Humming 7/4 title meaning
 

I've been wondering for awhile what humming 7/4 means. And how exactly do you say the title? Is it "Humming seven fourths" or "Humming seven over four" or something else? While I'm at it... how do you say "+"? I have seen "more than" and "plus" so that has been confusing too! Thankyou~:D

ive always said humming seven fourths and plus.
as for why its called that... I dont know... lol...
now that you bring it up its a very good question!

a quick google about 7/4 seems to bring up music notes...

Isthislol has said that the song isn't in 7/4 time signature
Whether or not it's true, I don't know

I always say humming seven four.

the song might not be now, but it could have started that way, or she could just be referencing humming like that...
almost like an inner joke or something?
Like when she says she hums her songs to people... it could be something like that... granted i dont know enough about music to say this is true, or know what she could be talking about to name these songs.

yea i've always just thought it had something to do with the music but it doesnt sound like its in 7/4 time signature... although I've never really heard what 7/4 time signature sounds like...:P

Well now im all interested...
I found a video where a guy is playing in 7/4 and it kinda sounds like the beginning of the song... but ayumi's song has a LOT more going on.

[QUOTE=TeamAyu2004;2959934]Well now im all interested...
I found a video where a guy is playing in 7/4 and it kinda sounds like the beginning of the song... but ayumi's song has a LOT more going on.

ahh yes I can kinda hear a similarity :luv2 so thats a possibility!

IsthisLOL? has offered another possibility as well: "7/4 is a time signature in music, it influences the pacing of the melody - you could compare it to the lenght of every stanza of a poem. The time signature decides, how many beats you play before you start a new line(in the case of 7/4 you would play 7 beats of the 1/4-note lenght)
However, Humming 7/4 is not written in a 7/4 time signature, instead, it constantly jumps between a 3/4 time signature(the one commonly used in a waltz) and 4/4 time signature(or "common time", the one sued in almost every Pop song) - that constant change is rather uncommon in Pop music(though Ayumi has done it in other songs before) so it's of a certain importance for the song - important enough to be included in the title.
So one would assume it's about humming/singing in this 7/4(or, in reality: 4/4 + 3/4) time signature - about having fun with music in a way. I think Ayumi tried being smart and fun with the title but...failed a bit" This is also an interesting possibility :yes I wish i could just ask Ayu myself... i would have a lot of questions for her!

So she just added fractions?
How DOES one add 3/4 and 4/4 properly?
Is it truly 7/4?

The thing is...when you switch time signatures like that, but the bottom is always the same, you can pretty much write the top as whatever you want.

I've played pieces with phrases that would jump between something crazy like 13/4, then 6/4, then 4/4. I know there are some Dream Theater songs that are like 26/8, or some other weird times lol

A composer can write whatever they want. The more important number is the one on the bottom. (Although it gets REALLY complicated, and maybe wrong, for you to write crazy numbers on top when you start doing stylistic things, even simple things like swing.)

It's just not really...a common thing, and some people might even say "acceptable" thing, to write those kinds of numbers up there, because classically, people aren't really trained to do that when you write music.

It can get AWFULLY messy to write music that way, and it can be really really hard for say, a band to keep that sort of time in their heads.

But it's really...up to the composer, and the conductor.
http://i.imgbox.com/abxCgJ8o.gif
(Sorry for my bad drawing) But you can see how, on both of those lines, you have the same notes...the first is in 7/4, the second is in 4/4 then 3/4....but when you got to play those two lines, they will come out exactly the same.


We can't really know FOR SURE whether or not the song is in 7/4, or 4/4 and 3/4, without the sheet music...which I did think we had a scan of actually...

I think she's said before that it was in 7/4

i've always just said "humming seven-four" :shrug

hah! and i guess i've never been in a situation to say "+" out loud... i've only heard that it's technically titled, "more than" so i would say that.

and as far as why it's called, Humming 7/4, i really just think it's just a random title that has no special meaning whatsoever. as you know with a lot of j-pop artists, they name their songs random english titles (and say random english lines in their songs) that really don't correlate with the song; they just do it to be cool. sooooo ayumi is just that cool :yes

I remember someone posted before that its because she worked out the song by humming through a recorder? The 3/4 + 4/4 is really interesting too :) I pronounce it "humming seven four" because I automatically read it like that to the same tune as the chorus (everybody jump!) haha. I also pronounce + as plus, never heard about the "more than" title though.

maybe 7 days a week, all the 4 seasons

The 7/4 time signature is briefly used at the end of the of the song and was probably a funny experimental moment for the band when in the studio. As with most songs, you can count 1, 2, 3, 4 over and over again for this song, but fast forward the studio version of the song to the 3:54 time mark and listen the last section. To better understand the time signature it's easier to count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 then repeat 8 counts again, then 7 counts. If you don't stop at 7 on the 3rd measures, you'll lose the beat. The 7 count measures are the 7/4 moments.

When you watch that song live they run the ending a lot longer so you can get used to the repeating 8 & 7 counts as the time signature changes. Once you understand the timing, it's easier to follow the ending.

Here's a link where I put the counts over the live video:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ng%207%3A4.mov