Need help with time signatures

egbt4

Senior Member
Hello guys,

i have to learn the song ' Find You ' by Robert Glasper for an audition in 2 weeks.
I'm not that bad in music theory and transcribing but this particular song is getting me crazy and i cannot figure out the time signature and even when the ' ONE ' falls...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzTflMPresE

i'd be glad if some of you would juste help me understand what's going on :)

thanks in advance !
 
Most of it you can count in 5/4-- a moderate 5 with the bass drum playing 8th notes, and most of the crashes on 1. There's a 6/4 bar at the little vocal break, several bars of 3/8 for the triplet figure, then a 9/8 bar on the half-time feel drum break. You should be able to figure the rest of it out from there.

It might be easier to transcribe any parts you need if you put the bass drum on a quarter note pulse-- in that case the above values would be 10/4, 12/4, 3/4, and 9/4.
 
Glasper is a genius, I love his music. You should hear his version of smells like teen spirit. Good luck on trying to play this at your audition, you're gonna need it, lol!

I've listened to it a few times and have put together the complete arrangement for you, every single bar. For the sake of simplicity, I've counted mostly as though the bass drum you hear would be 1/8 notes, but at certain points it was appropriate to count as 1/4 notes where I've put 4/4 and 2/4. The music informed my ear that it felt right at those sections. Certain crashes and tom fills informed me where a 2/8 bar was appropriate instead of a straight through 10/8 or 4/8 bar. But I've put alternative counting as well in brackets if you prefer those.

I hope this helps. I've also put the video times where the sections change.


0:00 - 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 4/8. (*Or if you prefer, 4/4 x 2 bars)

0:05 - Keyboard melody starts 4/8, 4/8, 4/8. (*Or 4/4 + 2/4. *Or 6/4)

0:09 - 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 2/8, 2/8, 10/8, 10/8, 4/8, 4/8, 2/8, 2/8, 4/8, 4/8.

0:30 - Vocals 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 2/8. (*Or 5/4 x five bars + 6/4)

0:50 - Instrumental 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8.

0:54 - 9/8.

0:57 - 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8. (*Or 5/4 x 4 bars)

1:11 - Vocals 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 10/8, 2/8. (*Or 5/4 x five bars + 6/4)

1:31 - Instrumental 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8.

1:40 - 4/4, 2/4.

1:44 - Drums drop out and it's 8 bars of 4/4 building into....

2:05 - Long instrumental section, 12 bars of 10/8. (*Or 5/4 x 12 bars)

2:46 - Vocals 4/8, 4/8, 2/8, 4/8, 4/8, 4/8.

2:53 - Instrumental 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 3/8.

3:09 - Tacet for 2 bars of 4/4.

At 3:15 - Vocals [[: 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 4/8, 2/8 :]] Repeat this sequence till fade.
You could also count this section as 4/4, 4/4, 5/4 instead.(effectively it's like 13/4)
 
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I listened to it a couple of times. One thing I can tell you is; you won't find this song on my iPod.

This song is very easy to play.
Play quarter notes on the bass drum until 3:11.
After 3:11 play three quarter notes on the bass drum until the end of the song. Except for the breaks.
And then for the whole song play anything you want with your other three limbs.
That's what I'm hearing.


.
 
I listened to it a couple of times. One thing I can tell you is; you won't find this song on my iPod.

This song is very easy to play.
Play quarter notes on the bass drum until 3:11.
After 3:11 play three quarter notes on the bass drum until the end of the song. Except for the breaks.
And then for the whole song play anything you want with your other three limbs.
That's what I'm hearing.


.

Lol. I might as well have said something similar instead of wasting 2 hours of my time working this out for someone who doesn't even have the decency to return to the thread.
 
Lol. I might as well have said something similar instead of wasting 2 hours of my time working this out for someone who doesn't even have the decency to return to the thread.

Yeah, but you did an amazing job on this. When I read your breakdown, my brain began to short circuit. I had to find a way to simplify it. LOL


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