Hey, how you doing? Justin here.
Today we're going to have a chat about Time Signatures.
Now, a time signature is the way that we describe
the feeling of the beats in a bar.
Up to this point, everything's been in 4/4,
so all of our strumming patterns have had 4 beats in the bar.
So, we've had like, 1, 2, 3, 4
or 1, 2 and 3 and 4, or 1, 2 and 3 and 4
or 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
All of this stuff has 4 beats in the bar.
We really feel that beat 1 really strong, 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, 3, 4. Okay? We always got that count of 4.
But there are other grooves. You can have a different number of beats in the bar.
You can have 5 or 7 beats in the bar.
Those things are a little bit more complicated and not used very often.
However, there's one that is really useful for beginners to learn about,
and its called "6/8 time".
And it has 6 beats in the bar, but 2 strong pulses.
So even though you feel-- some people describe it as a waltz time, and that's not true.
A waltz is ♪ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 ♪
♪ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 ♪
♪ Dun, dut dut, dun dut ♪
I'm sure you've heard of that kind,
or experienced that feeling in music before. This waltz feel.
Which is very much a group of 3. ♪ 1, 2, 3 ♪
♪ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 ♪
Now, 6/8 is a little bit similar, in that it's based on these groups of 3,
but we have this, ♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ♪
♪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ♪
So 1 is still the strongest, but beat 4 is kind of strong as well.
And it's important to realize that it's kind of 2 groups of 3.
So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Now, the easiest way to get familiar with the sound of 6/8 time,
is to listen to some songs that are in 6/8 time.
So, some songs that you might wanna check out,
there's one called, "This Year's Love" by David Gray,
which is a beautiful example of 6/8 time.
"Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.
That's another one that's got the finger picking part going on,
but that's in 6/8.
"Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star. "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica.
Very, very popular one that's got that 6/8 feel going on.
"Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix is a little bit more complicated
to feel the 6/8, but that's still in 6/8.
And "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal, as well, is in 6/8 so that's a nice...
Again, it's not quite as obvious, the feeling of 6,
but if you count along with those songs in 6,
you'll start to get a feeling for how it's working.
And that can be a really valuable thing.
Literally, just listening to a song and going,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
So, trying to get a count along with the original recordings
will really help you discover the time signature.
It's by far the best way to do it.
Again, just listening to some of those examples.
I'll put some more examples over on the website page, as well.
But just listening to the songs through and trying to count the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
realizing at the beat 1 and the beat 4 are a little stronger.
So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
That's really an important part of it.
Now, if you're learning a strumming pattern,
which is what we're gonna do, as well.
We're gonna check out a strumming pattern in 6.
When you're practicing the strumming pattern,
you wanna be thinking 6 down strums to the bar.
Okay? Because you're gonna have an 'and' between each one, as well.
So if you've got, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
You got, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and,
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and.
You can add in 'ands' as well,
just like we did with our regular 4/4 strumming,
where we had 4 down strums,
and we could put an 'up' on the 'and'. We can do the same thing with 6/8.
In fact, it really sounds good to do that.
So, a good way to get started with this, is to put a metronome on.
A good speed, maybe as a starting point,
would be something like 130 beats per minute.
And if you press play on that...
(metronome clicks)
You got that nice little click, that will be all of the down strums.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And literally play along like that.
Think about the time. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
If you can, you could get into accenting a little harder on the 1 and 4.
So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
That would be a really helpful thing,
just to get used to the feeling of playing in 6/8.
When you're doing some practice on the strumming,
and if you watch my left-handed ones,
you'll see that actually I'm only putting 2 clicks to the bar.
So I chose to set it at 60,
because for me, figuring out the subdivisions is fairly easy,
but I thought actually in hindsight, I should have been teaching...
you know, playing it the way that I want you guys to do it,
which is to play the down strums with every click there.
It is a lot easier to learn it that way. So, don't watch my lefty video and go,
"Oh, you're doing it a different way."
The reason is, cos for me, figuring out...
dividing the beat by 3 is relatively simple.
For most of you, you might not find that so easy.
So, in the next lesson,
I'm gonna go through a specific 6/8 strumming pattern for you to learn.
But most important thing is to go and listen.
To some, this isn't on your practice routine,
so this is gonna be something you have to do in your free time.
Just find a bunch of songs in 6/8, listen to them as much as you can.
Really get the feeling of the 6/8 in your ears,
and try and count along with the music,
cos that's the strongest way to make a connection
between things that you know, and the music that you listen to.