question about time signature

Hey, I'm new to analyzing timing in music and I'm having a difficult time coming up with a signature for this certain piece. The timing is like 3/3 but it goes

1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2 |1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2|1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2|

What would this be labelled as? I thought maybe 8/3, but I don't think that exists...

Thanks for any help you can lend

aaron

If each of those individual notes were a quaver (8th note), then you would simply write it as 4/4, since there would only be 8 of them in a measure. Hemiolas like that occur all the time.

There is no such thing as 3/3 or 8/3 time! Remember, metres are not really fractions.

The top numeral is the number of beats in a measure, and the bottom numeral represents the kind of note that gets one beat (4 = quarter, 8 = eighth, 2 = half, etc). There is no such thing as a "third" note, therefore 3/3 cannot exist.

So, if you wrote your piece, with those rhythms, in 4/4 time, you'd write each of the notes you indicated as an eighth note (quaver), and there would be eight of them in the measure, regardless of where the emphasis fell.

Ok cool, thanks for clearing that up.

I suppose I was confused with 3/4 when I invented 3/3,

so that would just be written as 4/4 with 8 beats per measure?

thanks again

aaron

Ok cool, thanks for clearing that up.

I suppose I was confused with 3/4 when I invented 3/3,

so that would just be written as 4/4 with 8 beats per measure?

thanks again

aaron

I'm not sure it can be written as 4/4, that depends on the rhytm, but i suggest writting 3/8 + 5/8 (or 3/4 + 5/4). I know that finale has the option to make these kind of beats (I'm not sure about other notating tools), and they aren't anything avant-guarde. I even heard some in some national music. Basicaly the first measute will be 3/4 and the second will be 5/4, the third will be 3/4 and so on.

Hope this helps!

Here's how I would have done it in Finale:

I think the 3/8+3/8+2/8 works best for this rhythm

How do you write signatures like that in Finale? Do you need the purchased version?

thanks a lot for the responses!

aaron

Click the "Time Signature" tool on the toolbar, and double-click the bar you want to change time signature in. Now, click "Composite". You'll guess the rest.