Writing 3/4 Basics

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StickIt said:
I don't understand why the score has to be in 3/4. It is just strumming practice, right?

If I am correct, each chord plays for 12 beats...so you could divide that into 3 measures of 4/4 which will show a repetitive rhythm in each bar,

or into 4 measures of 3/4, as you have done.

The last chord (F) only gets 9 beats...so you'd have to expand the score a little (to give it an equal number of beats) if you wanted to write the whole thing out in 4/4, and have it come out correctly.
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It isn't a score of music, just an exercise. Yes 4/4 written that way fixes the guitar strumming pattern nicely. I want to which way would be more conventional. Are both acceptable ? Would only the drums determine whether 3/4 or 4/4 since the guitar can be written in either way and it sounds identical. Please advise ;)
 
The music itself, it's nature, determines whether it is a 3/4 or a 4/4 piece. With the rhythms you have written, if there were no marked measures, I would have assumed it was written in 2/4 or 4/4, because there is a single 2-note rhythm throughout (the quarter and swung eighths). If it were a quarter, the swung eighths, and one more quarter, and that pattern repeated, it would make more sense to write it in 3/4 (being a 3 note pattern).

A waltz is a typical example of 3/4 time, where the rhythm is paired in groups of three.

A drummer could play 3/4 time over a 4/4 tune, but the upbeat and downbeat would not be in the correct (read: usual) place, and would throw a hitch in the overall sound. Some progressive music does this on purpose, using the rhythmic tension and release to push the song as well as the melody, but I digress....

For simplicity in practice, if I were you, I would write that lesson in 4/4. It doesn't really make any difference, but it would give an easier to read adaptation of the rhythm, just to throw out a bit of possible confusion.
 
carychilton said:
SherrieLessons1fv_zpsb1f16197.png




It isn't a score of music, just an exercise. Yes 4/4 written that way fixes the guitar strumming pattern nicely. I want to which way would be more conventional. Are both acceptable ? Would only the drums determine whether 3/4 or 4/4 since the guitar can be written in either way and it sounds identical. Please advise ;)
Click to expand...

The 4/4 makes so much more sense given the strumming rhythm given, and this way it follows a typical jazz and shuffle pattern.

A 3/4 usually (although not always) implies a waltz feel.
 
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