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There’s also an advantage when using conductors. Its significantly easier to do a slow cut time feel rather than fast 4/4. It’s also clearer to the ensemble

Something that even a lot of Brazilian musicians seem to get wrong is that most Samba is actually also in 2/2, with the second beat being emphasized. Interesting to learn how country can be kind of similar to samba in this way!

Like other comments, would appreciate a video on the difference between 2/2 and 2/4. Not so much the theory, but the feel and articulation.

I got into your channel recently and right now I'm binge watching the time sig videos, it's kind of hilarious to be getting more and more complex, all the way up to 19, and then falling back down to 2/2.

Could you do a video on waltzes?

Glad you went over this topic. Would appreciate a follow-up video where you address notating the same piece in 2/4 (where note values would be halved) vs 2/2. I know some of the differences in choosing the time signature likely come from style and convention, so it would be good to hear about that as well. Thanks!

That was an awesome and eyes opening episode, especially that comparison of that great song by John Denver in 2/2 time signature vs. that of 4/4, Many Thanks😊😊😊

I might notate Country Roads in 4/4 time, with the bars twice as long (e.g., the first full bar of the excerpt starting on "roads" and the second one starting on "home"), so "roads" would be a dotted quarter instead of a whole note tied to a half note. Not sure if that has been considered. Notating it in 2/2 misses that some "downbeats" are stronger than others (the beginning of "roads" is stronger than the third beat of "roads"). Same with Folsom Prison Blues: "hear", "the", "train" etc. can all be eighth notes and that excerpt can be 3 bars of 4/4 instead of 6 of 2/2.

I always interpreted Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Jolene as a half time 4/4 and Country Roads as double time so learning they’re actually 2/2 is cool to know. Always enjoy these kinds of videos for that reason, you always learn a lot more than you already do

Great video. When translating it to 4/4 at the beginning you doubled the tempo, but i was feeling it more like couting the first two 2/2 bars as one 4/4 bar, and doing so i wouldnt be doubling the tempo but simply couting in a 4 way instead of 2. It also helps with the strong beat situation once it is not uncommon to accentuate the 1 and 3. At least it sounds comfortable for me. I would definitely write it in 4/4 if i was given the task

ok ive always wondered what that "dup dup" sound was, now I know its 2/2 time.

I love how Country Roads instantly becomes rock with 4/4 time xD

Very clearly explained . 2 2 is perhaps the time signature that corresponds most closely to the rhythmn of walking which might be one of the roots of rhythmn

I'm quite surprised that you didn't mention any marches, specifically the ones by John Phillip Sousa, those are always in cut time and are a perfect example of cut time vs 4/4

0:37 beatles example

I'm waiting for the 1/1 time signature video

Jack Bruce's "As You Said" has one bar of 1/8 in it. It is used perfectly and cannot be omitted in any way.

Edit: I made an error in misinterpreting 2/2 as 2/4, so the below message is valid for a different argument and not this video. Been a long week, I need a drink lol: Jolene doesn't feel like 2/4 (different than 2/2), I hear it as fast 4/4 because of the way the phrases sound. The opening acoustic fingerpicking riff especially happens over 2 bars of 4/4, setting the feel of that throughout. Not to mention the phrases in the verse and chorus are 8 bars long (repeated, making the structure of 16 bars, etc). The overwhelming majority of musicians I know hear it in 4/4, and most likely average listener. Trust your ears, don't always trust the trabscriptions on the internet, haha.

Great comparison of 2/2 and 4/4 time. I have always struggled with that. Thank you for making it much clearer for me 👍

We use to call this a polka beat(oompha oompha)

Dont get it. I need a VERY patient teacher in front of me-a piano and about 3 hours

I really enjoyed this video, David! I was hoping you would do a video on 2/2 time and was very excited to see this. I remember right before the pandemic hit, I was gonna be in the pit band for a production of School of Rock the musical that my music school was doing, and one of the songs, “Where Did The Rock Go?” was notated in 2/2 time

Excellent job Dave !!!👍 I’ve always been a stickler about these matters, but many are desensitized to it. Kudos and keep up the great work in music education! 👨🏻

the point is not comparing 2/2 with 4/4, but 2/2 with 4/2. That's where the difference is very obscure or non existent

You don't answer the question I was scratching my head about : why 2/2 and not 2/4 considering it's always quite uptempo and that the half-note (or minim) is quite a long note. If you play a very fast country song, why not even 2/8.... Please answer ;)

Mirror in the Bathroom by the English Beat is a great example of 2/2 time.

Maggie's Farm is interesting in that it's solely the bass guitar that gives it that 2/2 quality. The drummer is doing a standard 4/4 pattern. Which goes to show how important instrumentation is.

Hi David Bennett Piano, I have struggled for years to understand how and why and when to use 2/2 notation versus 4/4 notation. Thank you for this explanation, but it hasn't really done it for me. For example, in your longest and most detailed example, Country Roads, you give audio examples of it in 2/2 time, but you've changed the way it sounds for your example (you've removed the percussive hits that happen on both "and" counts). And then when you give the audio demonstration in 4/4 time, you've added equal emphasis chord and percussive hits on every quarter note, which is something that is rarely done in any kind of music. What the song actually does on the original popular recording is give base notes on the 1 and the 2 counts, but give various percussive hits on all four quarter notes "1" "and" "2" "and". These percussive hits emphasize "1" the most with the lower pitches, also strongly emphasizing "2" with lower pitches, but emphasize both "and" counts about equally with higher pitched percussion including finger snaps. This pattern is also very common in pop 4/4 time. I suspect that the written time signatures 2/2 versus 4/4 have a greater effect in the performers mind and thinking while playing than they do on the actual sound of the music, so when people that are very musically literate like yourself hear music that is in 2/2 time versus 4/4, if you are able to tell whether it's 2/2 or 4/4 then the same kind of mentality happens in your mind when you listen. As you listen "in" 2/2 or "in" 4/4, your mind greatly exaggerates the distinctiveness of the 2/2 versus 4/4 sound and feel, where as to a musically dyslexic person like myself, most of the time music sounds very similar or identical between 2/2 and 4/4. For me, as a result when I try to play music in 2/2 or 4/4, I struggle to know how to play them differently. For example, here is what Country Roads actually sounds like, and you and your viewers will note that it sounds almost exactly halfway between your two 2/2 and 4/4 examples: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z9yieM-bssy8iaM.html

Africa by Toto uses 2/2. It is able to have odd numbers of bars without it sounding weird. If it was in 4/4, it wouldn't add up and sound like something's missing.

Just a heads up, "alla breve" is pronounced "alla brae-vae"

In a way, 2/2 is closer to 2/4, with each note value doubled. Both count in 2 beats per measure. 4/4 counts in 4. Rach III in 2/4 would then sound the same (adjusted for note length and tempo), whereas 4/4 does not.

I was always told this was called 'Marching Time' and of course a lot of big band songs from the WW2 years etc. yield to that. :) Another great video, thanks!

Very interesting! Never heard of this concept before

A fun example of a metal band using 2/2 is Sabaton, whose songs often have a march-like tempo to go with their lyrical themes of military history - 'Carolus Rex' and 'The Last Stand' being two such examples :)

Can't wait for the video about songs is 1/1 time!

El 2/2 tiene mucho sentido y -por tanto- y utilización en la música académica, pero en la música popular no tanto, la mayoría de las canciones (incluídas las de los ejemplos) se pueden escribir en 2/4 sin problema.

great stuff!

This blew my mind!! I had never heard of it!

What would really help me as a complete beginner in music is to have a metronome click on the beats. I've watched (and enjoyed!) a number of your time signature vids and I always wish you'd played a version with clicks to follow, as well as a non clicked version :-)

Don't know how much this counts, but reading Breve to me (breh-veh) reads as "half" purely since I'm a barista at my day job, and a latte breve is a latte made with steamed cream (half-and-half in NA) -- I don't speak Italian myself, but there's a correlation there

fuck it, let's just call everything 1/1 and go for drinks

I just realized a lot of modern dubstep is in 2/2 due to the kick and snare usually hitting on beat 1 and 3, as well as people headbanging at raves moving on beat 1 and 3 as well. Of course some will still be in 4/4 though due to other percussion or basses having a 4/4 feel. Some pretty good examples are versa - the pit, samplifire & evilnoiz - helheim, papa khan - rain, and akeos - soul material

Very interesting... thanks so much

You didn't even mention marches, the old 2/2 staple. Very good! I'm tired of that chestnut!

I'm so inept that I have to learn the rhythm first, and then worry about "emphasis" afterwards...can't do it any other way...

Hi david, its actually pronounced "uh-ll-uh breh veh" (wich means "to be brief") in italian. Love your vids :)

youve changed my life... good job

I like to think Waylon Jennings did this a lot with his songs. As a drummer I always called it the “Waylon Beat”. I can think of so many of his songs that have that 2/2 feel or “cut time.”

What’s the difference between 2/2 and 2/4? Is there any reason to choose one over the other?

Wow, I had no idea Jolene is 2/2 ~ a great lesson today David, thanks!

Embarrassing confession I guess, but I was in school band/other performing groups from ages 10 to 22 and have engaged with music as an occasional hobby since then and 2/2 was never really explained well to me and remained the one basic music theory thing that I've never been able to explain. So this FINALLY made it made sense. Earlier today I was driving and was listening to my Liked Songs playlist on Spotify and had two 2/2 songs appear back-to-back (Mucho Mungo/Mt Elga by Harry Nilsson, which actually switches between 4/4 and 2/2, and On the Bound by Fiona Apple) and I was like ohhhhhhhhh I get it now

This never made sense to me before. Thank you.

Some sea chanties are also in 2/2, for example “Drunken Sailor” (at least how I learned it in 7th grade strings class, which was my first introduction to 2/2 written as such, rather than a C with a line through it) and “The Wellerman”.

That was excellent.

“As you can hear, country roads in 4/4 absolutely slaaaaaps.”

Merci beaucoup. C'est une révélation !

... I always thought that most ballet music is in 2/2 or tutu time signature! 😂. Good vid! Thx

I was so hoping you'd bring Rach 3 to the table when I read the title. Lets say I wasn't disappointed :D

supergrass sometimes i make you sad is a good 2/2 example

By this definition of 2 2, though, with a strong and weak beat, the drum part of most songs in 4 4 would be in 2 2. Like Billie Jean, for example, the emphasis is on those two beats, so it's pretty much played in 2 2, but notated in 4 4 eother way. Which goes to show that a time signature, lile chords or modes, is something you play and not sonething that's intrinsic to the music.

Thank you so much

In a lot of music of the classical and romantic periods (c. 1750-1910), there is a very big difference between the performance of common and ‘alla breve’ time.

Hello!

Your videos are amazing. I've been watching and taking notes on all your videos about chord progressions to break me out of a songwriter's block. You're always looking for ideas: I noticed that in many of the examples here, the music is notated less "accurately" than the actual song, intentionally of course. Why does sheet music write music without the swing and specificity of the actual music? For instance, in Country Roads, the notes that are actually sung are not precisely notated where the singer sings them but actually in a more "robotic" and mechanical way that would sound strange if the singer actually sang them that way. Maybe you could do a video on this? Thank you!

Also all of the Latin American music can preferably be written in 2/2 since the feel of the music is really two and f.i. in Cuban music the clave can be turned around by just adding or leaving a bar instead of having to change the time signature...

Fascinating.

I watched the whole video and I still don't understand how 2/2 is any different than 4/4 😂 I suppose that's why I'm not a musician

As someone who plays by "ear", this is something I wish I would have studied harder as a youth in band class, instead of just memorizing the feel and sound of the song. Time signatures always seemed like rubbish to me but the reality is is that it helps to understand how the music really flows.

You know your whole life is a lie when you've been counting most popular tracks as 4/4 and learning years later from David that these time signatures can exist outside classical music

Worth noting that a large portion of American military marches are/were written in 2/2.

@davidbennettpiano Could you show us a comparison of Country Roads in 2/2 vs 4/4, but with only a single vocal part and no accompanying instruments? The completely rewritten bass and drum parts in the video's example made it difficult to get any sense of how the time signature affected the feel of the song.

I'm used to this being referred to as 2/4, not 2/2.

funnily enough i just played at a concert (orchestra) where basically every piece was in 2/2

I'm Italian, the correct pronunciation of "Alla breve" is "Alla brɛvɛ" (like bed is bɛd). By the way "breve" means short referred to a time duration: "a very short song" is "una canzone molto breve"

Thank you for a Awsome site !!!!!!°😊

This video made me realise that Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween" (for The Nightmare Before Christmas) is probably in 2/2 time (or at least can be transcribed to 2/2 rather easily?) Time signatures are going to be the death of me tbh

Also, before recorded music, musical notation wasn't the only way of recording how the composer intended to be played as human memory also provided an account for those who heard it under the baton of the composer.

You are the most intelligent music instructor I know :)

Total music agnostic here. I find you videos very informative. I'd be interested to know if you have done a video about the various symbols used on sheet music and what they mean.

You should also point out that 2/2 vs. 4/4 also matters as to how it is conducted (in addition to how it is read or felt).

I was looking forwards to a composition in cut time

good video, I recommend that you analyze the music of the band the Wise Tone because it uses time changes as in the theme Waste of time 5/4 to 4/4... They also make time changes as in the How Long theme from 100bpm to 75bpm etc. They apply many harmonizations with interesting style and similar to The Beatles, you could start listening to it and see how it is

Can confirm country roads are in West Virginia as someone newly living here.

As always writing a comment to support the channel

Another gem! Here’s my question- i always learned the 2/2 or cut time signature was just a way to write music in the more readable form than 4/4- Would you do the great example of how it’s more than that. I find myself counting 2/2 time as 1+2+3+4+ across two measures…because that tends to lineup with the two in the four on the drum beat. But when you played the 4 beats as would normally be played on country road I was like that’s just awful! Lol. Nice work again

Thank you

In the video you say 4/4 will mean equal accent on the four quarter notes. This is appropriate for a four-on-the-floor dance tune, but recalling my classical music theory lessons, I would say that normally the accents are strong / weak / semi-strong / weak. It is still different from a 2/2 tempo because of the semi-strong accent.

is there a 2/4? if so, what would that sound like?

Thank you so much for the video. And what is 2/4 in all of that ?

Great video! But the thing is you never mentioned 2/4 or even 2/8 time. Most of the songs you showed were not of slow tempo and I would say I felt a lot of them as more of a 2/4 personally.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw two two was rach 3. I love the concerto

Than you. This has ALWAYS confused me!

Great video David, always interesting. Regarding Pianote I find it mildly amusing to use the In My Life as an example as I’m sure you already know that George Martin never played that section of the song at full speed.

Great video. My brain is too simple for this I'll stick to 4/4

this was s cool ... thanks

Very interesting and informative video as always David. Are we getting another orchestral video soon? maybe brass

Country roads, folsom prison, Maggie's farm, and Jolene are 4/4. All these songs were written primarily with guitar accompaniment, which is always 4 count on folk or country style songs.

Country Roads in 4/4 sounds like indie rock

I don't get it, Country Road's bass line could be notated the same exact way as the original and still be in 4/4 🤔🤔