Disco tunes in 6/8

[JoeEvans]

Anyone got any suggestions for disco / funk / soul tunes in 6/8? I can only think of Stevie Wonder's 'Higher Ground' but I'm sure there's loads of others...

 

EDIT - 12/8 would also be fine, or 4/4 that could be characterised as 12/8. It's the triplets that are important!

 

Edited August 27, 2024 by JoeEvans

[Mykesbass]

Higher Ground is in 4/4. Does have a 12/8 feel in places though.

[JoeEvans]

22 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Higher Ground is in 4/4. Does have a 12/8 feel in places though.

It's so consistently in triplets that you could score it out in 6/8, so counts as 6/8 for my sinister purposes... It would actually come out a bit neater on the page if you wrote it out in 6/8 or 12/8, the 4/4 renditions are covered in triplet indicators.

[Mykesbass]

7 minutes ago, JoeEvans said:

It's so consistently in triplets that you could score it out in 6/8, so counts as 6/8 for my sinister purposes... It would actually come out a bit neater on the page if you wrote it out in 6/8 or 12/8, the 4/4 renditions are covered in triplet indicators.

Sinister - I hope you're not hoping to get people dancing a Viennese Waltz to it 😏

[Beedster]

25 minutes ago, JoeEvans said:

It's so consistently in triplets that you could score it out in 6/8, so counts as 6/8 for my sinister purposes... It would actually come out a bit neater on the page if you wrote it out in 6/8 or 12/8, the 4/4 renditions are covered in triplet indicators.

 

6/8 is pushing it, 12/8 perhaps.....?

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, JoeEvans said:

Anyone got any suggestions for disco / funk / soul tunes in 6/8? I can only think of Stevie Wonder's 'Higher Ground' but I'm sure there's loads of others...

 

 

 

Off the top of my head, all I can suggest is Aretha, and Natural Woman.

Edited August 27, 2024 by MacDaddy

[tauzero]

I got you babe, Delilah - 3/4 rather than 6/8 but just multiply both sides by 2.

 

PS. Of course it depends what discos you go/went to.

Edited August 27, 2024 by tauzero

[lowdown]

I think Searching by Change (Luther Vandross) is 4/4 (four to the floor) but has a 12/8 feel.

 

 

[lowdown]

'This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)' is 4/4 but has a strong R&B Swing 12/8 feel.

Great to play as well!!

 

 

[Norris]

Knock On Wood

[JoeEvans]

I also just thought of Michael Jackson's 'The way you make me feel'.

[Beedster]

11 hours ago, tauzero said:

I got you babe, Delilah - 3/4 rather than 6/8 but just multiply both sides by 2.

 

PS. Of course it depends what discos you go/went to.

Both would require a pretty loose definition of disco 😆

[Bassman68]

If you are thinking of more ‘shuffle’ beats, A few of Billy Ocean’s songs have it?
’When the going gets tough’

’Love really hurts’

They all have that shuffle on the Hi-hat…

 

[BigRedX]

AFAICS all the songs mentioned in this thread that are actually disco are in 4/4 with a shuffle or triplet feel.

[lowdown]

30 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

AFAICS all the songs mentioned in this thread that are actually disco are in 4/4 with a shuffle or triplet feel.

  

And has mostly been pointed out.

[Mykesbass]

OK, may have found a contender. Funky from a rock perspective (RHCP, Living Colour vibe), Ocean Colour Scene Riverboat Song. I like the use of the accent on the 5.

[Downunderwonder]

Fairytale of New York is 6/8. 

 

That goes to show that 6/8 is not disco. It's a jig. The beat is 2.

 

12/8 is 4 beats to a bar. 4 beats of 3 isn't very 'disco'  but at least it is 4 on the floor 

 

Guitarists need to get over having to make up bullshit time signatures to lose their triplets.

[JoeEvans]

32 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Fairytale of New York is 6/8. 

 

That goes to show that 6/8 is not disco. It's a jig. The beat is 2.

 

12/8 is 4 beats to a bar. 4 beats of 3 isn't very 'disco'  but at least it is 4 on the floor 

 

Guitarists need to get over having to make up bullshit time signatures to lose their triplets.

If I transcribed 'The way you make me feel' three times, in 6/8, 12/8 and 4/4 with triplets, then gave the transcriptions to three different sets of musicians, you wouldn't be able to tell which group was playing which version. They're just different ways of writing out the same thing.

I see this in practice in Irish traditional music - slides are conventionally written out in 12/8 and jigs in 6/8, but there's no difference between them for the listener because it's the dances that are different not the tunes.

[MacDaddy]

22 minutes ago, JoeEvans said:

If I transcribed 'The way you make me feel' three times, in 6/8, 12/8 and 4/4 with triplets, then gave the transcriptions to three different sets of musicians, you wouldn't be able to tell which group was playing which version

 

You should be able if the musicians were any good and used the time signatures. So 6/8 would have a 1-2 feel with accents on beats 1 and 4; 12/8 would have a 1-2-3-4 feel with accents on beats 1-4-7-10; 4/4 would maintain the standard 4 beat emphasis.

[Downunderwonder]

What's the feel on 2/2? 

[Downunderwonder]

19 hours ago, BigRedX said:

AFAICS all the songs mentioned in this thread that are actually disco are in 4/4 with a shuffle or triplet feel.

If it hasn't got 4/4 is isn't disco.

 

"Bring it Back" is kinda disco. Also 4/4 with a bass groove heavy on swung triplets over 2 beats. Maybe what the OP was thinking of?

[Bolo]

Alicia Keys - Fallin'

Not disco but soul in 6/8 

[JoeEvans]

7 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

You should be able if the musicians were any good and used the time signatures. So 6/8 would have a 1-2 feel with accents on beats 1 and 4; 12/8 would have a 1-2-3-4 feel with accents on beats 1-4-7-10; 4/4 would maintain the standard 4 beat emphasis.

So the 6/8, 12/8 and 4/4 shuffle would all have an accent on the first beat of each triplet, in other words...

[lowdown]

9 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

What's the feel on 2/2? 

  

This young lady explains 2/2 rather well.

When I used to work in pit and show work it was quite common (no pun intended), especially in up tempo tunes and scores.

Very much two in the bar feel for Bass parts.

 

Time Signature 2/2 (Cut Time)

 

 

 

[NHM]

for an end-of-evening smoochy, 'Knights in White Satin'.