[00:01] by get it heart do do one it heart do do one by little by little is just too
[00:20] slow good day songwriters Benny and I run a really amazing and beautiful online songwriting Community with hundreds of songwriters from around the world and one of the things we love to
[00:32] do is answer questions about songs songwriting music theory lyric writing whatever comes up and we recently made a post inside our songwriter Community asking for people's biggest questions right now about songwriting and we
[00:47] received an amazing selection of questions and we have picked a few and we will work through those questions in a series of videos so here is the question that we're going to start with today so this question comes from Brian
[00:59] and this question is all around time signatures and Rhythm what are some ways I can use time signature and meter changes effectively within a song to create or add feeling to that song and I love this question because I don't think
[01:13] we've actually addressed issues of time signature and meter on the channel up to this point so this is a really nice opportunity to talk about it and it's a really important topic we so often talk about Melody we talk about chords we
[01:26] talk a lot about lyrics Rhythm feels like the one that kind of gets left out thing that glues all of the other elements together so this is going to be a really important discussion so the first thing to talk about is really
[01:40] actually even the definition of time signature and meter when we're talking about meter meter is really the grouping of pulses so at a very basic rhythmic level right there's always going to be an underlying pulse unless we're in a
[01:53] kind of very Timeless Legato passage of music but for the most part music will underlying pulse now when I do this there's no grouping it's really just one there's no grouping it's really just one one one so what meter is is it's the
[02:08] grouping of pulses so meter is saying well I'm going to group them into groups well I'm going to group them into groups of three so I might go 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
[02:20] 1 2 3 so I've taken that underlying pulse and I've grouped it and when I group something what actually ends up happening is you very frequently will have pulses that are more naturally accented so meter also has to do with
[02:34] where the accented beats fall once you've put a series of pulses into a group together so that's one grouping another grouping of the same pulse right I just start and at the moment it's just one one one but I might go 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
[02:54] one one one but I might go 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 so I have now grouped my pulses into a 44 meter so that is both meter and the
[03:07] describe the meter and you can see how useful this becomes when thinking about writing your songs and communicating your songs to others because naturally as KY was counting then I was really just thinking in terms of chord changes
[03:21] so one bar of 44 and one chord one bar of 44 and another chord and so we're changing chords every bar bars really become the units that we use to looking at the the architecture of our songs exactly so there are extra layers
[03:36] of complexity that happen if we understand this basic concept right that meter is just the grouping of pulses we also have the subdivision of pulses right so if I'm going this is my basic pulse right well I can now subdivide
[03:52] pulse right well I can now subdivide this pulse I go one 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 this pulse I go one 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 so I've got this
[04:06] subdivision now again let's come back to the basic pulse I could actually cut it into three so I've still basic pulse I could go 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1
[04:18] could go 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 [Music] 2 it's like we're in the old timey poker D okay so now we're starting to get at
[04:33] some layers of complexity to do with both meter and time signature right because I not only have the grouping of that pulse I have the grouping of subdivisions underneath that so all of
[04:46] this is kind of just definitional stuff leading us to answer this question but we need to understand what are the ingredients in time and time signature and meor that we have to play with because when it comes time to creating
[04:59] we can create variations at these different levels so one way we can start different levels so one way we can start to play with variations in that basic to play with variations in that basic grouping of the pulses is to start in a
[05:12] grouping of the pulses is to start in a comfortable meter which is for West part four four right so it's grouping of pulses into four so let's say for example that we're going to go from 4 four into
[05:25] 54 so what we might do is just pretend we're writing a song and we want to create two sections two contrasting sections it might be a verse going to a pre chorus or a verse going to a chorus doesn't really matter but we're going to
[05:37] create two sections the first section is going to be like a verse in 44 then we're going to try and go to a 54 pattern and see what happens we're not we're going to nail it okay so we're going to start off in that 4 four that
[05:51] going to start off in that 4 four that stable 4 four field two three 4 and stable 4 four field two three 4 and [Music]
[06:29] change in the groupings right that the groupings did change the next question as songwriters is why right like why would you do that what is the effect of doing that there are two main things
[06:41] that I always think about and whenever we're teaching classes or workshops or running courses with people and talking about these things these two main Concepts always come up and I would say always underly everything we talk about
[06:56] always underly everything we talk about right so one thing one reason to do it and one compositional um sort of principle is the principle of contrast right it's about taking your song on a journey it's about moving from one
[07:10] section to another section and really moving the story along which also in song form is also about moving the emotion along developing the emotion developing the plot developing the story so there are so many elements of
[07:23] contrast that we can employ and this is just one of them I will say that for me and I'm interested to know how you feel about this it's probably one of the most about this it's probably one of the most dramatic things that we can do to create
[07:36] contrast it's dramatic but there are levels of drama so what we've just done levels of drama so what we've just done then for me is a really nice easy entry into time seing to changes because the underlying pulse doesn't change what
[07:50] that extra beat to the bar so instead of four pulses we've got now five pulses in a bar that for me creates this feeling of surprise and you get to leverage that
[08:02] surprise as a songwriter to keep people interested it's new information it takes the song in a direction that was unexpected but the feel of the song is still going along in this you know this this the pulse is still there and it's
[08:15] the pulse that is kind of the common the glue what what I think you'll find later is where we'll show one later where you actually change the pulse and the feel quite drastically and that creates quite a shock and that be used in all sorts of
[08:31] different ways but it's it's it's almost jarring sometimes when you do it so this one still feels reasonably subtle to me yeah the other principle that I'm always thinking about is a kind of fancy word for something that's really simple but
[08:43] for something that's really simple but very important and that word is pro So Pro is the concept that the structural choices we make in our choices we make in our songs have a relationship to the meaning
[08:57] there's many different ways that this can happen and many different effects that we can create but broadly there are things that we do with the structure and patterning of the elements in a song that will create a neat stable
[09:13] resolution the other thing that we can do is create instability right so we create a pattern and then we mess with that pattern and it's when we mess with the pattern that we start to introduce elements of instability into something
[09:27] so certainly for the Western ear 44 is kind of the most stable metric grouping and as soon as we messed with it with 54 I'm sure that you heard as well and by all means let us know in the comments how you perceived it and how the feeling
[09:42] changed for you but for me it introduces an element of instability right so like just introducing that extra beat changing it up it's patterned as well because we repeated the 54 so it establishes its own pattern but in
[09:56] changing it from 44 it has a slightly unstable feel to it so we've gone from something that felt quite stable to something that started to feel unstable and this is the rule that really when you're dealing with the even numbers in
[10:10] 44 if you're dealing in twos fours sixes eights it's going to feel stable as soon we're playing with the fives the sevens the 11s the 13s it's unstable and that's really powerful for us to to know because it allows us to
[10:25] really think of this as not not a big deal in terms of of changing time you know sometimes I'm changing time signature in the middle of my song four4 and I'm going to add one beat to make it 54 destabilize it CU I'm now on
[10:40] an odd number and you hear a lot of songwriters do the same with seven groupings of four but they've deleted one of the Beats so now they've got a four and a three to create that seven so ke and I really like this idea of adding
[10:54] and dropping beats to get the desired effect because it's an easy way in without thinking about this scary idea of I've got a change time signature in or adding beats thing is a really nice way to to just keep it smoother and more
[11:10] accessible to more songwriters yeah as an arranging decision for the sections of your songs to give yourself the space and the air the tension the release that you really need in a way where you know yes most of the section might be in 44
[11:24] but you have the liberty and the freedom to add and drop beats or half bar to really create certain effects we don't need to be rigidly confined to there let's demonstrate that with the same chords we've just using and Kip
[11:39] doesn't know what I'm going to play so I'm going to play in 44 but then just drop or add beats as I feel okay and that's improvised are we going to go into the 54 section no it doesn't matter
[11:51] see we'll see what happens right but this is a great this is a great way to demonstrate you know what this adding and dropping Beats actually sounds like patent break at specific moments okay here we go 2 3
[12:07] [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Music]
[12:30] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music]
[12:50] W okay now it was moving around a fair bit what you find with these techniques is you you want to play with them and mess with them and then work out where everything is moving too much all the time it sounds too unstable and too
[13:04] chaotic it's it's like spices in cooking you just need a little bit at the right time and in the right quantity to make it work is there an example of one of the songs we've written recently where we can sing a little verse and show like
[13:19] what's one of the songs where we've added a beat or a half
[13:31] at the moment and recording and producing and you know it's it's coming together but really the the whole song is uh built on this four four pulse is uh built on this four four pulse which is you know 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
[13:47] which is you know 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 and that's the verses really stable 4 and that's the verses really stable really establishes that four four pulse and then the chorus comes in [Music]
[14:07] melody 2 3 4 get 4 get it heart doesn't do things one by it heart doesn't do things one by one little my little is just too
[14:30] slow for a heart that knows where it WS go yeah so you can hear the two four bar in there or you can hear the half bar kind of being a feature at the same point each time to just break up that four4 pulse which is there the whole way
[14:42] through the verses so for us the the chorus feels very different and has this different momentum because of those little half bars placed at certain points so the last thing we want to show you is a more dramatic version of this
[14:55] time signature change or this meter change that really creates a more striking uh effect or impact I think on The Listener so just for context in this song that Benny and I have written with our friend Charlie in America uh we're
[15:09] our friend Charlie in America uh we're going to go from a 68 feel at the end of a chorus into a bridge section that becomes a for for feel and really a songwriter the thing that we want you to
[15:23] songwriter the thing that we want you to feel is how dramatic of a contrast it is CU for us the most important thing is that it becomes a tool in your tool so we're going to start in 68 which is 1 2
[15:36] 3 4 5 six 1 2 3 4 5 [Music] [Music] six if I leave you six if I leave you tomorrow will you love me
[15:51] tonight will you love me despite the fact I have to leave it doesn't mean fact I have to leave it doesn't mean that this isn't re and time is not the measure it's the moments here together that we
[16:06] moments here together that we [Music] feel so the most significant thing that you notice there is that the 68 really
[16:22] has this side side to side motion 34 and 68 are the two time signatures that really have this side to side which is why waltzes are in 34 children's lullabies are in 34 or 68 they have this lovely gentle side to side motion 44
[16:38] tends to have a forward propulsion it tends to push in that kind of Direction tends to push in that kind of Direction and so when we go from this side to and so when we go from this side to [Music]
[16:50] [Music] side to movement of your body as you're playing it the 44 makes you want to do this and
[17:04] then going back [Music] to and when you see this kind of effect live at a concert it's amazing to watch the crowd when there is a time signature change in a song like this where the
[17:18] head forward and then suddenly they're just moving side to side without being told to without there being any communication our bodies feel these different time signatures in different way so having them butt up against each
[17:31] other really in the same song will create this change in Direction and that's why it's a less subtle effect than adding or dropping the Beats like we were doing earlier thank you so much to Brian for his excellent excellent
[17:44] question and thank you to our community of songwriters for sending us their questions and if you are a songwriter and are interested in joining our online songwriting Community you can check out all the information in the link below in
[17:57] the show notes otherwise happy songw writing we'll see you soon bye bye