# Music in other than 4/4 time

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-in-other-than-4-4-time/51290>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 22, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-in-other-than-4-4-time/51290 "2001-01-22T17:50:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2001, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-in-other-than-4-4-time/51290/41 "2001-01-23T12:55:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> and here is one (in MIDI format) I composed that shifts in mid-stream from  
> 3/4 time to 18/8 as  
> 1…4…7…10…13.15.17., [3+3+3+3+2+2+2]  
> (you’ll know when! )

Nice one, **AHunter3**. You really grooved on that rapid asymmetrical beat. It just goes to show that no one needs to be afraid of asymmetrical meters; once you get the feel for the pulse, you can really groove to it. Bulgarian peasants have known that for centuries.

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2001, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-in-other-than-4-4-time/51290/42 "2001-01-23T16:05:29Z")

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This thread is way past due for IMHO.

So here we go. Anna one anna two…

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**Author:** ![LazarusLong42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@LazarusLong42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LazarusLong42)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-in-other-than-4-4-time/51290/43 "2001-01-23T16:09:38Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cervaise \*  
> **ZenBeam: There’s no such thing as a “third note.” Western music is built on powers of two, as Ethilrist originally pointed out.  
> …  
> In order to get three beats per measure, you can use the time signature 3/4, i.e. three notes of quarter length (waltz time), or you can use 4/4 and group three half notes into a triplet. Western music, again, doesn’t have a “third note,” and simply isn’t built to accommodate it.**

I was thinking about this last night, and I realized that, no, Western music _does_ have something that is realized as, effectively, a “third” note: The triplet. Any given note inside a triplet is two-thirds the length of its parent note. Thus, in common time, triplet halves are one-third of the measure; triplet quarters are one sixth of the measure; and so forth.

What the existence of these notes allows one to do is to create a hemiola effect, pitting triplets versus duplets. It doesn’t do anything to the _time signature_, but it does change the flow of the music itself.

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*  
> It would theoretically be possible to construct such a musical system, and I suppose a more expert musicologist might weigh in and say the little-known Upper Intestinal Tract’s tribe of Zandorian Newt-Milkers in the High Himalayas have a musical tradition built on the square root of five, but that’s a separate discussion. \*\*

Well, hey, current Western music (not ancient Western music) is based on the twelfth root of two. The pitches, at least.

LL

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