Need some music help

[GwJ]

Link to original post: [drupal=2800]Need some music help[/drupal]



I've never been good at reading music and I need to perform a piece for bass drum for indoor drumline in about 3 weeks. The piece is written in 12-8. How the hell do I count that?

 

[john!]

It's like 4/4 time, except each beat has 3 sub-beats. Instead of

1, 2, 3, 4

it goes

123, 456, 789, 101112

in the same amount of time. If you've ever read 6/8 time, it's just like that.

 

[Sucumbio]

john9blue is correct.

Time signatures demystified:

X/Y time = There are X beats per measure and the Y note gets 1 Beat.

12/8 = there are 12 beats per measure and the 8th note gets one beat.

this would then be counted out as 1-en-da, 2-en-da, 3-en-da, 4-en-da

12/8 rhythm is directly related to 6/8 (just twice as long per measure). Good for blues.

 

[WindMajor]

It's important to know how to read music, but it's a lot easier to just listen to it and figure it out.

If you want to take the easy way out like in Drumline, just listen to it and figure it out. If you don't, well continue doing what you're doing. Asking questions is a great way to clear out confusion, although asking your teacher is probably a better idea than asking random Smashers.

 

[XDemono]

i play trumpet

123, 456, 789, 101112 sounds right
but i, myself probably wouldnt know
i just memorized the fingerings from low to high lol

 

[altairian]

12/8 time = 12 eighth notes per measure. You have two options for counting your measures.

The first, if you have a good feel for the rhythm of /8 time would simply be "1, 2, 3, 4"

The second, and much better than counting up to twelve, would be "1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3". Counting it that way would horribly complicate things if you were trying to count a long rest, but given you're performing something solo I imagine there isn't any.

I also agree about asking your teacher That's what they're there for after all.

 

[NintendoMan07]

Yeah, I agree with everyone else here, especially altairian (counting anything with more than one syllable at even a decently fast tempo leads to the tendency to slow the tempo down even if you don't mean to) even though I've only ever played the baritone. Still, I found myself being better at rhythms than playing the actual notes right.

 

[Rappster]

i play trumpet

123, 456, 789, 101112 sounds right
but i, myself probably wouldnt know
i just memorized the fingerings from low to high lol

yay for fellow trumpet players!

everybody's right.
unless you play an uberslow tempo, 12/8 is pulsed in 4 groups of 3 notes each.