# How do I notate this rhythmically? What time is this in?



## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

I'm stuck trying to notate something I've been working on at the piano - it's a very short theme and cadence and for some reason I just don't know how to notate what I am playing so that it makes sense on the score.

Here is me playing the little opening - I know there's some rubato and some of it was on the fly so I couldn't keep a steady rhythm, but I think you can understand the gist of how it feels.

View attachment howToNotateThisRhythm.mp3


Here is how I tried to notate it - but it looks very strange having strong beats in the strangest of places. I don't think this looks correct.









Here is how sibelius renders it - again it doesn't rhythmically sound like what I played.

View attachment ThatWorkYouKeepImprovising.mp3


This part of composing has always been really tough for me because of my limitations in notating the rhythm. To be honest I'm not even sure what time I am in, and I can't clap it out to figure it out.

Can someone walk me through understand what the rhythm here is?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I hear the first part in 4/4, three measures at least. I'm not sure beyond that point. Also, the beginning of the third measure of 4/4, in your played version, sounds like a quarter note followed by triplets (not a quarter tied to a 16th followed by 3 more 16ths.) So, I would start by just changing the meter to 4/4.

There is nothing wrong with changing meters, of course.


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## HeavyGroovist (Oct 23, 2016)

It mostly depends on how you see it yourself - you can notate anything a number of different ways after all - try tapping your foot when listening to or playing the part you're unsure about to figure out if you feel it as shifted accents or a different meter\tempo entirely.


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