can you tell me a popular song that changes from

8th or 16ths notes for the verses to a chorus made of triplet notes

and another song that changes from

triplet notes for the (verses) to 8th or 16ths for the Chorus.


I'm not talking about time signatures

 

Are you sure you're not talking about time signatures as in The Beatles "We Can Work It Out"?

 

Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

 

Knights of Cydonia by Muse. Although this song is actually more one of different parts.
Changing from 1/8 to triplets halfway a song means you are changing the time signature more or less.

 

Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, where does it switches triplets? It's 4/4 throughout the whole song. Am I missing something?

Here is transcription
https://thedrumninja.com/downloads/boulevard-of-broken-dreams-green-day-drum-transcription.pdf

Aren't they supposed to be punks? Do punk rockers even know what triplets are and how to play them? Isn't the whole point to make it as simple and primitive as possible?

 

a time signature of 3/4 for example can be played using 8th notes, or 16ths, or triplets, or other such rhythms. I am mostly talking about a drummer perspective, but even the guitarist/bassist can adapt these

 

No, your not changing time signatures, just the rapid succession of notes played within the same time constraint.

 

:
i agree with the first part it sounds like its eighth notes

but come on man they are pro drummers even if its punk. Triplets is just 3 notes instead of 2 every quarter note. Instead of 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + (for eighth notes)...you go 1 tri plet 2 tri plet 3 tri plet 4 tri plet...or ( 1 ta ta 2 ta ta 3 ta ta 4 ta ta) however you want to say it, I think they are most likely to use triplets for drum fills in punk music.


quarter notes: 1 2 3 4
eighth notes : 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
triplets : 1 ta ta 2 ta ta 3 ta ta 4 ta ta (or 1 tri plet, 2 tri plet, 3 tri plet 4 tri plet)
16th notes: 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a

 

I would suggest reading about the difference between duple and tuple meters. What you're perceiving as 3 subdivisions in the same span as 2 for 4/4 might actually be 12/8 instead of 3/4.

Meters with an 8 on the bottom give the beat to the 8th note whereas those with 4 on the bottom give the beat to the quarter note with two subdivisions per beat.

It's the difference between "1 and 2 and 3 and 4" and "1 and uh 2 and uh 3 and uh 4“

Most old timey marches, for example, are in 6/8. So they have two beats per measure with 3 eighth notes making up one beat.

 

lets say i have a 12/8 time signature and a metronome playing that.

this means i will hear 12 times a click before the pattern restarts again.....even if the bottom was 4...or 10 or whatever.

now i can choose between the 1st click and the 2nd click to play just on the clicks...or i can play 2 notes between the first and second clicks, or three notes between them, or so on

 

Anything by Cardiacs

 

Tim Smith was a true genius. RIP.

 

here ringo also gives you the 4-4 change

not exactely what you need but interesting indeed

whenever you looking for something just seek in The Beatles catalogue, as easy as that, better than any AI music enquire

 

This one has a triplet feel on the verse and switches to straights on the chorus. The prechorus serves as a middle ground i think, though i've not really analyzed it so maybe it's something else.

Muse - Resistance

 

Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
I've specifically Googled it,the time signature is 4/4, it clearly hearable and it's a complete mystery to me how would anyone perceived it as triplets , like where? What part of the song? it's a straight boom boom boom boom throughout, even the genre of it being a punk-rock (although really it's a pop-rock song) kind of hints that there isn't going to be any sonical convolutions.

I'm actually surprised that you took it seriously about punks not knowing what triplets are in relation to the Green Day comment , while the original punks of 70-80ies like Sid Vicious might had not known that, he probably couldn't read properly neither, it definitely doesn't pertain commercial punk projects of 21th century as Green Day or Offspring, they are, as you correctly pointed out, professionals.

 

I don't have much formal music education, but Take Five by Dave Brubeck sounds a lot like 5/4 to me.

 

There's absolutely no triplets there anywhere. Here's a quick example of how two bars swing with 16t sounds vs straight 16

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2025

This is a wrong answer since: it's not popular and there's no verse/chorus structure, but it's a pretty effective tune at going from straight to triplet/shuffle feel:

As an aside: a nice "easter egg" is that the CD version goes from straight to triplet whereas the LP goes from triplet to straight. Great fun misremembering that when DJing.