Simple and Compound Meter

[@virginiakenney5090]

Thank you, thank you! This is the FIRST time I've understood this at all !

[@ray-piano9326]

Excellent quality teaching. Easy, clear and professional. Thank you! It just helped my kid to understand.

[@curtpiazza1688]

Great explanation of this often confusing and misunderstood topic! Thanx!

[@KatieHill-d5l]

Great description! Super helpful. Looking forward to using the website resources:)

[@amd5471]

Thank you for the video. Very well explained.

[@thedonovansvenom2848]

This is fantastic! Great way to simply something that's very complex.

[@chickencheriokee2420]

Awesome and simply explained

[@SoFallsWichitaFalls]

Excellent lesson. Thank you.

[@Shadow-w12b]

Finally got the understanding of it

[@themaxtax5803]

awesome! seems like the bottom number in any compound time signature indicates a sub-beat, as opposed to the main beat in a simple time signature (ex in 4/8 the eighth note is the main beat, but in 9/8 the dotted quarter is the main beat)

[@RockerProf]

Nicely done. Thank you l

[@timmyfuge1]

I'm running into a bit of confusion. 6/8 can also be divided into 2's such as 6 pairs of 16th notes. I would be grateful for any help in understanding this concept. Thank you for the video by the way.

[@tobyelms6148]

It’s a bit confusing, but it is to do with the beats. 6/8 is counted in two beats per bar: ONE two three, TWO two three etc.. (two beats of dotted crotchets per bar ). From this, you see that each beat is divided into three quavers, meaning that it is compound. On the contrary, time signatures that are simple metre will always have their beats divisible by two. Take 3/8 as an example, as lots of people wrongly think this is compound. In 3/8, there are three quaver beats per bar (three quaver beats), yet in these quaver beats, you can divide it into 2 semiquavers each, meaning it’s simple. So, what to take away is that it is to do with how the time signatures are COUNTED; if you count it in sets of dotted crotchets, it is always going to be compound, yet if you count it in sets of quavers, crotchets or even semiquavers, it will be simple. Please ask if that doesn’t make sense

[@seantoal5261]

@@tobyelms6148 I'm still confused because 6/8 could still be counted as ONE two THREE four FIVE six. Which would sound like 3/4 but what I'm confused about is why it's necessary to count 6/8 with 2 main beats.

[@tobyelms6148]

@@seantoal5261well if you count 6/8 in two it feels very unnatural and creates a kind of weird syncopation. Just know that time signatures like 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 will always be counted in groups of three and from that you will arrive at compound metre

[@Fanchen]

@@seantoal5261that’s just how we decided to count in compound time. Sure you can count it like it’s 3/4, but there’s a reason it isn’t in 3/4. If it’s in 6/8, musicians know based on popular knowledge that they have to perceive it in two beats with three subdivisions within each beat (an emphasis on pulses 1 and 4). There’s no scientific or mathematical law that dictates how it should be counted, but we musicians just have to know that if the top number of a time signature is either a 6, 9, or 12, it’s going to be compound time. And based on convention and tradition, composers use these compound time signatures to create music with the feeling of “triplet” subdivisions. That’s what compound time essentially is, music composed of primarily “triplets”. To save the hassle of writing in triplets everywhere (as you would need to in Simple time), you just have to write your music in compound time.

[@MamaJama6696]

amazing! thank you for sharing!

[@jpilot07]

This definitely helped

[@only-legitness]

thanks

[@chloebae7464]

i thought 6/4 was part of simple meter bc it goes 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and so cant it divide to 2? thanks

[@chloebae7464]

nvm i got it thanks

[@chloebae7464]

wait no i still dont get it, ik ppl dont use sextuple simple meter to describe that but wouldn't that also work?

[@Fanchen]

@@chloebae7464whenever you have compound meter, the perceived beats are 3 times the value of the bottom number. In 6/4, each “unit beat” is a dotted half note. Therefore you only have two dotted half notes in a bar, hence only two beats. And each dotted half note can be divided into three quarter notes, resulting with 6 total “pulses”. It’s important to distinguish what “unit beats” are to its subdivisions “pulses”.

[@valvihk3649]

I don't understand why this matters... I'm not going to divide 2/4 into 2. I can jut count 1 2 1 2. . . what is the point of this simple?

[@newtonanani1639]

I thought a bar should have been divided by a bar line?

[@Emily-b1u5u]

never good explanation, I was having trouble understanding what divisible by 2 or 3 meant, but now I see it's the note, not the number of notes.