Inspired by Yorick’s thread, I started messing around with my old hats of timing from yester-yore.
It’s no secret that before you learn music you have a rhythm that is often completely unique to yourself, but the problem is that you have no idea what you are doing, how to communicate it, nor can anyone else sometimes play along with it.
So, like everyone, one goes out to learn all of the proper concepts so they know what they are doing, how to communicate it, and to allow others the ability to play along with it.
Sadly, most of us, including myself, lose a feel for our original feelings of rhythm from the onslaught of standards and expectations in traditional music methodologies.
However…I’ve never truly lost it…it’s just been on “hold” until I could circle back around to it and find it once again, but this time with a proper label and method of communicating what I’m thinking.
Well, I decided that Yorick stood as a challenge to myself; do something creative with rhythm…like you used to before you knew how to write it down.
This time, however, I know how to write down what I’m doing.
So, I picked up my guitar last night and started plucking out an old favorite of mine that I’ve played endlessly over the years…it’s nearly a lulaby for myself at this point…it’s just my favorite collection of notes together.
It’s a canon so it never really end, but here’s what it looks like in notated format.
Yorick…I assure you…this is “progressive” in format; see what you think:
So, you can see the jarring that occurs.
Firstly, we’re in the awkward 5/4 timing that few like to wrestle with (save for some folks in jazz), yet we transition into 4/4 in the third measure and then back to 5/4 in the last measure.
The relative chords for this piece are Dm, Am, Emj, Am; in the key of Am.
Tempo is Moderato (on the low end, 108bpm…though you could do it at 112bpm for a slightly faster pace)
I haven’t added the accents so you can’t see it but the accents on the 5/4 measures are on the 1st and 4th beats, on the 4/4 it is only accented on the first beat, and the following 5/4 accents the 2nd beat and the 4th beat.
(I’ll make sure to repost when I get the accents annotated)