hey :D
my teacher always says that when u play a piece in 3/4 time...u have to stress the first note...why/is it tru (not that i dun believe him...just that i dunno why..)
r there any particular time sigs that have particular ways of playing them ?

Well, yea most of them. When we played Handel's Water Music No. 1 - Mov Minuet, it's a Waltz. When you dance in the waltz, the first foot is what kind of "Hard Turns" you. So get you turning.

Like, the first step (First beat) is the hardest one. Now, if your playing in like p, dont over stress it, but make it noticable. just a little bit:shifty:

i think i get it now...but is this for all time sigs?
[if your playing in like p, dont over stress it]
whats p?

hehe...:sweat:
sorry...i realised what u mean now...
p=piano=soft
rite?
:shifty:

Well, yea most of them. When we played Handel's Water Music No. 1 - Mov Minuet, it's a Waltz. When you dance in the waltz, the first foot is what kind of "Hard Turns" you. So get you turning.

"When you talk, it seems as though you sing"
"You should hear me puke, it sounds like Händel's Water Music." :heh:

-_-

Also, 3/4 is similar to 6/8, of course. 6/8 isn't a waltz beat, however.

I'm sorry if I'm off topic here, but where did you hear that Noir7?

3/4, you just gotta count it as 1 2 3 1 2 3 etc.

"When you talk, it seems as though you sing"
"You should hear me puke, it sounds like Händel's Water Music." :heh:

-_-

Also, 3/4 is similar to 6/8, of course. 6/8 isn't a waltz beat, however.
In 6/8 you stress the first and fourth beats.

123456

to hear the difference between 3/4 and 6/8, take a look at Ginastera's Sonata mvt 4 (if you don't have the time to learn it, just search for a recording)

the bottom number of the time signature doesn't really affect the accenting
so let's look at the top number:
2: stress beat 1
3: stress beat 1
4: stress beats 1 & 3 (but 1 more)
6: stress beats 1 & 4 (but 1 more)
9: stress beats 1 & 4 & 7 (ditto)
12: stress beats 1 & 4 & 7 & 10 (1 most, 7 a little more than 4 & 10)
anything else: stress beat 1

This slight stress on 1 helps listeners follow along with the music, kind of like how spaces help us read sentences in english.

Well, you should also probably take the stresses built into the music into account. Those are the naturally stressed beats in a time signature, but there are times when you wouldn't play it that way. For example, most jazz stresses 2 and 4 instead of 1 and 3. Also, there's always compound time signatures to be taken into account (5/8, 7/8, 13/8... etc.) where you should stress according the the beat groupings.

ok... 5/4, in this timesig you can stress either the 1:st and the 4:th (orthanc in the lord of the rings) or 1:st and the third ( I have no example for that one)

oh damn what a mess this turned out to be
hope I made someone understand:heh:

It means you either see it as a group of 2 followed by a group of 3, or a group of 3 followed by a group of 2. Sometimes, though, you have to read it as a group of 5.

And, as elite said, there are plenty of exceptions to the rule. Accent marks, sforzati (sp?), and tenutos (sp? I don't know my Italian :P) override natural accents.

hmmm 3/4 time, example of that song in anime is errrrr lets go with Fruits Basket's ending song "Chiisana Inori"...

5/4 time, Naruto's first ending song "Wind" xD
Play them on piano and you'll automatically play the first note of the a bit louder ^^

.... *stares at tanonev's siggy* >_< i wish stepmania would stop lagging on my computer.... waaaaaaa

but i dun get why theres so many time sigs...whats the difference???:blink:
liek when u compose, how u no what sig to use ? and what abt 2/2 time??:\
sorry for my ignorance but i just dun get it:cry:

Well, the difference between sigs like 3/4 and 4/4 is fairly obvious; they have entirely different feels (LOUD-soft-soft as opposed to LOUD-soft-stressed soft).

The difference between time sigs that add up to the same amount lies in where the stress is. For example, in 3/4, you see 3 beats. In 6/8, you see 2 groups of 3 beats. 2/2 time, while looking like 4/4, should actually be played like 2/4; that is, it should sound as if the music didn't "end" at the end of every single measure, but rather be read in larger units. (It's hard to explain without an actual instrument...)

so whats 6/4 time and stuff? ok i dunno how to frase the question...
so that means that if u play a piece that has diff. sigs...its harder? do u have to like keep the times together or something? like 6/4 changing to 3/4 ?

Having different time signature is like having different length of a sentence. It could be long could be short, which adds emphasis, stress and etc...

Having a different signature doesnt mean it's gonna be hard.

One big difference will be between a Waltz and let's say a normal classical piece such as Moonlight Sonata. You can obviously hear the difference between the two pieces.

changing from 6/4 to 3/4 of course you keep the same tempo (unless it indicates you need to change tempo) and therefore the beat is till the same. But where u stress will be different and most of time you can tell a difference if you are playing that transition. It might be like u suddenly feel different when playing a 3/4 piece than a 6/4.

um hope that helps lol

The difference between 6/4 and 3/4 is pretty small. You can probably get away with playing it exactly the same. The only difference is that music in 6/4 "feels" broader, since we have 6-beat groups instead of 3-beat groups.

so the differnce between 2/2 and 4/4 is the stress?
for 2/2 its the 2nd note rite ? or 3rd ?

2/2 feels broader than 4/4. It's really hard to explain, though we can try this: the 3rd beat in 4/4 has a moderate accent. The 2nd beat in 2/2 has very little accent, if any. What you can do is pretend that 2 measures in 2/2 are actually 1 measure. Group them in your mind like that, and perhaps it will feel broader.

broader as in longer?
can u just play 2/2 like 4/4 ? it will sound really plain wont it?

It will work; however, it won't sound exactly right. This is why it's good to get a piano teacher who can demonstrate these differences for you. As soon as you hear it, it will probably click almost immediately :)