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Question: I'm writing a song.. question about rhythm and time signature!!?

(Posted by: J.D on 2010-03-07 19:38:52)

My question is, is there any kind of website, or program, or something.. where you can write the notes how you want them, and then it will play it back to you so you can hear what it sounds like? i am writing a song, and i know what i want it to sound like, but i am trying to write it down on staff paper, and i'm not sure what to do about the rhythm and time signature.. i'm not very advanced in music theory. any ideas/ advise? thanks!

Posted by: Geezer on 2010-03-07, 20:12:41

There are several software programs that will produce printed scores from keyboard input to a computer, but you have to know what you want the score to look like as you go along. My guess is that this software would be very difficult for you to use. I've been doing stuff like this for years, and I still think it's hard. Your best bet would probably be to forget about computers to begin with and get a printed music theory book. Also, study printed sheet music, preferably the same kind of music that you're interested in. Then you can write your music using pencil and paper. Later on, when you feel more comfortable with the notation you can go to some computer music software. I use "Logic " on my Mac. "Sibelius " is also very good and works on a PC. If you have a specific question about time signatures or rhythm I'd be happy to help you.

Posted by: Jos h2o on 2010-03-07, 20:31:06

Yes, there actually is; TuxGuitar. download.cnet.com/ TuxGuitar/ 3000-2133_4-10819921.html?tag= mncol It has guitar tablature, true sheet music, and piano/ keyboard diagrams for you to point-and-click what note/ what string/ fret you want. It is quite handy. It also exports in PDF, so you can print off a real piece of sheet music with the title, author, etc.

Posted by: i. jones on 2010-03-07, 21:35:02

That really would be using notation software as a crutch. Better to use the software between your ears... It's fairly easy. You've got the tune in your head; clap out a steady pulse with your hands. Pretty quickly you'll be able to tell if you melody follows a 3/ 4 or 4/ 4 time. There is an off chance that your music will follow a different time signature, but it will almost certainly fit in one of the two above. So now that you've defined the time signature, you can hum the melody against the hand claps and figure out where the notes lie within a measure. The easiest to figure out are quarters notes, (halves, dotted halves, and whole notes); next will be the eighths ... they will fall directly between the claps ... followed by sixteenths ... fitting half way between the eighths. (you might find it easier to decipher sixteenths by sub-dividing the hand claps, hard-soft, for each beat.

Posted by: Symphony on 2010-03-10, 18:14:50

You should try Noteflight.com. Here is an article about time signature: en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Time_signature