It’s Sh!t Bird again. Here’s my guide to meters and rhythm. My intermediate guide to music theory will be coming soon! This is the link to the basic music theory guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/717you/a_comprehensive_guide_to_basic_music_theory_for/
Meters
I probably should have put the first part of this section in the basic guide but oh well. Meters are basically the grid in which we put notes on. They act as the fundamental basis of rhythm and show us the temporal intervals between our notes. They are notated and formatted like this: ()/() where () is a number. The first number tells us how many beats are in a measure or bar and the second number tells us what kind of note is a beat. For example, a meter of 4/4 tells us that there are four beats in a measure and a quarter note (a crotchet for our British and Australian mates) makes up one beat, so our basic grid will be 4 quarter notes/crotchets. A meter of 3/2 tells us that there are three beats in a measure and a half note/minim makes up a beat, so our basic grid will be 3 half notes/minims
There are three types of simple meters which give us a rudimentary understanding of all rhythms in western music:
- Simple duple (often notated as 2/4)
- Simple triple (3/4)
- Simple quadruple (4/4)
Meters have strong beats and weak beats, meaning that we naturally perceive emphasis on certain beats over others. Here are the strong and weak beats of our simple meters:
-
Simple duple: 1 --- 2 ---
(S) (w)
-
Simple triple: 1--- 2--- 3---
(S) (w) (w)
-
Simple quadruple: 1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 ---
(S) (w) (S) (w)
Simple quadruple’s strong and weak beats give us the guidelines for the four-on-the-floor rhythm that’s so prevalent in EDM. This rhythm is made by putting a kick on beats 1, 2, 3 and 4 and a clap or snare on beats 2 and 4.
The beats in simple meters can be subdivided into two equal groups, meaning that a note that represents one beat can be broken down into two lesser parts that add up to one beat. For example, if a whole note/semibreve makes up one beat, we can divide it into two half notes/minims. If a half note/minim makes up one beat, we can divide it into two quarter notes/crotchets. Here’s the break down of notes for simple meters:
- 1 Whole note/semibreve=2 half notes/minims
- 1 half note/minim=2 quarter notes/crotchets
- 1 quarter note/crotchet=2 eighth notes/quavers
- 1 eighth note/quaver=2 sixteenth notes/semiquavers
We can continue to break down beats into infinitesimally small parts, but the subdivisions we just covered are all an EDM producer should need.
So if we have a meter of 4/4 notated with half notes/minims, it’ll look like this:
1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 ---
^ ........... ^ ..........
Notated in quarter notes/crochets, it’ll have this rhythm:
1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 ---
^ ... ^ ... ^ ... ^ ...
Notated in eighth notes/quavers, it’ll have this rhythm:
1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 ---
^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .^ ^ .
There are three different types of compound meters:
- Compound duple (often notated as 6/8)
- Compound triple (9/8)
- Compound quadruple (12/8)
These may seem hard to grasp at first. However, compound meters are basically just simple meters with different beat subdivisions. Compound meters have beats that are subdivided into three equal groups instead of two.
Here’s the break down of notes for compound meters:
- 1 Whole note/semibreve=3 half notes/minims
- 1 half note/minim=3 quarter notes/crotchets
- 1 quarter note/crotchet=3 eighth notes/quavers
- 1 eighth note/quaver=3 sixteenth notes/semiquavers
This is how we understand compound meters:
- 6/8: (1 --- 2 --- 3 ---) (4 --- 5 --- 6 ---)
- 9/8: (1 --- 2 --- 3 ---) (4 --- 5 --- 6 ---) (7 --- 8 --- 9 ---)
- 12/8: (1 --- 2 --- 3 ---) (4 --- 5 --- 6 ---) (7 --- 8 --- 9 ---) (10 --- 11 --- 12 ---)
I’ve added the parentheses to show how we can understand compound meters in the context of simple meters. 6/8 and 2/4 are both duple because they both have essentially two overarching beats, but 6/8 represents those two overarching beats with two sets of three beats. Likewise, 9/8 has three overarching sets of three beats and 12/8 has four overarching sets of three beats.
Even if you would never use compound meters, it's important to understand the concept of subdividing beats into three groups rather than two. You can be in a simple meter and break a beat down into a triplet, a temporary beat unit of three subdivided beats in a simple meter. Most DAWs will let you place notes on a triplet grid and I encourage you to experiment around with triplets. If you're struggling to space out notes as you envision them, triplets might be the answer.
Now we get into some weird sh!t. Two main types of what we call irregular meters exist: 5/4 and 7/4. These seem particularly daunting because they are asymmetrical to some extent. But, if we break them down, we find that we can put them together using simple meters.
5/4 can be understood if we juxtapose a simple duple meter with a simple triple meter:
Likewise, 7/4 can be understood by juxtaposing a simple quadruple meter with a simple triple meter or two simple duple meters with a simple triple meter:
-
(1 --- 2 --- 3 --- 4 ---) (5 --- 6 --- 7 ---)
or
-
(1 --- 2 --- 3 ---) (4 --- 5 --- 6 --- 7 ---)
or
-
(1--- 2 ---) (3 --- 4 --- 5 ---) (6 --- 7 ---)
Now that we can essentially stack simple meters to make irregular meters, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for us! You can put two simple triple meters (6 beats) together with a simple quadruple meter (4 beats) to make 10/4. Stack another simple triple onto that and you have 13/4. You can go crazy with irregular meters!
The thing to be mindful about is that meters only give us basic rhythms; they exist to give us rhythmic reference points. If you were to put notes only on the beats, it would probably make for boring music. That's where rhythmic creativity comes in. Put notes in between beats and stagger them, don't get locked into the basic grid.
Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of metric variation in EDM. 99% of it is in 4/4, maybe because it’s the most palatable meter to human ears and it’s the easiest meter to dance to. There are exceptions though; for example, the drop to Borgore and Carnage’s song Incredible is actually in 12/8. They're hard to find, but they're out there.
That's meter and rhythm for ya. Again, look out for the guide to intermediate music theory (coming soon) and lemme know if you have any questions!
Love, Sh!t Bird
Submitted September 21, 2017 at 04:33PM by ShitBirdMusic https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/71llwi/a_comprehensive_guide_to_meter_and_rhythm_for_edm/?utm_source=ifttt