Rafael Trujillo
patreon
Tempo Changes in Songs - My Formula
🕑 Added 2023-11-28 16:00:03 +0000 UTCWhenever there is a tempo change in one of my songs, it always maintains a relational aspect through metric modulation. For instance, the most straightforward metric modulation is the transition from half time to double tempo, or vice versa. However, looking into that topic a little more there are a lot of things to discover by altering the note rate. For example, if we play 16th notes at 120 bpm but accent every fifth beat, we essentially play quintuplets at 96 bpm. Transitioning seamlessly from these quintuplets to regular 16th notes at 96 bpm establishes the new tempo.
Metric modulations can really fast, even within the last two beats of a fill, leading into the new tempo. I typically use the following calculation method:
note grid x current tempo / new note grid = new tempo
In our example, with 16th notes at 120 bpm, multiplying 120 by 4 (4 notes per beat) and then dividing by 5 (since we accent every fifth beat) gives us the new tempo. This method effectively slows down a section in a song.
This approach is applicable to various scenarios, such as starting with triplets and accenting every 4th note, resulting in a new tempo of 3x120/4 = 90bpm.
There are a lot of possibilities, doing both, slowing down and speeding up the song.
Have you ever worked on making a metric modulation as smooth as possible? I feel like that’s the biggest challenge during the songwriting process.
Comments
Thomas Helwig
received it now. Great! Thank you! Such an interesting topic...
Rafael Trujillo
oh I'm sorry to hear that! please check again. I just resent it
Thomas Helwig
Just checked all my mails, including spam (in case the filter didn't work correctly), but no, I didn't receive your mail. Would you mind sending it again? Thank you!
Rafael Trujillo
Hey I saw it and sent an answer on the day after. Didn't you receive it?
Thomas Helwig
Hey Rafael, I sent an Email on April 23rd. Did you receive the mail? Otherwise I can send it again.
Rafael Trujillo
that's great. you can post it on our discord chat. If you don't have Discord, just send me an Email contact@rafael-trujillo.com whatever you prefer
Thomas Helwig
Since the topic is still of interest to me I created a gp-file (simple example) with the intention of asking whether the content is similar to what you meant. Unfortunately it is not possible for me to upload the file... or is there?
Rafael Trujillo
I'll make a video about it with examples because it's such a big topic.
Thomas Helwig
When listening to your music I always found that the time changes are extraordinarily important for what you guys want to express. That last sentence may sound horrible :) but by sharing this approach I hope to learn a lot though it may take a while to completely understand (also I am not at home, i.e. where my guitars are...). I guess I will be having to use my calculator when I return. Is it possible for you to provide an example (song, song excerpt) because I believe I have not yet completely understood what you described!? It's very theoretical... The only modulation I ever used was the double time thing and vice versa. Every other tempo change in songs we did were "by heart". We just experimented and tried out.
Rafael Trujillo
Something went wrong with it. I just fixed it. Thanks for letting me know! :)
Guy Rozanes
I guess you forgot the description?
