12/17

[Loki]

This has been bothering me for a while and I was wondering if you guys could explain this to me: WTF is 12/17? I know it's only written as 12/17 because what it really is, 24/34, is too big to write on a music staff. That's really all I could find out.

[Alex]

..It's a time signature? For every bar, there are 12 notes that are one seventeenth the length of a whole note.

[GracefulDave]

You get 4/4 times? Same deal. Four notes, each note being 1/4 of the total length. That's why it's called a quarter note.

[Loki]

Oh come on, that's like me having a math question I need help with, and you guys tell me it's a math question. Obviously I know what a time signature is if I've been thinking about 12/17.

Let's try being more specific... HOW THE FUCK DID THEY MAKE A 34th NOTE?

[Rosti LFC]

Let's try being more specific... HOW THE FUCK DID THEY MAKE A 34th NOTE?

Because when you have something like a note, you can divide it up into completely arbitrary lengths. Just because 34 is a weird number doesn't mean it can't be picked.

[Cesium]

Because when you have something like a note, you can divide it up into completely arbitrary lengths. Just because 34 is a weird number doesn't mean it can't be picked.

Yeah, but to be fair to the performer, you usually want a power of two on the bottom and 1 or 3 times a power of 2 on the top, unless you're Hungarian or an experimental composer from the 20th century. Which, apparently, this is. So you have each whole note split into 17, 12 of which are in each measure. It sounds not too hard, just... weird.

[Rosti LFC]

Yeah, the whole point is it's trying to be different. Using extremely unusual time signatures basically because they can, and to create something a little less generic and more unique.

[Alex]

Let's try being more specific... HOW THE FUCK DID THEY MAKE A 34th NOTE?

Sorry, I didn't think the topic was based around such a stupid question..