Dr. B Music Theory Lesson 6 (Time Signatures, Beaming) 

Oooo, I've never been to India...yet! Thanks for the comment.

Thanks! I was just teaching this to my current music theory class, and a few of the students were really struggling with fractions. Math is important and is very connected to music...as people like Pythagoras knew so well when they contributed to both fields!

I really appreciate this and am so glad you are finding the videos helpful.

You are so right on both points! I have an exam question that asks students to correctly beam note-values within a certain meter, and it is ALWAYS a problem for many of them. Of course I take that as a challenge, but I might need to teach some math instead of music to get to the bottom of this one.

Christopher Brellochs Not to be presumptuous but, from my own experience, I have almost always found that only doing a series of incrementally more difficult practical exercises concretely settles those abstract concepts into the subconscious mind, where they have to reside for the acquired skill to become "second nature". I tried to learn guitar many times in my life and failed miserably, every single time but the last when I decided to strum on muted strings, through whole songs...This gave me a feel for meter, accenting, rhythm and strumming dynamics from the very start... A recent example is how I tried to learn to sight-read without bothering to correctly learn how to count...When I finally got down to the business end of things, instead of playing make believe, my sight-reading skills increased exponentially and I made more progress in a month than on the preceding 3 months...Now, I read voraciously whereas a short time ago I simply hated it as I was constantly confronted with my shortcomings...

Good points! The moral of these stories = DON'T SKIP THE FUNDAMENTALS! Thanks for supplying thoughtful and relevant examples.

Thanks! I find it strange that many music theory books don't cover rhythm that much; I'm hoping to make some more videos that go deeper on this topic in the future. Best wishes, Dr. B www.patreon.com/DrBMusicTheory

Rhythm is surprisingly complex to really understand; I recommend writing the subdivision over the rhythm (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +) and then circling each part of the subdivision you wrote where a note start. For example, in 4/4 the rhythm: quarter eighth eighth quarter-rest quarter would be 1 2+ 4. Best wishes, Dr. B www.patreon.com/DrBMusicTheory

It’s called tribal harmony with an introduction to twentieth century music. I have it from college. I saw it on his desk in one of his videos

Typo there, it’s “Tonal Harmony” :) I had the same question

Haha, at least you know how to be a better student now - lifelong learning is the goal! I can tell you're there from the jiu-jitsu videos you post! I'll see what I can do about making some more videos on time signatures. Best wishes, Dr. B www.patreon.com/DrBMusicTheory

It took my entire life to enjoy learning

You are correct! I meant to write 2/2 time on the top. Catching mistakes, putting in the time so it is easy to pinpoint...you are an MVT (Most Valuable Theorist). Thanks Choral Tenor!

@@ChristopherBrellochs Many thanks, Professor! I've encountered plenty of music theory over the years but never conveyed with such élan. Your videos are a most generous gift to musicians of all levels. Thank you!

@@Choral-Tenor I originally made them for my college classes, because I was tired of hearing, "I didn't finish my homework because although I understood everything in class, when I got home I couldn't remember." These videos were my way of saying, "No excuses. Watch my lecture again and finish your homework." Haha. I didn't expect them to have much of a life beyond that, but I've been pleasantly surprised. Thanks for all the comments!

@@ChristopherBrellochs I see, that answers my questions. I always wonder why nobody would ask any questions during the class. Lol I usually had a lot of questions for my professor haha

@@Freddytacvbito There is actually a class present for these videos, but I told them to save all questions until I finished the video. Some of them started making big signs and holding them up with a question or if I made a mistake (you will occasionally catch my looking away from the camera and pausing). Some students HATED not being able to ask questions - which I can understand, but it did allow me to make these videos. It was good to see you on the live Q&A this afternoon. Thanks for the question.

I agree! I'm keeping a record of what people think would be valuable to cover in the future - this is on the list!

Good observation! There are a bunch of very quiet students writing down questions to ask me after I stop recording. I bribed them all to be quiet for filming purposes, haha.

I'm really enjoying your videos. It has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I really need to know.

Awesome! Thanks.

@@ChristopherBrellochs why do u do us so good

The idea is always to beam everything within a beat so it is easy for the performer to see. In the example you gave it would be: 1) 4 sixteenth notes, 2) 6 sixteenth notes, 3) 2 eighth notes. Good question, Dr. B

@@ChristopherBrellochs Would you by chance be available by email?

You can contact me through my website: www.christopherbrellochs.com/contact/ Best wishes, Dr. B www.patreon.com/DrBMusicTheory

Two, great questions. 1at a slow tempo, 6/4 absolutely becomes 6 full beats, at a faster tempo it goes back to compound duple meter. With irregular meters it begins to depend on the style of music (certain dance forms have specified rhythms for instance so, the beat stress is not universal. You must be familiar with whatever the style of music is, in order to approach it properly. (Something like 7/8 may well be played as (1!, 2, 3, 4!, 5, 6!, 7), or (1!, 2, 3!, 4, 5! 6, 7!), Or it could be (1!, 2, 3, 4!!, 5, 6!, 7), alot of Greek music is in 5 as in (1!, 2, 3! 4, 5), it may even switch back and fourth measure to measure it next measure could be (1!, 2, 3, 4!, 5). Etc.

Download MuseScore (it's free) and create a few staffs with the available time signatures. Then throw some random notes into them. We will be able to see and understand how all of this works. Worked for me!

@@afonsodeportugal Thank you!

Surprised that this hasn't been talked about more explicitly in these videos yet (maybe it's in one of the Q&A ones?) but yes, generally you shouldn't assume three notes like that are triplets unless you're sure they are meant to take the place of two notes. There are two ways you can be sure: if there's a little 3 written above the grouping, or if you know you're in a simple meter and there are too many notes in a measure

Haha, you win "comment with the most exclamation points." I'm glad you liked the video. Best wishes, Dr. B