Beginner needs help counting music

Discuss anything related to audio or music production.
Post Reply
woodamsc
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2025 8:38 pm

Beginner needs help counting music

Post by woodamsc » Sat Jan 25, 2025 9:32 pm

Hello I'm a beginner musician, just learning at my own pace at home. All of my time has been around learning theory and the fretboard.
I'm now dabbling with consistency + production; which means recording, looping + structuring my noodling and seeing where it goes. It's a very organic process so far.

I've noticed I struggle with counting my music properly.
When listening, I quite easily tap my foot away and bob my head and then start counting. But when I record my music in Ableton...suddenly "it's not 4/4, not 2/4, 6/4? 3/4? 8/4? 4/8???"
It never seems to line up and I'm just guessing until it's right - or it never feels right...then I'm frustrated and walk away.


The music I make just comes from my head, without any understanding of what it is I'm "hearing"
I'm too inexperienced to understand if my problem is with counting, if I'm playing too complex timings (like swing), or if I'm just playing at an inconsistent speed - making counting and warping impossible.

I would appreciate if you could listen to this short sample and give me feedback.
https://youtu.be/qHh5HcwXOdQ

In the recording I've settled on 2/4. Idk if that's right, but I count it as "1 and 2 e and uh; 1 and 2 e and uh"
But to be honest, my brain likes to count the bass notes (A, G#, F#) as "1, 2, 3, 4"

Music is fun, but as I'm tip-toe'ing into being more serious about I'm faced with the frustration of unknown unknowns getting in the way which is quite demotivating.

Ty

jmn
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2025 11:05 pm

Re: Beginner needs help counting music

Post by jmn » Thu Feb 06, 2025 12:23 am

If you're counting that tune as "1 (e) and (uh) 2-e-and-uh", you probably have the right idea. As long as the numbers, and your foot tapping, are steady more or less like the metronome, you've got it. In other words, if you're counting 1-2-3-4, the time given to each number should be the same, regardless of what else is happening in the rhythm or melody of the tune. You're playing at a consistent speed so I think you're doing that. By the way, the fact that you're doing "-e-and-uh" is great - it's always easier to stay in time if you're feeling the finer subdivisions of time, whether rigid or grooving, even if (especially if) you're not playing them.

You could also count it "1 2 3-and 4-and" which would be 4/4 rather than 2/4, but those are essentially the same and really just a matter of how it's written down, not how it sounds. In time signatures 2/4 is 2 beats per measure, quarter note gets the beat (there don't have to be 4 quarters in a measure!), whereas 4/4 is 4 beats per measure, quarter note gets the beat. There's no rule that says how long a quarter note has to last. Generally, whether to write something down in 2/4 versus 4/4 mostly has to do with the feel, and with how you think about it. Usually 2/4 is used for tunes that feel kind of jaunty and might jump from one chord to another pretty consistently after two beats. Going with 2/4 for your tune feels right.

Try experimenting with Live's metronome. Type in 2/4 and listen to its high (beat one) versus low pitches. Do the same with 4/4. Now play with halving and doubling the tempo. You can make one sound a lot like the other, just with more or fewer divisions of the time.

To take a different example, 6/8 is six beats per measure, eighth note gets the beat. It often, though not always, has a feel like "row, row, row, your boat" where the first "row" is 1-2-3 and the second "row" is 4-5-6 and you're counting a steady 1-2-3-4-5-6 quite a bit quicker than you're counting your tune.

Also, while any time signature is possible, it's kind of unusual for the top number to be bigger than the bottom if they're even (6/4 and 8/4 in your message). Another way of saying that is it's common to have one whole note per measure or less than one whole note per measure, but rarely more than one. Notable exceptions are odd numbers of beats per measure: 5/4, like Take Five or Sting's Seven Days among many examples, and 9/8, which is often just three groups of three, the most famous example being Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. You might challenge yourself to count *steadily* along with any of those.

Theory and fretboard are awesome to know! Everybody learns little by little and in a different order. Don't worry and keep making music.

Post Reply