Time Signatures

robinboyd

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Hi Everyone. I've been trying to learn Jenny of Oldstones for my guitarlele and I paid to get a tab from a guy who did an awesome youtube video for guitar. In the tab, he uses 6/8 for the beginning and end but 4/4 for the middle. That just seems odd to me because when I count along with the original, I end up in 4/4 for the the whole thing. The trouble is that his timing is all over the place so I can't count along with him. I wouldn't normally upload a file that I paid for, but this is giving me a headache, and I'd love it if someone could check my workings. Here is the file and a link to the video.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-D65GgDCNje3BWiantTcBc9rklSNiK-j/view?usp=sharing
 
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You're right: the recordings I found are in duple time throughout, but I personally feel that his arrangement, with the 6/8 sections, is more interesting and effective. I get so tired of plodding 4/4. As for his timing being "all over the place", so is the singer's phrasing. I think he's done a beautiful arrangement, well worth learning as he notated it, and be damned to how it's "supposed" to go. It's easy enough to play the verses in 4/4, if you must.

Thank you. I think the arrangement as he plays it is beautiful too. Also true about the phrasing. That's one of the things that's giving me a headache.

I'm just trying to get my head around learning it and finding that I just can't count it out. I think I'll start out by counting it out in 4/4 and learn to play the notes before I play around with the timing.
 
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I think it is like this above. Beautiful song beautiful arrange.
 
Something just snapped in my head. I think I'm starting to hear the time signatures properly now. Still giving me a headache though. I think I will need another few days of humming it to myself.

By the way, this kind of goes without staying, but if you want to learn to play this, it's probably a good idea to pay for it. I wouldn't normally post tabs that I had paid for, but I just really needed (probably still need) help.
 
Thank you. I think the arrangement as he plays it is beautiful too. Also true about the phrasing. That's one of the things that's giving me a headache.

I'm just trying to get my head around learning it and finding that I just can't count it out. I think I'll start out by counting it out in 4/4 and learn to play the notes before I play around with the timing.

Robin, that sounds like a fine way to learn the song. Get those notes into your fingers in whichever time signature you're comfortable with it. And just in case it helps, that last section of his video, the final 6/8 portion, can also be thought of as a very slow 4/4. Regardless, your approach to learning it should work just fine.
 
Thanks everyone. I think I've got my head around the time signatures as long as I don't think about it too hard. Now that I've had time to digest it, I think it's kind of brilliant.

In other news, the artificial harmonics in bars 24 and 25 are really hard!
 
Thanks again everyone. I think I've got it. Here is a video of me playing it.

 
That sounds great! Glad that you got it worked out and shared it with us.
 
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