So - I am sure this is an easy one, but how do I change the time signature to 2/4 time?

Are you meaning for a bar or range of bars or for the whole song?

I have the same question. It seems like the time signature would be one of the more important pieces of information about a song, perhaps to be found in the Song Settings.

Although I gather from the manual that the time signature may a function of the Style chosen.

At the beginning of the 2 beat bar, click F5, select number of beats per bar as 2, click Ok

On the next bar, click F5 and select 4 beats.

If you want a number of 2 beat bars, just click in the first non 2 beat bar. No need to worry about the style, it will adjust automatically

I tend to think of each spot in the BiaB matrix as a cell instead of a bar of music.

So Dave'a approach (above) would have been my first suggestion.

But unless you need to print the music, there is another way.

Consider each BiaB cell as 2 bars of music. Consider the first 2 beats in that cell one bar, and the second 2 beats another.

Which way do I prefer? That depends entirely on the style that I'm using. I use my ears. Some styles seem to sound better with the first method, others with the second.

Insights and incites by Notes

I use it mostly when the song calls for 1 bar of 2 beats in the middle of several bars of 4 beats. It happens in several Paul Simon and Beatles tunes.

If I am writing a complete song in 2/4, I tend to ignore the time signature and write as 4/4 and pick a style that plays double time.

Hi, I have what may be a variant of this question.

I'd like the whole song to be in 2/4. When I go to style picker, I don't have any styles that show up in 2/4 so I can't choose them. Is this because I need to get additonal styles?

I was able to change the first bar of the song to 2/4 and have it play fine,
but I'd also like the leadsheet to print nicely.

Thanks.

Hi,

If you change the number of beats per bar to 2, then your leadsheets will be in 2/4, that shouldn't be a problem. Not all 4/4 styles will sound great with the last 2 beats chopped off of each measure but the notation should look fine.

Which style of music are you working in? We have quite a few klezmer and polka styles, for example, but they're written in 4/4 since we don't make 2/4 styles, just 4/4 and 3/4.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Hi,

It's bluegrass/oldtime Americana music.

The structure of the song is that it is 10 2-beat chords long. So converting it to 4/4 presents its own challenges.

The problem is that the leadsheet prints badly because the letter for the first chord (in this case, a G) and the time signature, which is now inside of the bar rather than outside, are superimposed so neither is readable.

Thank you!

Hi Ihenze,

Right, our bluegrass styles are all in 4/4 or 3/4. You can force them to play in 2/4 using Bar Settings if you like, but the phrasing might sound funny, since you'll just be cutting out the second half of phrases written in 4/4.

Regarding the chord/key signature display issue, the chords are usually displayed above the staffs, and the time signature is usually below the treble clef. Are the chords in the second line of the Leadsheet running into the time signature of the first row? If not, can you please post a screenshot in this forum thread, or email it to support@pgmusic.com? Once I see what's going on, I should be able to tell you how to fix it.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Hi!
I'm new to BiB and need to have one 2/4 bar in the middle of a 4/4 song. I tried F5, set the # beats this bar to 2 and press OK. But the drum part keeps going in 4, and my next chord starts playing after 4 beats instead of 2. I don't know if it is me using a Mac that creates this problem. I need help!

Hi Bassjan, this seems to be a bug in BIAB. I'll report it to the development team.

Please do but you might find that it's an old issue. There's someone with 3rd party libraries for BIAB and he addresses the inability of 2/4 to behave. I'm forgetting his name at the moment.

Mike, I think you do that by going to Song and when the button comes up you can change the song to 2/4 done it a couple of times being Country Music based.

No, really, 2/4 is an old issue and has been addressed — finally.

New in BIAB 2021

New Notation Features

The time signature button has a better menu with options to select alternate notation display and to open dialogs like Set Time Signature and Edit Settings for Current Bar to change the time signature.

A hint is added to the time signature button.

A button is added for the visual transpose. Click on the button and type a number of semitones to transpose.

Track selection buttons for each track have been replaced with a single button. You can press it and select a track from the menu, or just hover the mouse cursor over it and use the mouse wheel to quickly switch tracks.

If the song is in 4/4, there is an option to display it as cut time. For example, a bluegrass song that is currently displaying with 16th notes will display using 8th notes. This allows easier readability and is ideal for displaying the notation of songs that were specifically written in cut time.

If the song is in 4/4, you can display it as 2/4 instead of 4/4, without changing the main time signature of the song to 2/4. This special 2/4 notation display mode lets you continue to generate better sounding RealTracks, etc. than if you had switched the main time sig of the song to 2/4.

The time signature displays with a better size. The height of the time signature fills the whole height of the staff.