# Can you really hear the "time" of a song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-hear-the-time-of-a-song/539243 "2010-05-13T00:44:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 19
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-hear-the-time-of-a-song/539243/19 "2010-05-13T05:24:49Z")
Oh, boy. I didn’t want to bring this up in this thread quite yet, (as I was afraid of confusing the OP) but here’s some more examples from a recent Straight Dope thread I put up: > [@Blues in waltz time?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blues-in-waltz-time/536951/16): > > OK, this isn’t going to win any Grammies anytime soon, but I whipped up some examples quickly in Garage Band. Forgive the cheesy quality of the sounds and the recording, but it should help illustrate what I’m talking about. > > I’ve used “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as my example. > > Here it is in [12/8](http://www.peterpawinski.com/timesigs/fallinginlove128.mp3) time. (How Elvis recorded it.) > > Here it is with a [3/4](http://www.peterpawinski.com/timesigs/fallinginlove34.mp3) feel. (Sorry, there’s a little bit of silence I forgot to delete from the beginning here.) > > The 12/8 and 3/4 example have _exactly_ the same organ melody line. I literally cut and pasted the 12/8 example into the 3/4 example. I just played drums and piano with a different feel under the melody line so you can hear the difference. > > Here it is with a true [4/4](http://www.peterpawinski.com/timesigs/fallinginlove44.mp3). > > And, just for fun, here’s what it might sound like in [5/8.](http://www.peterpawinski.com/timesigs/fallinginlove58.mp3) The 3/4 and 4/4 examples should be most useful for the OP at the moment. Disregard the 12/8 and the 5/8 unless you’re curious. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-really-hear-the-time-of-a-song/539243)._