Playing a 4/4 song in 7/8 or 6/8, and etc

[Mario8672]

I hear about people saying "Okay, play that song that's in 4/4 in 7/8 time". How does this work? Shouldn't the note values stay the same, making the riff sound the same? And I've also heard "Play that in 7/8 reggae" -what's this?


thanks

[delt]

I'd guess playing a 4/4 riff in 6/8 would mean add a shuffle to it. No idea about 7/8 tho....

[Spivonious]

I've never heard anyone say that. But if I had to guess what they meant, then I would interpret it as playing it like this:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3

So basically all of the rhythm values stay the same, but the emphasis occurs in a different place.

[Mario8672]

Vai talks about it at 1:10. Does this give an idea as to what it might mean?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cplMM3d_Q

[Tashtego]

I'll take a crack at it, paraphrasing from one of my theory books.

7/8 time is 7 beats per measure, with 1/8th notes as the basic beat. Usually when 1/8th notes are used they are grouped into threes and so 3/8 - 6/8 - 9/8 are more common time signatures. They count off as 1 & ah 2 & ah for 6/8 for example. 7/8 would then be 1 & ah 2 & ah 3 1 & ah 2 ...

Zappa was probably being a bit of a ball buster to Vai to see if he really understood time signatures rather than just having memorized the most common ones.