A Guide to Time Signatures for Dressage Riders

Like most things, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. I recently read an article advising riders on how to choose music insisting that each gait has a matching time signature and only that time signature would truly be in sync with a given gait. That simply isn't true and the following article explains why. I'll also explain why the majority of music will fit perfectly as long as the tempo (speed) is right.

Let's start with a quick music theory primer.

A standard time signature has two numbers (see above). The top number tells us how many beats there are in a bar and the top number tells us the value of those notes i.e. how long they last in time. A bar is just a section of time defined by a number of beats of a given duration.

Matching music to a dressage routine requires only a little (if any) knowledge about time signatures. You're probably already familiar with all the time signatures we'll discuss here even if you don't know what to call them.

4/4 is the most common time signature and sounds like this:

There are 4 crotchets (quarter notes) in each bar.

Most Waltz rhythms are in 3/4 and sound like this:

There are 3 crotchets (quarter notes) in each bar.

Think of 2/4 as a Polka. It sounds like this:

There are 2 crotchets (quarter notes) in each bar. Sounds a lot like 4.4 right? Well, it is - the note values are the same there are just half as many in a bar.

Walk

Let's start with the simplest of gaits. Walk has 4 individual footfalls, evenly spread in time. The sequence of footfalls is left hind leg, left front leg, right hind leg, right front leg.

If we assign a sound to each footfall the notation would look like this:

and sound something like this:

This brings us to an interesting aside; the term "tempo" means something slightly different in musical terms than it does in the equine sense. In dressage it refers to the number of times one hoof (usually the leading one) lands. In music it refers to the speed of the pulse of the music. They are almost, but not quite, the same thing. In the above example the tempo of the horse would be described as 50 beats per minute (bpm). That is the leading leg (represented by the loudest snare hit) repeats at a rate of 50 per minute. 50bpm is very slow in musical terms so we often double equine tempo to get more musical results. In the above example the musical tempo is 100 - each hi-hat strike is one beat, repeating at a rate of 100 per minute. When matching music to walk I usually align the pulse of the music to the front two legs. The front legs will land on strong down beats and the rear legs align to weaker up beats. I explain this in more detail in another article, which you can find in the 'Knowledge Base' at www.dressagemusic.co.uk.

Back to time signatures; No one will argue that 4/4 isn't right for walk - each footfall lands on a beat, spread equally across a bar. In 4/4 the sequence of footfalls repeats each bar, which is neat but not essential. Making sure that the footfalls land on strong beats is more important than where the bar line falls.

Trot

Trot has 2 footfalls with diagonal pairs of legs moving together in sequence. Like with a walk, these footfalls are evenly spread in time. If we represent a trot in notation it would look like this:

and sound like this:

Here we meet our first misconception. I've heard people insist that because there are 2 footfalls then a trot must be in 2/4. Trot fits 4/4 just fine (as shown in the notation above). There's no good reason to insist that the number of footfalls in a gait equals the number of beats in a bar.

Canter

The real bone of contention is for canter. There's no rule to say that the number of footfalls in a gait equals the number of beats in a bar but it doesn't do any harm for walk and trot other tan limit your choices of music. However, applying the "footfalls equals beats in the bar" logic to canter makes no sense.

A canter has 3 footfalls. The important thing about canter that distinguishes it from other gaits is that the footfalls are not spread equally in time. If we notated a canter it would look something like this:

and sound like this:

You can hear 3 beats in quick succession followed by a longer gap (moment of suspension).

An important caveat is that horses aren't musical instruments let alone metronomes but the principle still stands.

Some people will tell you that because a canter has 3 footfalls it must be matched to music in 3/4. That really doesn't make any sense because the footfalls aren't evenly spaced in time. The most important thing is that the leading leg aligns with a strong beat. whether that's in 4/4, 2/4, 3/4 or any other time signature with 4 as the denominator is up to you.

I suspect that the problem arises from the word "beat" being used to describe the footfalls in a gait and the pulse in a piece of music. They are not the same thing. Think of the dressage beats (footfalls) as musical events and the musical beat as the underlying pulse (what you tap your foot to).

Aside from the misinformation, the crux of the issue is that we limit ourselves when choosing music for dressage by genre / style, tempo (see other articles on www.dressagemusic.co.uk) and versions without too many vocals. Why limit ourselves to certain time signatures when we really don't need to. It's a case of unnecessary and ill-informed technical detail at the expense of the overall effect.

About the Author

Owen runs www.dressagemusic.co.uk and has produced music for every level of dressage to music for first-timers to Olympic standard. He studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and has a busy career as a composer for TV and radio.