In my last transcription disaster post, I complained quite a bit about cut time and how I just don’t understand why you would ever use it to notate a song.
Well, by chance, music theory YouTuber David Bennett made a video called “Songs that use 2/2 time,” which he published about a week after my post. Cue The Incredibles scene!
This video is the latest in David Bennett’s long-running line of “Songs that use ____,” where he looks at a (somewhat) unusual songwriting element, like an odd time signature or one of the modes.
One of the centerpiece examples in the video is John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” a song I’ve heard dozens (if not hundreds) of times and have hitherto never considered to be in cut time.
To be fair to David, most of the transcriptions I’ve seen of “Country Roads” after the fact put it in cut time. (That being said, most of the transcriptions I’ve seen are in A major, while David writes it in B♭ major, but today let’s split only one hair at a time.)
As part of the demonstration, David writes “Country Roads” in 2/2 and 4/4 to highlight the opaque utility of cut time, although they obviously look the same:
David explains that it’s a counting difference: “to indicate to the player where the emphasis of the meter should fall.” But now the whole thing is starting to give me flashbacks to the triplets and sextuplets dilemma I wrote about last year. That being said, this time I’m hard-pressed to find situations where cut time is a superior choice over 4/4 in terms of engraving legibility (indeed, you could consider my DAW argument again).
When I compare cut time and common time, I usually change the tempo to help highlight the difference, since many people think fast = cut time. Here’s the hook from “Country Roads” written by yours truly,* first in 2/2 and then in 4/4 with the tempo cut in half:
If these were my only options, the cut-time rendition would be my choice. I always try to count backbeats on 2 & 4 — while there’s not quite a drum kit on the original John Denver recording, there are backbeats on the track (coming from clave hits and what sounds like a cabasa). But why not keep the tempo the same and use 4/4 at 168 BPM?
Well, much like Latin music, there’s an idea that country music has some sort of stereotypical pocket best felt in 2/2. Unfortunately, it seems like the answer is, to put it in other words, “just because.”
Cut time is one of those things that feels like it was created primarily to be annoying more than anything else. As a drummer, the most essential part of timekeeping is hitting backbeats, which always land into a strange feel with cut time. With the backbeats of “Country Roads” coming in between the half-note pulses, it seems to have a double-time feel, strictly speaking. While I’m not inclined to say that “Country Roads” is in cut time, I certainly wouldn’t say it’s in double-time.
While we’re on that topic, double-time is something that should only really be used if counting backbeats on 2 & 4 is simply impractical. Consider my transcription of “Through the Fire and Flames”; if I didn’t write it with backbeats on the 8th note offbeats, the song would be at 400 beats per minute, which is disgusting for a busy heavy metal track.
While I brought up certain advantages of the sextuplet in my other article, most of which also had to do with engraving legibility, I struggle to come up with any such advantages that cut time offers. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t have much of a problem reading “Country Roads” in 2/2, although it’s unlikely I’m counting it with a half-note pulse. But I can’t say that cut time is ever a force for good, since, far too often, an arranger decides to double the tempo of a 4/4 song and write it in 2/2 for no goddamn reason.
These are the examples most apparent to me; as such, cut time always seems to break my brain whenever I have to read it. My experiences in this regard come from my time in different ensembles, like orchestras and marching bands. I’ve previously talked about a 2/2 arrangement of “I Want You Back” — it’s been nearly ten years since I played that tune, and I still don’t know what the arranger was thinking putting it in cut time.
My college fight song, “Fight CU,” is written in cut time (unsurprisingly), and when I played it on the kit in basketball band, I had to explain to some of the newer drummers that the song is to be felt in 2. When it comes to drumming, “in 2” typically means playing a cut time song so it sounds like it’s not in cut time, which is something drummers have to do with disturbing frequency.
The result is a groove with a backbeat on 3; this is ostensibly a half-time feel, although it certainly doesn’t sound like it, especially in the case of my alma mater’s fight song. To make things even more awkward, we would usually play the climax of “Fight CU” with a strong half-time feel. Writing out this half-time groove would look like this:
Of course, I never actually counted the song this way — the best option is not to properly count it, and instead just feel it
Come to think of it, why isn’t half-time notated in 2/2? While I’m generally reluctant to write an entire song in half-time, songs often transition into a half-time feel partway through, and yet, I’ve never seen such a shift underscored with a change from 4/4 to cut time. I actually think 2/2 has more value in this situation, but maybe I’m the only person who thinks so.
When it comes to classical music in a concert band setting, a composer might sincerely believe that their piece is best counted in 2/2; as spurious as it might be, I guess you’d feel less tempted to argue if it’s coming right from the source as opposed to an arrangement. Classical music typically doesn’t have backbeats, which could make counting easier, although having to navigate dense quarter-note and 8th-note syncopations is irritating when the tempo is cooking. Fast ≠ cut time!
To that end, I saw a comment on David’s video arguing that cut time is good because it allows a conductor to mark a half-note pulse on a fast number instead of flailing about with quarter notes. But conductors can use whatever pattern they please, regardless of time signature. I played a number in 3/8 that my conductor counted “in 1” with a dotted-quarter-note pulse; something that was not obvious in the score at all.
If I rack my brain hard enough, I could conclude that certain songs are in cut time. Consider “Gallows Pole” by Led Zeppelin. It’s probably Zeppelin’s most country-esque song, and I would count it in cut time only because of how Bonham plays the tune. He’s basically playing a train beat, but instead of the snare backbeats coming on 2 and 4, he plays them on 1 and 3.
Naturally, you could do it in 4/4, with the snare hitting on all of the quarter notes, but the subversion of the more typical kick • snare phrasing steers me toward cut time. In addition, using 4/4 would call for a bar of 2/4 at the end of each phrase. In 2/2 (with the proper tempo adjustment), no time signature changes are needed.
“Far Away” by José Gonzáles is another potential example. There’s no percussion on this one, but there is a clicking sound that lands on 1 & 3 in cut time.† Another debatable instance of 2/2, perhaps, but it’s more reasonable than most of the other cut time numbers I see.
I must point out that cut time feels both redundant and rather archaic. Cut time is also known as alla breve, which is Italian for “on the breve.” You might recognize the word “breve” if you’re familiar with the British names for subdivisions. Don’t be confused, though. A breve is not a half note (which would be a “minim”), but rather a double whole note, a subdivision that’s now considered obsolete for all but the most abstruse of situations. If only cut time could be given the same status…
Here’s another thing: what’s the deal with 4/4 time that has 8th note beams following the half note? I hate it, but I see it all the time. Indeed, MuseScore defaults to this in common time, and I had to create my own 4/4 time signature to follow quarter note beaming.
Here’s an experiment: I went to IMSLP, found a random common time score, and sure enough:
It just seems like some people always want to count their music with a half note pulse.
I might as well consider the use of 2/4 time over 4/4. It once more comes down to feel — if the beats of 4/4 are felt as strong • weak • kinda strong • weak, then 2/4 is simply strong • weak.
Does that really mean anything? Maybe… but I don’t know how often someone hears a pop recording in 4/4 and thinks, “Upon close analysis of the strong and weak beats, I have concluded this track to be in 2/4.”
Still, I can see some use of 2/4. For example, a tune that’s mostly in 4/4 with frequent changes in and out of 2/4 could be written entirely in 2/4, skipping time signature changes altogether. Easier to read, and, more importantly (especially if a score was done by hand), easier to write. Performers might be annoyed that their sheet music mostly follows 4‑beat phrases in 2/4, but much of the engraving process is managing different compromises.
Again, if I try hard enough, I could hear a song in 2/4. Here’s a very deep cut from the underrated Great Gatsby soundtrack — the “tick tock” of the strings gives a 2/4 vibe, and counting it in 4/4 makes some of the beats sound a little odd. Given that this is an orchestral recording, it’s probably in 2/4.
A super-specific use of 2/4 is that it allows you to split a 4‑beat phrase across two different lines/systems. One of the more fussy things about engraving is finding the right number of measures per line. Too few is a waste of space and can even be distracting, while too many can obviously create a cluttered mess of notes.
You could use 2/4 for some more flexibility, depending on the content of your piece. But if you’re transcribing something that sounds like it’s in 4/4, well… 99% of the time, it is, and you should use 4/4.
On this topic of weighing different eyesores, if you’re writing something on an old typewriter that can’t beam notes together, feel free to double the tempo, use cut time, and leave all of the 8th notes in isolation. Your score is going to be a mess anyway!
In times like these, I can’t help but worry that I’m not classically trained enough to marvel at such elements of songwriting, but there is clearly a limit to some of this stuff. If it’s not this discussion, it could be the “Ludagate” headache from the pandemic, when people insisted that an old Ludacris song “Rollout” has a very strange half-time pocket with the backbeat on beat 2.
The phrasing of the syllables “roll – out” does give the hook an interesting lope. But still, listening to the track (especially from the top), it’s… difficult to earnestly imagine how someone could come to any conclusion other than the snare hitting 2 & 4 (or perhaps in half-time), especially if you actually get to playing either the horn riff or the drum groove. Theory will take you only so far… hmmm, isn’t there a movie coming up with that tagline?
A particular pitch is what it is, but at the end of the day, musicians have a lot of idiosyncrasies with counting. As far as pop music goes, a bit of rhythmic trickery that always makes me chuckle is the beginning of “LoveGame” by Lady Gaga. Yes, I’m old.
Transcriptions of this tune either simplify the intro or use a bar of 7/8 before the drums come in. But if you look at the synth riff, it starts on the downbeat before switching to the “&” after 1, where it remains for the rest of the tune. This makes it pretty clear to me that the song starts on beat 1, with no pickup — just move everything over an 8th note. But clearly not everyone feels the same!‡
Well, we’re really getting off topic now. Anyhoo, the world of sheet music sure seems like it’s full of finely drawn distinctions. In my triplets and sextuplets post, I also mentioned the comparison of duplet rhythms vs. dotted-eighth rhythms, as well as some apparently synonymous tempo markings like ritardando and rallentando.
The reason why I specified sheet music is, well… I can’t help but feel like this stuff doesn’t really matter. It’s a discussion worth having for sure, but as “Country Roads” has demonstrated, 2/2 doesn’t change the way I understand a song, since I’m free to ignore it with zero consequences. There’s a joke in the music world that’s something along the lines of “every song is in 4/4 if you try hard enough.” With cut time, you don’t have to try very hard.
* ^ I tweaked the rhythms here, too. In fact, almost every transcription I’ve seen of this tune gets the rhythms wrong, in my opinion.
† ^ This clicking, honest to God, sounds like an old iPhone keyboard. I just had to share that.
‡ ^ This vocal line is sung during the pre-chorus, and interestingly, it does start on a pick up there. But the synth riff is the same.
