Mixing Rhythms - Musical Creativity 31

Mixing rhythms can produce effective results.

Different time signatures

Think of the stress pattern of a 4/4 bar. It will have the main stress on the first beat of the bar. So that's:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Now let's look at a 5/4 signature, the stress would again be on the first beat

That's 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

If we keep them at the same speed, same beats-per-minutes, then the 5/4 bar is 25% longer than the 4/4 bar due to additional crotchet.

Now for a 3/4 signature, it would be 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 and only be 75% the length of the 4/4 bar due to the missing crotchet.

Adding them together

The stress patterns combine at different points in the song. I'll just use patterns with the accent on 1 for this:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1


The first we see is where the 1 of 3/4 and the 1 of 4/4 align to result in a heavier accent. Then it happens again with 3/4 and 5/4. And so on. It's like a musical version of the game fizz-buzz. After 15 bars, the process starts again.

 

Edit - I'm afraid the full repetition wouldn't fit on the page, so I've had to remove it

That's for a very simple process where the accent is on the first beat of the bar for each time signature. Usually, we'd throw in other accents to achieve a rhythm.

I've taken a simple concept of a 3 track piece with very repetitive rhythms to show this. Each channel features a note from the chord of Am (A, C and E) using soft synths triggered by midi pattern.


How did I do this?

  1. Change time signature for the whole song to 4/4
  2. Create a bar
  3. Put a note on every quarter-note/crotchet
  4. Increase the velocity of the first note to near the maximum (it doesn't have to be, I'm using maximum to show the concept)
  5. Reduce the velocity of the 2 and 4th notes
  6. Marginally increase the velocity of the 3rd note so it's roughly equally between the velocities of the 1st and 2nd notes
  7. Repeat this loop through the song
  8. Change time signature for the whole song to 5/4
  9. Create a bar
  10. Put a note on every "quarter"-note/crotchet
  11. Increase the velocity of the first note to near the maximum (it doesn't have to be, I'm using maximum to show the concept)
  12. Reduce the velocity of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th notes
  13. Repeat this loop through the song
  14. Change time signature for the whole song to 3/4
  15. Create a bar
  16. Put a note on every "quarter"-note/crotchet
  17. Increase the velocity of the first note to near the maximum (it doesn't have to be, I'm using maximum to show the concept)
  18. Reduce the velocity of the 2nd and 3rd notes
  19. Repeat this loop through the song
  20. Put the time signature to the one you want to work with, I chose 4/4 because that's what the drum loop is in.
  21. I cut and paste the loops to get the gaps so you can hear the different beats interact
And then what?
  • It's a quick and easy way for building up an interesting rhythm
  • It can be used to change between rhythms, e.g. by introducing the following signature over the current one
  • It can be useful in applying leitmotifs, again by introducing the following signature over the current one
  • You can vary the notes in the rhythm (I just used Am to show the concept)
  • You can change the stress pattern so that it's not just accenting the first beat of each bar
  • It can act as the background so you can add a melody in the foreground
The audio file

The attached audio file is a very simple example of what can be done following the steps above. The tones are electronic 80s. I added 4/4 drums to keep the song driving forward.

The order of the track is as follows:
  1. 4/4 on its own
  2. 5/4 on its own
  3. 4/4 and 5/4 together
  4. 3/4 on its own
  5. 3/4 and 4/4 together
  6. 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4 together
Screenshot

The screenshot shows the later part of the song, starting at point (4) above. You can see the drumloop on top, with the 4/4, 5/4 and 3/4 tracks in order.

Later on

There's another way of dealing with polyrhythms which we'll look at in a later article

Part of a series by Award Sounds offering a selection of creative ideas to kick-start or rejuvenate a composition.