- Hi.
In this video, I'm going to try an answer a question
that many people have asked about.
"How do I know when something's in simple time
"or something's in compound time?"
Now, some of you want to know how it looks on paper.
Some of you want to know
how you actually hear the difference.
Well, you can look on the Music Matters website
and find detailed explanations of simple and compound time
during the course of the Grades 1 to 5 Theory package.
So I'll try and give you a very abbreviated version of that,
but the full information is all there if you want it.
Basically, if you have 2, 3 or 4 as the upper number
in a time signature, you're in simple time.
If you have 6, 9 or 12 as the upper number
in a time signature, you're in compound time.
Now, you might immediately say,
"Well, how do we know that?"
Well, take that as a fact in this abbreviated explanation,
but I explain all that in full during the course
to which I've just referred.
Okay.
But basically what we're doing, when we're in simple time,
the time signatures with 2, 3 and 4 at the top,
the time signature means what it says.
So, the upper number says how many beats there are in a bar,
the lower number tells us what kind of beats they are.
So the 2 says, there are two beats in each bar.
The 4 says, those beats are crotchet beats
or quarter note beats.
Okay?
Again, the full explanation as to why four means that
is in that other course.
Take it for now
that it's what it says on the tin.
Two beats on the bar, the four says they're crotchet beats
or quarter note beats.
And if you look at every bar,
well, yes there's two crotchets or two quarter notes
in each bar,
or the equivalent of that.
Okay, so that's in simple time.
And in simple time, the definition of it is
that every beat naturally divides in two.
So if I take a crotchet beat or a quarter note beat
it naturally breaks into two.
Into two quavers or two of those eighth notes.
All right?
In compound time, things are just marginally
more complicated.
So, 6, 9 or 12.
Remember, flags up, compound time.
So let's start by what it says on the tin.
6/8 means,
6, remember, how many of something there are in the bar.
So there are six somethings in every bar.
What are those somethings?
They're quavers, all right?
So 8 means quavers or eighth notes.
So six eighth notes in every bar
or six quavers in every bar.
But when we come to compound time, we take one further step.
Bause we don't say there are six quaver beats in a bar
or six eighth note beats in a bar.
We make this additional step,
because in compound time, everything divides into three's.
Remember, we said in simple time,
things naturally divide into two's.
But in compound time, things naturally divide into three's.
So in 2/4, what it says is,
that I've got this as the beat in every bar.
That's straightforward enough.
It's simple, so because it's simple,
just do what it says on the tin.
When I'm in compound time,
it could've been called "complicated time".
It's not that complicated but it's called compound time.
What does this say?
It says I've got six quavers or six eighth notes in the bar.
But the additional step is,
divide them into groups of three.
So there's one, two, three,
four, five, six.
So you see what I've done.
I've taken what it says here,
six quavers or six eighth notes
and I've divided them into groups of three.
Then I say, what's the value of each group of three?
So this group of three is worth this.
That group of three is worth the same again.
And so, in 6/8, I've two beats in a bar.
But these are the beats.
Do you see how we got there?
In 2/4, I've got two beats in a bar,
and it's simply what it says on the tin.
Two crotchet beats, two quarter notes, here they are.
In 6/8, it's a compound time,
because 6, 9, 12, compound time.
Do what it says on the tin,
write s of these, one, two, three, four, five, six,
divide them into groups of three,
one group of three, second group of three.
What's the total value of each group of three?
It's this.
How many of these beats have I got?
Two.
So 2/4's got two beats in a bar.
6/8 has also got two beats in a bar.
We call this simple duple, and we call this compound duple.
If I was in 3/4, I'd be in simple triple,
9/8 compound triple.
4/4 simple quadruple, 12/8 compound quadruple.
You see how that works.
Okay, now then.
What does that actually mean in practise?
Well, here's a tune that I've written in 2/4.
So counting these beats, what have I got?
One, two, one, two,
one and two and one, two.
And you can hear in this bar
how it really just naturally does divide each beat
into two, doesn't it?
Okay, so we can hear that.
One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.
Okay.
Now this is a variation on the same tune.
There's one additional note just to make it work.
But this time, I'm doing it in 6/8.
Now I'm hearing,
one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.
Now, can you feel
it's got a slightly different feel to it.
Cause this time I'm hearing, if I count the six,
One, two, three, four, five, six.
But it sounds a bit manic doesn't it
if I count six at that speed.
So I'm thinking,
One, two, three, four, five, six.
So I hear two beats
but one, two, one, two.
But here those beats are dividing into three.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Put it another way,
one, two, one, two,
one, two, one, two.
And suddenly it makes more sense, doesn't it,
to count it in two.
So, in this version, I'm counting two beats.
In this version, I'm counting two beats.
In this version, those beats naturally divide into two.
In this version, these beats naturally divide into three.
So it has a different feel to it.
You can feel the compound time
has a slightly more kind of lilting quality, doesn't it,
than the 2/4 time.
But I hope that enables you
to understand the theoretical difference
and also just to begin to hear the difference.
Let me play them again.
So here's 2/4.
Here's 6/8.
And you can feel there's a slight difference
but you're still counting two beats in both of them.
This one's simple duple time,
this one's compound duple time.
So I hope that helps de-mystify this whole area
of what's simple time, what's compound time,
how do I hear the difference.