Time Signatures

[adrianw]

:?: I live in a country town (in Australia)where sax teachers are thin on the ground. I found one but after 8 lessons he got sick and may not teach again. So for now I am going to have to teach myself.
The major problem I have is with time signatures. I have a metronome but am finding it as intimidating as I believe many others do. What's the secret?[/code]

[Kiki]

There's no secret to time signatures, but they can be hard to figure out for a beginner. If you have the time signature 4/4, for example, the upper 4 means that there are 4 beats in a measure and the bottom 4 means that the quarter note gets one beat.

In a 2/2 time signature, the upper 2 means that there are 2 beats in a measure and the bottom 2 means that the half note gets one beat.

In a 6/8 time signature, the 6 means that there are 6 beats in a measure and the 8 means that the 8th note gets one beat.

Etc. etc. Do you understand? If you need more help, feel free to me email me! Doglover90@hotmail.com

[Kiki]

One thing I forgot...

To figure out the bottom number, or the note that gets one beat, take that number and put a 1 over it, so if it was a 4 you would have 1/4, for example. This fraction will tell you which note gets one beat (a quarter has the fraction 1/4, so a bottom 4 means a quarter note gets one beat. a half has the fraction 1/2, so the bottom 2 means that half note gets one beat.) Do you understand?

[Angle Tears]

Kiki

May be 6/8 is a bit complicated. What about take an example, let say 3/4.

3 means there are 3 beats in a bar (or measure), the rest beat are include. If a bar contains 3 notes, each note is Quarter note. Or there are 2 quarters notes + 1 quarter rest. Then it is full 3 beats in that bar.

But what about 4? I don't understand this.

[Kiki]

4 follows the same principles as 3. A 4 on top means there are 4 beats in the measure, or bar. The 4 on the bottom means that the quarter note, or 1/4th note, gets one beat.

[Angle Tears]

Kiki

Thanks. But I have 2 questions:


My Favorite Things - John Coltrane
This is a 3/ 4 tempo song

1) His transcribed solo book is indicated "3/4". It should write 3/ 4 or 4/ 3? Or both is acceptable?

2) I know each bar on this song has 3 beats. Then what about 4? What does it referred to?

[Kiki]

3/4 and 4/3 are completely different time signatures. If you want to play something in 3/4 time, know that each measure has 3 beats and the quarter note, or 1/4 note, is the note that gets one beat.

Hope I helped!

[adrianw]

I guess this is why it's best to have a teacher. I have a playalong book/cd with some simple ballads like Bridge Over Troubled Waters and I have no trouble playing them but when I have to play a song that I don't know and I have to read the music I'm all at sea. I think I am probably expecting too much after owning a sax for only 4 months.
I've been learning out of an old Tune a Day book which has such stimulating evergreens such as Home On the Range, College Song? Go down Moses, Hymn, We Three Kings of Orient Are, and one of my all time personal favourites God Save The Queen LOL. Is there anything around (apart from the playalong books) that is a little more contemporary. It would be nice if it had an accompanying CD so that a student could hear how each tune is to be played.

[pknight]

Perhaps is it time to put the play-along books aside and get a good beginning method book. When I started I used the Rubank Elementary Saxophone Method book by N. W. Hovey, published by Hal Leonard. While method books are not as much fun as playing neat tunes, you can see how a lack of fundamental knowledge can cause you problems.

There are also some sites on the web with useful information:

http://home.jps.net/~bflat7/lesson.html
http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~bucheger/SaxPages1.html
http://www.e-saxophone.net/
http://www.smcpublications.com/studyguides/saxophone/
http://www.saxlessons.com/

(I was not able to log onto the saxlessons.com site today, so maybe it is no longer available. That would be too bad, since it included audio files of the instructor playing the lessons, which can be a great help. The lessons were based on the Hovey book I mentioned above, plus more advanced Rubank method books.)

[pknight]

The saxlessons.com site is working today. Since it had the Rubank method books in Adobe format, it is a good place to start.

[LennyH]

The best way I found to get used to counting is to put down the horn and especially the metronome until counting becomes more automatic.

First, learn the different methods of counting (like one-e-an-a for 16th notes, etc.). Then just run through some tunes (without the horn). I sat down with my real book in front of the TV for several nights and just practiced counting. Just try to keep time as good as possible. You can feel yourself start to build an internal clock as you do this and it will become more automatic over time. Then, once you have a good feel for it, try it with the horn.

Only after you are comfortable counting with the horn would I start with the metronome. Up until then, you won't need a metronome to tell you you are not keeping time!

That worked for me anyway!

Lenny

[adrianw]

Sounds sensible, Lenny. I'll try that.
Many Thanks. :D

[Paul Coats]

By all means, please read an article by our newest columnist, David Hollingsworth, Teaching Saxophone, The Gift of Rhythm. [/url]http://www.saxontheweb.net/Hollingsworth/Rhythm.html

[wdwerd]

Never underestimate the importance of rythm / counting. I am a fairly good sax player in a concert band. When I make a mistake in tone, the conductor will probably hear that, but the public won't. Whenever someone makes a mistake in rythm, he will not make friends that day. And unfortunately rythm and counting seems to be very difficult for lots of players (myself included sometimes). My advise: alway tap the rythm with your foot. When you are used to do so, it will always help you to be there when you need to. If you have rests, count them like: 1-2-3-4| 2-2-3-4 | 3-2-3-4 etc This will make it easier to count multiple bars rests.
If you don't have lessons, join a band, any band. Without noticing you will learn a lot!