Any of you play pop songs in 4/4 that throw in a 2/4 from time to time? Right now I'm working on Prince's "Purple Rain" which has a 2/4 ( or 6/4) measure thrown in right before the chorus.

This poses a problem when playing with auto accompaniment. If you don't have a reset button like Ketron, Krog, and Roland(?) do, the time gets turned around.

Having a reset button is also very nice when playing with another musician or (especially) guest singer that accidently turns the beat around (maybe they enter on beat three instead of beat one)

Just wondering if there is a work around on Yamaha arrangers?

Here's an link to several popular songs with the odd 2/4 measure thrown in.

https://mysongalive.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/top-10-songs-with-odd-timing/

Jørgen Sørensen has a program to allow you to insert a half-measure fill, or a number of fills, in a style.

http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/filledit/index.htm

Ian

Or you can use a midi file for those situations, same as for songs that have many tempo changes...

Its fun to play with styles... But something a midi file is just the easier way to go.

Nice to know, Ian. Thanks for the tip. Bachus,a pre programmed track is an option, but I much prefer to be in control of my backing, to be free to improvise, stretch chorus, end when I want, etcetera...

I think everybody has a dedicated button except Yamaha. Don't you still have an Audya?

I've had this mental block for over 50 years. I always figured that people who wrote and recorded songs like this were just vocalist or poetry writers who didn't have a clue about meter, musical structure and counting measures. I also figured that they had a general lack of timing and usually not much of a vocalist. So I just avoid tunes of this nature. It just annoys me and changes my mode of swing right in the middle of a tune. One of the few I tolerate is Pretty Woman.
Just a personal annoyance for me. Many people love this stuff but 99.9% of them do not do Jazz. Here I go again. Just ignore this comment. Just expressing my self.

Yeah I still do have the Audya and also I have the Yamaha 950, and a KMA. I sure do wish that Yamaha had a reset button too. It's a very useful device for live playing.

I've had this mental block for over 50 years. I always figured that people who wrote and recorded songs like this were just vocalist or poetry writers who didn't have a clue about meter, musical structure and counting measures. I also figured that they had a general lack of timing and usually not much of a vocalist. So I just avoid tunes of this nature. It just annoys me and changes my mode of swing right in the middle of a tune. One of the few I tolerate is Pretty Woman.
Just a personal annoyance for me. Many people love this stuff but 99.9% of them do not do Jazz. Here I go again. Just ignore this comment. Just expressing my self.

Yeah, you never hear Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Gershwin, Henry Mancini throwing those quirky extra beats. But in songs from the last 50 years, its pretty common. When playing with auto accompaniment, I normally just try to re phrase the melody when I ran into those odd extra measures. However the reset button on my Audya has helped solve that issue. Just wondering what other keyboardist here do when they run into those extra beats in songs.

I hit the reset button sometimes. Ring of Fire is a good example, but I just play around with the timing on it. I usually do it as a semi-joke song anyway, when the waiters are serving flaming entrees or desserts at the tables.
I will announce that the waiter has not burned anybody all night, or that sometimes he will go until nearly 8:30 before he burns himself. Of course I make sure the time is about 8:30. The waiters are quite talented and go along with it. I'm sure it doesn't hurt their tips. But I digress, again.
Indulge me I'm old and know some stuff.

Nigel please delete this comment and the comment above that I posted twice "PLEASE." I don't have a clue as to how I did that. That's another thing that annoys the "HELL" out of me too !!!!
Thanks Nigel. If you take care of this, I will pledge a donation of $50,000,000.

Don't worry about it Boo. After all you've had a mental block for 50 years!