Changing 4/4 to 3/4

[Mike A]

I have a lead sheet all scored out in 4/4. A singer wants me to change one section of the piece to 3/4, per a famous recording.

What's the best procedure for doing that, short of just re-scoring that entire section? I know it's going to take some manual shuffling around, but presumably there's a preferable way of going about that. (Obviously, just changing the time signature for that section doesn't do it. That just creates a mess.)

Thanks!

[Peter Thomsen]

… (Obviously, just changing the time signature for that section doesn't do it. That just creates a mess.) …

Exactly!
Since it a song, with lyrics, the rhythmical notation should follow the rule that says:
Stressed syllables attached to stressed beats, un-stressed syllables attached to un-stressed beats.

The change from 4/4 to 3/4 requires a modification of the rhythmical values.
You have to listen to the “famous recording”, to find out how the values should be modified.

Since I do not know any details about the actual song, I can not be more specific.

One way - that follows the above mentioned rule about stressed/un-stressed - could be this:
change
4/4 Quarter - Quarter - Quarter - Quarter
to
3/4 Quarter - Quarter - Eighth - Eighth

To do so, first change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4, without Rebar Music.
Then, change the note values, using the Change Utility.
You will have to change one “half-measure” at a time (= this takes some time to do), since non-contiguous selection is not possible in Finale.
But at least you can change all the staves in that “half-measure” at one fell swoop.

[Mike A]

Thanks Peter. I'm not sure what you mean by "half-measure," though.

[motet]

Tell us what the song and famous recording are and maybe we can help. If it's a sort of waltz variation of the tune, you may be better off just rewriting it.

[Mike A]

The song is Day Dream by Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn, written in 4/4. The recording is by June Christy, with the bridge in 3/4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pSwmU13Reo (bridge at 1:44)

Obviously, it wouldn't take me long to just re-score the bridge from scratch, and re-do the lyrics, but I was just wondering if there was a way to expedite the process. Seems like a skill I should have in my toolbox, so to speak.

Thanks.

[zuill]

It sounds like each 4/4 bar becomes 2 3/4 bars. That should be easy to modify without reentry. If we're talking about a lead sheet, that should be even easier.

Zuill

[Mike A]

Thanks. Still a little unclear on the procedure. Hoping for some clarification of the highlighted portion of Peter's post:

To do so, first change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4, without Rebar Music.
Then, change the note values, using the Change Utility.
You will have to change one “half-measure” at a time (= this takes some time to do), since non-contiguous selection is not possible in Finale. But at least you can change all the staves in that “half-measure” at one fell swoop.

[zuill]

My take on things is different, so pleaser clarify. Does the Bridge change to each 4/4 bar now represented by 2 3/4 bars?

When I hear the recording, it sounds more like 4/4 but each measure is doing 2 quarter triplets. That could be represented by 2 bars of 3/4 instead, which is what I guess you are asking about. If so, that can be done easily, I think. Once you clarify, I'll give my simple approach.

Zuill

[Mike A]

Does the Bridge change to each 4/4 bar now represented by 2 3/4 bars?

When I hear the recording, it sounds more like 4/4 but each measure is doing 2 quarter triplets. That could be represented by 2 bars of 3/4 instead, which is what I guess you are asking about. If so, that can be done easily, I think.

Thanks, yes. Each 4/4 bar translates to two 3/4 bars, essentially the equivalent of quarter-note triplets in 4/4.

[zuill]

The attached picture is based on the available lead sheet. Is this the idea?

Zuill

[Mike A]

The attached picture is based on the available lead sheet. Is this the idea?

Exactly.

[zuill]

I highlighted the 8 bars and changed to 2/4 time with rebar selected. I then highlighted the 8 2/4 bars and changed to 3/4 with rebar NOT selected. I then changed the note values in Simple Entry. For half notes, I pressed the dot to change to dotted half notes. For other values, I used alt-number pad to change the value. For the triplets, I just deleted the triplet, leaving the quarter notes.

Zuill

[Peter Thomsen]

Thanks. Still a little unclear on the procedure. Hoping for some clarification of the highlighted portion of Peter's post:

To do so, first change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4, without Rebar Music.
Then, change the note values, using the Change Utility.
You will have to change one “half-measure” at a time (= this takes some time to do), since non-contiguous selection is not possible in Finale. But at least you can change all the staves in that “half-measure” at one fell swoop.

Mike A,

My example is about a different transformation from 4/4 to 3/4.
In my example one 4/4 measure becomes one 3/4 measure
Hence you can just “fahget about it”.

In case you are curious:
In my example 4/4 is changed to 3/4 by halving the last two Quarters in a measure so that the two Quarters become two Eighths (via multiplicating their duration by 50 %).
By my words “half-measure” I meant {the last two Quarters of a 4/4 measure}.


Now back to the actual tune.

Just a thought:

In this case it might make better sense with a time signature of 6/4 (rather than two measures of 3/4), so that
one 4/4 measure <=> one 6/4 measure

The layout with 3/4 has typically one, two or three notes per measure.
This means that the barlines cut the music into very small chunks.

I suspect that the layout will be more pleasant to read in 6/4 - similar to the 4/4 layout.

[Mike A]

Thank you both!