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What is something other people seem to grasp easily that eludes you? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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For me it's time signatures in music. I grew up playing instruments, played in several orchestras, etc. But no matter how many times someone tries to explain time signatures to me, it makes no sense. I don't understand why people place such importance on it. To me, notes have a pitch and a duration, maybe some dynamics. That's it. I don't understand why people try to needlessly complicate it. It doesn't give you anything.

My wife will hear a song and go "Oh neat, it's in 5/8." And I'm like "How tf do you know that, and why does it matter?"

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[–] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 child)

No, the top number is beats per measure. The bottom number is how many beats are in a whole note. For example, in 6/8 time a whole note has 8 beats, making an eighth note one beat. As opposed to 3/4 time in which a quarter note is one beat.

But the exact same thing can be accomplished just by changing the tempo.

As for the accents, yeah, that's what I gather the only difference is. But it's never explicitly taught that way, and there's nothing hardcoded into the logic of time signatures that suggests it must be that way.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 hours ago

    Yeah a lot of music notation has implicit/hidden elements that aren't ever really explained. A lot of things are done because someone "feels" like it should be that way, and no one questions it for whatever reason.

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