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But a minor nit... I wish the publisher had done a more apples-to-apples comparison between 6/8 and 6/4.
3/4 is universally accepted to be a Waltz by composers and performers.
However, there's not much consensus in the 6 and 7 beat signatures whether the notes should be quarter or eighth notes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
6/8 doesn't need 2 (or any static number of) significant beats. As long as there are really 6 rhythmic atoms before the pattern repeats, it deserves a 6/x. The easiest way that happens is lcm(2,3).
It's called convention . By convention (not by anything about the notation itself), 6/8 is used for compound time with 2 significant beats.
I'm a pretty non-musical person, and time signatures have always confused me. Unfortunately, this explanation left me just as confused. I can hear the difference between the two sample beats but I cannot figure out how to generalize this to other time signatures beyond the 3/4 and 6/8 described here.
If you really want to confuse yourself, try figuring out the time signature for Kiss By A Rose by Seal. https://open.spotify.com/track/3YKptz29AsOlm7WAVnztBh
I might almost call it 6/4, which wouldn't exactly be wrong (as long as you double all your note values when notating). But that's conventionally reserved for unusual beat groupings like 4/4 + 2/4.
I'm a pretty non-musical person, and time signatures have always confused me. Unfortunately, this explanation left me just as confused. I can hear the difference between the two sample beats but I cannot figure out how to generalize this to other time signatures beyond the 3/4 and 6/8 described here.
It's not a math thing. It's more about feel than counting. 3/4 is ONE two three, with a foot stomp on the ONE. It's a dance beat - STOMP skip skip. 4/4 is so common it appears in a lot of variations, from the bass drum beat of EDM to all the different rock and pop variations. The usual - not infallible, but strongly suggestive - tell is how often the chords change. Failing which, there's often a unique rhythm marker…
How can you talk about feet stomping when that's not part of the music? Two people could chose to stomp their feet on different beats or on more or fewer beats.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a math thing. It's more about feel than counting. 3/4 is ONE two three, with a foot stomp on the ONE. It's a dance beat - STOMP skip skip. 4/4 is so common it appears in a lot of variations, from the bass drum beat of EDM to all the different rock and pop variations. The usual - not infallible, but strongly suggestive - tell is how often the chords change. Failing which, there's often a unique rhythm marker…
> with a foot stomp on the ONE How can you talk about feet stomping when that's not part of the music? Two people could chose to stomp their feet on different beats or on more or fewer beats.
I'm a pretty non-musical person, and time signatures have always confused me. Unfortunately, this explanation left me just as confused. I can hear the difference between the two sample beats but I cannot figure out how to generalize this to other time signatures beyond the 3/4 and 6/8 described here.
If you really want to confuse yourself, try figuring out the time signature for Kiss By A Rose by Seal. https://open.spotify.com/track/3YKptz29AsOlm7WAVnztBh
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you really want to confuse yourself, try figuring out the time signature for Kiss By A Rose by Seal. https://open.spotify.com/track/3YKptz29AsOlm7WAVnztBh
I'm would call that 6/8, no question. It's slow enough that the accompaniment often subdivides into 16ths, giving the immediate impression of each measure divided into two 3/4 bars. But listen to underlying drum beat, and it clearly repeats every 6 beats, so I'm comfortable calling it 6/8. I might almost call it 6/4, which wouldn't exactly be wrong (as long as you double all your note values when notating). But that'…
6/4 is extremely common when notating Renaissance music, btw. Although the originals are often in 6/2. Or lack bar lines, so they're X/2.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's called convention . By convention (not by anything about the notation itself), 6/8 is used for compound time with 2 significant beats.
You're confusing cause and effect. If you have compound time with 2 significant beats, you should see 6/8. If you see 6/8, it does not imply there are 2 significant beats.
I assume you meant to write 'compound meter', in which case yes, absolutely.
> If you see 6/8, it does not imply there are 2 significant beats
It should. If it does not, then you'll be notating a lot of accented notes explicitly in the music to convey to the player exactly what beat formation is.
If these accents are regular, this is a waste/clutter of notation because it's clear you're actually writing a piece in a time other than 6/8. If the accents are irregular, then they are likely either indicating syncopation, or they are completely irregular in which case you're deliberately writing music with a feel that cannot be accurately described by a single time signature, and you should be changing time signatures through the piece as necessary to describe the beat to the player. (Or it cannot be nicely described by the notation in use).
Jacob Collier is an example of a musician who enjoys exploring this kind of music. See for example: https://youtu.be/b78NoobJNEo?t=14m40s onwards. He invented a new terminology for time signatures to accommodate his style of writing.
I'm a pretty non-musical person, and time signatures have always confused me. Unfortunately, this explanation left me just as confused. I can hear the difference between the two sample beats but I cannot figure out how to generalize this to other time signatures beyond the 3/4 and 6/8 described here.
I'm a pretty non-musical person, and time signatures have always confused me. Unfortunately, this explanation left me just as confused. I can hear the difference between the two sample beats but I cannot figure out how to generalize this to other time signatures beyond the 3/4 and 6/8 described here.
So: the time signature just describes how many times to count within a bar/measure, and what subdivision (that corresponds to a certain notation) you are counting. For communicating to another musician the rhythm of a song you'd just drop the subdivision part, because it's only relevant to notation.