Is there such a thing as 1 time?

Deathmetalconga

Platinum Member
I have wondered about this lately. Is there any such thing as 1 time - 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 time, etc.

I suppose you could break anything down to 1, much in the same way as you could break down 4, 6, 8, 10, etc., into 2, or how you could break 6, 9 or 12 into 3. However, there is a difference in feel between 4 and 8, between 3 and 6. Music authentically in 1 should have a certain feel - but what?
 
The only type of music that might go in "one" is the stuff involving blast beats. Since the (section of) music doesn't really breathe or distinguish between beats, I always hear it as "oneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneone...."

1/x is problematic, because it is just a single beat -- there's no tension and release within a measure.
 
I've wondered about this. Seems to me that it could be constant unaccented notes (like a blast beat) or randomly accented notes.

My guess is that the moment you have any sort of pattern of rests or accents, then that pattern would decide the time sig.
 
I've seen it in a percussion piece in college. It was used during a mixed meter part where they simplified the accents by placing it on the "1" of every measure, but every measure was a different meter. As far as a whole piece or section in a "1/x" meter, no, I've never seen that.

The only type of music that might go in "one" is the stuff involving blast beats. Since the (section of) music doesn't really breathe or distinguish between beats, I always hear it as "oneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneone...."

1/x is problematic, because it is just a single beat -- there's no tension and release within a measure.

HA! Golden!
 
There was this 1 time at band camp. (Sorry, couldn't resist)
 
theoretically yes. but practically no.

if you were writing a piece in 4/4 and ended with a crash on the last bar you would be pretty silly to write (as a compoiund time script) 1/4 just to make that last bar work out. the usual would be to just have the crash notated and 3 quarter notes of rests so that last bar is in 4/4 like the rest of the piece. Similarly if you were making somehting compound that went for example 4/4 then 4/4 then 1/4, 4/4 then 4/4 then 1/4 etc. you would script it as 4/4 then 5/4, 4/4 then 5/4. both would sound the same but the later would be more practical.
that's just my two pence.
j
 
back in marching highschool marching band we would play some songs 1/1 time or straight time. for instance the nation anthem. what it does is take out the rests really. you follow the band leader for the tempo and play straight trough. kind of strange but it shortend the song without it being too long winded.
 
Yes it is. But a time feel in "one" is non existent.

How about a passage with just an unaccompanied, unaccented blast beat? I imagine it would still be assumed to be four, anyway. If written as 1/4 rather than 4/4, maybe that would change the way it was performed, as DMC suggested in his OP?

It would at least send a message not to vary the accents ... I can imagine it being used by experimental composers.
 
Yes, a 1-beat bar is very common in music.

I've seen 1/4 bars used as place holder and/on fillers in music where the melody feels the last bar of the phrase as 5 or 3 beats rather than 4 for example. Think of the verses in Dirty Work, by Steely Dan.. there is an extra beat between the last bar of the verse and the chorus and the way the music is written, it makes more sense to notate that as a 4/4 bar and a 1/4 bar rather than a 5/4 bar.
 
I've seen 1/4 bars used as place holder and/on fillers in music where the melody feels the last bar of the phrase as 5 or 3 beats rather than 4 for example. Think of the verses in Dirty Work, by Steely Dan.. there is an extra beat between the last bar of the verse and the chorus and the way the music is written, it makes more sense to notate that as a 4/4 bar and a 1/4 bar rather than a 5/4 bar.

Yes, rhythmically it works, and for us drummers, it can be an "easy trick" to get by in an odd time signature bar isolated in a song, but for melodic instruments, the bar signature is dictated by the cycle of the riff or the melody, and often, it's a 5/4 because of the length of the cycle, it provides the same result, but it's a different feel, a different approach.

I've used this "trick" to overcome a 5/4 bar or a 3/4 bar inserted in a 4/4 song, it makes easier to "know" where you are by adding or subtracting a 1/4 bar to the 4/4 bar.
 
Well, Given mathematical rules, 1/1 technically would be 1 time, since we're using fractions here :)

Joking!

This is a great question though.. i've often wondered the same!
 
There was this 1 time at band camp. (Sorry, couldn't resist)

Nice!

As to Deathmetalconga's question, I'd say yes. If you think in time as cycles, you could have an individual, 1 beat cycle. If you think time signatures, call it 1/1.

As far as a useful application for it, it sure would make counting a lot easier! As long as you keep a steady beat you'd complete the cycle with each "downbeat" and without worrying about turning the beat around. Long phrases would tend to get clipped and strung together in random lengths.

Kind of like musical channel surfing, with a heavy beat.

-John
 
If you think time signatures, call it 1/1.



-John


1/1 ?

would that be 1 whole note?......that makes no sense to me

I don't think there could be 1/1 because there is no 1 note

I can see 1/4 or even maybe 1/2......but 1/1 seems impossible to me


someone explain it to me
 
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