For me it’s time signatures in music. I grew up playing instruments, played in several orchestras, etc. But no matter how many times someone tries to explain time signatures to me, it makes no sense. I don’t understand why people place such importance on it. To me, notes have a pitch and a duration, maybe some dynamics. That’s it. I don’t understand why people try to needlessly complicate it. It doesn’t give you anything.

My wife will hear a song and go “Oh neat, it’s in 5/8.” And I’m like “How tf do you know that, and why does it matter?”

  • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
    2·
    13 hours ago

    From what I gather, 6/8 time is usually done in pairs of triplets. So it does sound rhythmically different than 3/4. But no one ever tells you that, not even when the concept is introduced in textbooks on music theory. They just tell you “and this is 6/8 time,” as if you’re just supposed to know how and why that’s in any way different from 3/4 time…

    I think it is too. I figured it out when I read that Jocko Homo is in 7/8 and it’s very clear because of the staccato notes, 3 by guitar 4 by synth. Another way to think of it is the first beat is accented. So 4/4 is ONE two three four ONE two three four. 5/4 is ONE two three four five ONE two three four five.

    I think a lot of musicians don’t really fully understand it so they can’t explain it. Kinda like how programmers can’t really explain casting. And don’t you programmers dare tell me about cows in a pasture or a barn or whatever that analogy is. Just translate your line of code with the word “cast” into a sentence that makes sense. You can’t.