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  #1  
Old 01-30-2013, 04:32 PM
seagull27 seagull27 is offline
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Default The various time signatures of Blackbird (The Beatles)

Hi all

I've been looking at various tabs and sheet music on line for this song and noticed how many of them notate it differently with regard the time signatures of the bars (which changes frequently throughout).

I wondered if anyone out there is either very familiar with the song, an expert in rhythm theory/time signatures, or ideally both and could tell me what the correct time signatures would be...... Perhaps by giving a link to a correct tab/sheet music, or by writing a list (Bars 1-8 = 4/4, Bar 9 = 3/4, etc for example).

Or is it more the case that there is no single correct way and that the different ways are all equally valid?

Huge thanks

Max
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  #2  
Old 01-30-2013, 08:00 PM
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ljguitar ljguitar is offline
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Originally Posted by seagull27 View Post
...Or is it more the case that there is no single correct way and that the different ways are all equally valid?
Hi seagull...

If I were inclined to learn it authentically, I'd pull up YouTube and watch Paul McCartney play it and make notes.


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  #3  
Old 01-31-2013, 02:45 AM
seagull27 seagull27 is offline
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Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi seagull...

If I were inclined to learn it authentically, I'd pull up YouTube and watch Paul McCartney play it and make notes.


Hi

It's not so much that I want to play it authentically, more that I want to be able to notate it correctly.... And I don't think youtube would be able to help with that.

Thanks for the input though. I have actually been using youtube/McCartney to see how he frets it etc.

Cheers

Max
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  #4  
Old 01-31-2013, 03:39 AM
clintj clintj is offline
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As far as notating time, it is a bit flexible depending on the writer's philosophy. A piece written in 12/8 can be written as 4/4 with triplets. If I'm transcribing drum parts, I'll use 12/8 if there are subdivision to the eighth note to keep it from getting as cluttered looking. Honestly, unless it were a song that I couldn't find sheet music for or I had to do it as homework for a class, I would see about getting a copy from a good music store either in person or online.
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  #5  
Old 01-31-2013, 03:53 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Here's how I notate it:

Code:
|3/4                              |4/4
|Blackbird singing in the dead of |night 
|4/4                                  |4/4
|Take these broken wings and learn to |fly 
|2/4      |4/4
|All your |life 
|4/4                            |                |   
|You were only waiting for this |moment to arise |   
(2 more bars of 4/4 before repeat)
.
BRIDGE
|4/4       |      |          |              |2/4                    
|Blackbird |fly,  |blackbird |fly, into the |light of the dark black
|3/4 (etc, instrumental verse)
|night
The last word of the bridge is the downbeat of an instrumental verse, hence the 3/4.

I've gone by various cues (particular emphases in both vocal and accompaniment). Other arrangements are possible, and arguably equally correct.

Eg, the 3/4-4/4 division of the first line seems plain, because there's 3 beats on the rising guitar figure, and then 4 beats on the steady high G after the slide up.
If it wasn't for that accompaniment, the vocal phrasing might suggest "dead" as the downbeat of a bar, making it 2/4+5/4 (less intuitive overall, IMO). Or even a 4+3 division - see below.

The line "All your life" could have been divided 4+2 rather than 2+4; but I went with the bass, which spends 4 beats on C on the word "life".
Likewise, the last 6 beats of the bridge, "fly into the light of the dark black" could be divided 2+4 rather than 4+2; the accompaniment offers no clue here, because there are 3 chords on 2 beats each; but IMO the vocal phrasing works better as 4+2, because the word "light" has the most emphasis.

(I guess an argument could be made for making all the 4/4 bars into pairs of 2/4, avoiding the issue. )

Here's how my Beatles Complete songbook notates it:
Code:
|4/4                                    |3/4
|Blackbird singing in the dead of night |
|4/4                                  |
|Take these broken wings and learn to |fly 
|4/4             |                |
|All your life   |   You were only|
|4/4                         |
|waiting for this moment to a|rise
(straight to 2nd verse)
BRIDGE
|4/4       |      |          |              |2/4                    
|Blackbird |fly,  |blackbird |fly, into the |light of the dark black
That seems to make it a lot simpler by disposing of one of the 2/4 bars.
But (a) I don't think splitting the line "you were only waiting" feels right , and (b) they've chopped 6 beats off the end of the first verse! (which is obviously cheating).
Maybe worse, they've had to alter the accompaniment to make sense of their 4+3 division of the first line! Ie, on "dead of night" they just have one G chord held for both beats - completely ignoring that distinctive slide on the guitar! (Admittedly it is a beginners' "piano/organ/vocal" edition, which has simplified all the songs to make them easier to play - changing the keys of most.)

Moral: don't trust published songbooks, however authoritative they might look.
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Old 01-31-2013, 08:08 PM
walternewton walternewton is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
Here's how I notate it:
That's how it's done in the Complete Scores book (which is not without mistakes, but probably the best of the available book options - IF you can read its small print!)

Last edited by walternewton; 01-31-2013 at 08:16 PM.
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Old 02-01-2013, 02:02 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Originally Posted by walternewton View Post
That's how it's done in the Complete Scores book (which is not without mistakes, but probably the best of the available book options - IF you can read its small print!)
Thanks walter, nice to know. (I don't have that book, although I've glanced at in shops occasionally.)
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Old 02-01-2013, 07:34 AM
snoot snoot is offline
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Did Paul McCartney originally play it in open G tuning?
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Old 02-01-2013, 01:32 PM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snoot View Post
Did Paul McCartney originally play it in open G tuning?
No he played in standard. There's a least 2 youtubes of him playing it live where you can see, and in this one he explains the inspiration for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MVMkRZ_Ajc
This is the Bach tune he's struggling to remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMq7gNzHNJ8

BTW, he did play "Yesterday" in G, tuned a whole step down (DGCFAD), so G sounded like F.
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Old 02-01-2013, 01:59 PM
Mellow_D Mellow_D is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
No he played in standard. There's a least 2 youtubes of him playing it live where you can see, and in this one he explains the inspiration for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MVMkRZ_Ajc
This is the Bach tune he's struggling to remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMq7gNzHNJ8

BTW, he did play "Yesterday" in G, tuned a whole step down (DGCFAD), so G sounded like F.
I saw another video posted on that page of a kid playing Blackbird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...T9xnlhldM&NR=1

Wow!
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  #11  
Old 02-01-2013, 02:12 PM
Mellow_D Mellow_D is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR View Post
No he played in standard. There's a least 2 youtubes of him playing it live where you can see, and in this one he explains the inspiration for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MVMkRZ_Ajc
This is the Bach tune he's struggling to remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMq7gNzHNJ8

BTW, he did play "Yesterday" in G, tuned a whole step down (DGCFAD), so G sounded like F.
And here's the same kid (from my reply above) a few years older doing Paint It Black:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyyHGDqmymc

What a joy to listen to, to watch!
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  #12  
Old 02-01-2013, 05:10 PM
lovetheclassics lovetheclassics is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar View Post
Hi seagull...

If I were inclined to learn it authentically, I'd pull up YouTube and watch Paul McCartney play it and make notes.


I agree with lj, this is the first song I learned to play from start to finish. There are a hundred people on Youtube teaching/playing it incorrectly. Watch Paul play it. Get the CD and listen to it.

Some people are making the time signatures way too complicated, just tap both feet one at a time continuously (tick tock tick tock...) for entire song just like Paul does on recording. (sounds like a metronome).
Paul played it in Standard tuning on a right handed Martin turned upside down on the original recording.

When he played it live he altered it slightly.
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Last edited by lovetheclassics; 02-01-2013 at 05:15 PM.
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