are versa - the pit, samplifire & evilnoiz - helheim, papa khan - rain, and akeos - soul material
They call it half time and i wonder what is the difference between cut time and half time
@@ilyaprofit most likely because the drum beat is usually a 4 on the floor style beat (commonly used in techno or house) at half speed, or half time
Mirror in the Bathroom by the English Beat is a great example of 2/2 time.
I was always told this was called 'Marching Time' and of course a lot of big band songs from the WW2 years etc. yield to that. :) Another great video, thanks!
I understood march (and polka) time to be 2/4, admittedly an even subtler difference.
I love how Country Roads instantly becomes rock with 4/4 time xD
Rocky Roads
You don't answer the question I was scratching my head about : why 2/2 and not 2/4 considering it's always quite uptempo and that the half-note (or minim) is quite a long note.
If you play a very fast country song, why not even 2/8....
Please answer ;)
2/2 because of the emphasis of the 1st and 3 rd beats... 2/4 would be the same as 4/4 with twice as many bars/measures and 2/8 the BPM/tempo would be cut in half to get the same results as 2/4 or 4/4. (pertaining to the songs mentioned in the video).
I'm so inept that I have to learn the rhythm first, and then worry about "emphasis" afterwards...can't do it any other way...
“As you can hear, country roads in 4/4 absolutely slaaaaaps.”
In a way, 2/2 is closer to 2/4, with each note value doubled. Both count in 2 beats per measure. 4/4 counts in 4. Rach III in 2/4 would then sound the same (adjusted for note length and tempo), whereas 4/4 does not.
this. 2/2 is just 2/4 with doubled note values. It has very little to do with 4/4.
A fun example of a metal band using 2/2 is Sabaton, whose songs often have a march-like tempo to go with their lyrical themes of military history - 'Carolus Rex' and 'The Last Stand' being two such examples :)
Africa by Toto uses 2/2. It is able to have odd numbers of bars without it sounding weird. If it was in 4/4, it wouldn't add up and sound like something's missing.
Don't know how much this counts, but reading Breve to me (breh-veh) reads as "half" purely since I'm a barista at my day job, and a latte breve is a latte made with steamed cream (half-and-half in NA) -- I don't speak Italian myself, but there's a correlation there
Can't wait for the video about songs is 1/1 time!
I like to think Waylon Jennings did this a lot with his songs. As a drummer I always called it the “Waylon Beat”. I can think of so many of his songs that have that 2/2 feel or “cut time.”
supergrass sometimes i make you sad is a good 2/2 example
I was looking forwards to a composition in cut time
the point is not comparing 2/2 with 4/4, but 2/2 with 4/2. That's where the difference is very obscure or non existent
The Renaissance and Baroque period would have used the cut time symbol for both 2/2 and 4/2 (if barlines were used at all).
El 2/2 tiene mucho sentido y -por tanto- y utilización en la música académica, pero en la música popular no tanto, la mayoría de las canciones (incluídas las de los ejemplos) se pueden escribir en 2/4 sin problema.
Some sea chanties are also in 2/2, for example “Drunken Sailor” (at least how I learned it in 7th grade strings class, which was my first introduction to 2/2 written as such, rather than a C with a line through it) and “The Wellerman”.
Excellent job Dave !!!👍 I’ve always been a stickler about these matters, but many are desensitized to it. Kudos and keep up the great work in music education! 👨🏻
funnily enough i just played at a concert (orchestra) where basically every piece was in 2/2
In a lot of music of the classical and romantic periods (c. 1750-1910), there is a very big difference between the performance of common and ‘alla breve’ time.
The chain by Fleetwood Mac also uses 2/2 time, but it switches to 4/4 in the guitar solo (outro section)
What would really help me as a complete beginner in music is to have a metronome click on the beats. I've watched (and enjoyed!) a number of your time signature vids and I always wish you'd played a version with clicks to follow, as well as a non clicked version :-)
Country roads, folsom prison, Maggie's farm, and Jolene are 4/4. All these songs were written primarily with guitar accompaniment, which is always 4 count on folk or country style songs.
Yep! Not sure where he's getting 2/2 from. The melodic phrases in Country Roads are clearly in 4/4 time. The words, "Roads, Home, Place, beLONG" are all on the 1 beat of 4/4 time where the words like "Coun-try" and "Take Me" are on 4. This isn't the first time David has mistaken pickup notes as down beats.
Having played a bunch of folk, country, and bluegrass songs as a bassist I can tell you that the bass usually makes it sound like it's in 2 when the rest of the instruments are in 4. At least that's what my ears were hearing, it doesn't really matter what the numbers actually are if it sounds right 😅
@0neirogenic yes, that's because you are choosing to play bass notes on the 1st and 3rd beat, as is the style of country or bluegrass. You can play more if you want. I think that's what this video is trying to say, but the feel of a song isn't necessarily the time signature.
Embarrassing confession I guess, but I was in school band/other performing groups from ages 10 to 22 and have engaged with music as an occasional hobby since then and 2/2 was never really explained well to me and remained the one basic music theory thing that I've never been able to explain. So this FINALLY made it made sense. Earlier today I was driving and was listening to my Liked Songs playlist on Spotify and had two 2/2 songs appear back-to-back (Mucho Mungo/Mt Elga by Harry Nilsson, which actually switches between 4/4 and 2/2, and On the Bound by Fiona Apple) and I was like ohhhhhhhhh I get it now
fuck it, let's just call everything 1/1 and go for drinks
You didn't even mention marches, the old 2/2 staple. Very good! I'm tired of that chestnut!
Also, before recorded music, musical notation wasn't the only way of recording how the composer intended to be played as human memory also provided an account for those who heard it under the baton of the composer.
Ermagerd Murnlert Sernerter!
Worth noting that a large portion of American military marches are/were written in 2/2.
@davidbennettpiano Could you show us a comparison of Country Roads in 2/2 vs 4/4, but with only a single vocal part and no accompanying instruments?
The completely rewritten bass and drum parts in the video's example made it difficult to get any sense of how the time signature affected the feel of the song.
By this definition of 2 2, though, with a strong and weak beat, the drum part of most songs in 4 4 would be in 2 2. Like Billie Jean, for example, the emphasis is on those two beats, so it's pretty much played in 2 2, but notated in 4 4 eother way. Which goes to show that a time signature, lile chords or modes, is something you play and not sonething that's intrinsic to the music.
Could you make a video about inverse/reverse picardy third? Like a major song ending on a minor chord
This blew my mind!! I had never heard of it!
Take Me Home, Country Roads in 4/4 is kind of awesome, though.
Yeah totally unexpected how good that sounded
🤣
good video, I recommend that you analyze the music of the band the Wise Tone because it uses time changes as in the theme Waste of time 5/4 to 4/4... They also make time changes as in the How Long theme from 100bpm to 75bpm etc. They apply many harmonizations with interesting style and similar to The Beatles, you could start listening to it and see how it is
Also all of the Latin American music can preferably be written in 2/2 since the feel of the music is really two and f.i. in Cuban music the clave can be turned around by just adding or leaving a bar instead of having to change the time signature...
Very interesting! Never heard of this concept before
Country Roads in 4/4 sounds like indie rock
The 3rd movement of Holst's 1st suite is in 2/2
Bro, I thought you died in like 1793
@@AndreiMarentett I thought you died in 1994!
@@DrLC. Bro, i'm his reincarnation
You should also point out that 2/2 vs. 4/4 also matters as to how it is conducted (in addition to how it is read or felt).
I'm used to this being referred to as 2/4, not 2/2.
great stuff!
Thanks!
Total music agnostic here. I find you videos very informative. I'd be interested to know if you have done a video about the various symbols used on sheet music and what they mean.
Look for his tier list (?)
What comes to mind anyway.
Wow, I had no idea Jolene is 2/2 ~ a great lesson today David, thanks!
is there a 2/4? if so, what would that sound like?
You know your whole life is a lie when you've been counting most popular tracks as 4/4 and learning years later from David that these time signatures can exist outside classical music
3:42 I use to sing this in the choir...
This never made sense to me before. Thank you.
Another gem! Here’s my question- i always learned the 2/2 or cut time signature was just a way to write music in the more readable form than 4/4- Would you do the great example of how it’s more than that. I find myself counting 2/2 time as 1+2+3+4+ across two measures…because that tends to lineup with the two in the four on the drum beat. But when you played the 4 beats as would normally be played on country road I was like that’s just awful! Lol. Nice work again
Great video! But the thing is you never mentioned 2/4 or even 2/8 time. Most of the songs you showed were not of slow tempo and I would say I felt a lot of them as more of a 2/4 personally.
The John Denver song is in 2/4, not 2/2.
Absolutely. But I didn’t go to college.. just piano lessons
Thank you so much for the video. And what is 2/4 in all of that ?
What’s the difference between 2/2 and 2/4? Is there any reason to choose one over the other?
musically speaking what would be the difference between 2/2 and 2/4?
In 2/2, the beat is a half note (that's the bottom number of the time signature) and there are two half notes per bar (that's the top number of the time signature). In 2/4, the beat is the quarter note, and there are two quarter notes per bar.
As someone who plays by "ear", this is something I wish I would have studied harder as a youth in band class, instead of just memorizing the feel and sound of the song. Time signatures always seemed like rubbish to me but the reality is is that it helps to understand how the music really flows.
It’s also common to find polka music in cut time. One example is Schultz’s Polka by Western Senators. That’s the most obvious example. But a more subtle one, now that I’m looking is Rosamunde Polka by Oktoberfest Party. I originally thought it was in 8/8 time. But now that I know what 2/2 time is, I know that just about every polka I’ve heard is in cut time.
I believe polkas (and marches) are 2/4.
I realistically think that a polka could be notated in 2/2 or 2/4. It just depends on how the beat is felt by the person notating the song because it’s not very likely that everyone will feel the same meter. What you’re saying does make sense though.
Can confirm country roads are in West Virginia as someone newly living here.
It's also the definitive meter of polka and oompah music
quick question, what is the difference between 2/2 and 2/4? and when would you use each one? thanks
I'm pretty sure you could play the same song in these two different time signatures, 2/2 and 2/4 and it would sound exactly the same. If you would have the 2/4 in a sower tempo. the only thing is that the notation would possibly be more complicated but they would sound exactly the same. Emphasis on the first beat in both of them. - Someone correct me with a good argument if they think that I am wrong.
2/4 is more common for marches and polkas.
If you truly want to appreciate the difference between common and cut time, trying learning “drops of Jupiter” by Train on the piano. It is in cut time. Count it in 4/4 and you will be completely lost.
Merci beaucoup. C'est une révélation !
youve changed my life... good job
In 2/2 country you usually have the bass hitting the root on 1 and the 5th on 3
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw two two was rach 3. I love the concerto
You are the most intelligent music instructor I know :)
you should do a video on songs in 4/4
🤣
That will be the season finale!!
Just start to learning Chopin prelude 28 op 4, which is alla breve too.
Very interesting... thanks so much
I'm Italian, the correct pronunciation of "Alla breve" is "Alla brɛvɛ" (like bed is bɛd).
By the way "breve" means short referred to a time duration: "a very short song" is "una canzone molto breve"
I thought exactly the same thing - and yet (in the UK) we pronounce "semibreve" to rhyme with "leave". But I would always pronounce "breve" like "Rev". He also said "tempos" where I would say "tempi".
@@MyRackley This is because Italian and English are different languages. Different languages pronounce words differently.
hello david. could you make a video on how to figure out which chord extension to use. there are so many that sound amazing but I have no idea which ones to use for my chord progressions
Nice idea. I’ll keep it in mind!
This video made me realise that Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween" (for The Nightmare Before Christmas) is probably in 2/2 time (or at least can be transcribed to 2/2 rather easily?)
Time signatures are going to be the death of me tbh
Than you. This has ALWAYS confused me!
As always writing a comment to support the channel
Thank you 😊
can you do a video on songs that are in a weird tempo for the genre they are in?
Thank you so much
That was excellent.