Music Theory De-mystified Blog12/8

Simple Rhythms In Compound Time

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

Note: There are a number of exercises in this lesson, so it may take a little longer to complete. Take as long as you need… You can the first few rhythms now and come back to the harder ones later.

One-Beat Rhythmic Modules

Below are some simple 1-beat rhythms in compound time, written as individual bars of 3/8. Tap, clap or play along with these until you are familiar with them and can play them by yourself.

Although not indicated in the part, each rhythm is played 4 times.

To start learning each rhythm, count each quaver as a beat, as demonstrated in B8. Time Signatures 2: Compound Time.

Once you’re comfortable with these exercises at a quaver beat of 180 bpm, try counting every bar of 3/8 as a single, dotted crotchet beat at 60 bpm.
From there, you can continue to increase the tempo, counting dotted crotchet beats.

Practice Tip: Beats are easier to feel if you emphasise notes which are on the beat by playing an accent. Accenting the beats will help transition from playing with a metronome to without.

These rhythms can be combined to form complete bars of 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 etc. You can make up your own combinations. There are a few common examples at the end of this post.

Rhythms with semiquavers

Any quaver in the above rhythms can be substituted by a pair of semiquavers. In the following rhythms, look at pairs of semiquavers as halves of a beat, “1 and”.

Note: As you continue to increase the tempo, the semiquavers become too fast to be able to say the word “and”. Hopefully, by then you can feel them without having to count aloud.

The above are by no means every possible combination involving semiquavers. However, these are the most common; familiarity with these rhythms will make it easier to learn new ones.

Syncopation

Below are three common syncopated rhythms within a beat in compound time. Again, they are written as individual bars of 3/8.

Each rhythm is preceded by a similar rhythm which you have already learnt in the previous exercises. To create the syncopation, simply hold the dotted quaver (or quaver in the last example) through the first of the pair of semiquavers in the previous bar, as indicated by the counting lyrics.

Bars Of One-Beat Modules

Each of the above rhythms in 3/8 amount to a single beat in compound time. They (and other 3/8 rhythms not listed here) can be combined to form rhythms of 1, 2 or more bars.

Below are a few common 1-bar rhythms for you to practice. Rather than having to learn the whole bar as a new rhythm, look for the individual 1-beat rhythms you have already learnt then join them together.

As recommended earlier, if you have any difficulty counting dotted crotchet beats, start by counting each beat as a bar of 3 quaver beats.

Try These…

Answers at the end of this post.

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NEXT LESSON: B10. Note Values 3: Triplets

PART 2 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

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Answers To Try These…

These are played at a moderately slow tempo you can play along to. You may be able to play faster than these “answers”…

The standard note values make it easy to to indicate lengths of half or quarter of a beat. This suits some rhythms but not all. Many others are based on dividing a beat into thirds.

Dividing A Beat Into Thirds

Rhythms based on 1/3 beat subdivisions have a slightly more lelaxed feel compared to semiquavers; they sound a little less intense…

That’s not to say that these rhythms can’t be powerful and driving!

Compound Time

So how can we divide a beat into thirds of a beat when the standard note value symbols are based on halves?

We do this by using a symbol for 1 beat which naturally has 1/3 beat subdivisions, the dotted crotchet.

A dotted crotchet is the same length as 3 quavers.

In simple time we count beats and half beats as ”1-and 2-and” etc.
In compound time we count ”1-and-a 2-and-a” etc.

Time Signatures With A Dotted Crotchet Beat

To make a beat which naturally divides into thirds, we want the dotted crotchet, not the crotchet, to be the symbol for 1 beat. So how do we distill this into a fraction name?

A dotted crotchet = a crotchet + a quaver. As a fraction, that’s 1/4 + 1/8 = 3/8. The dotted crotchet is a 3/8 note.

Time signatures are written as the number of beats in a bar x the note value for 1 beat.

A bar of 2 dotted crotchet beats is 2 x 3/8 = 6/8
A bar of 3 dotted crotchet beats is 3 x 3/8 = 9/8
A bar of 4 dotted crotchet beats is 4 x 3/8 = 12/8

And so on…

Review: Time Signatures In Simple Time

Time signatures are fractions. In simple time, the upper note, the numerator, represents the number of beats in a bar and the lower note, the denominator, represents the name of the note value which represents 1 beat.

Split up, a time signature in simple time looks like this:

3/4 = 3 x 1/4 note (crotchet) beats per bar

Other note values can also be used to represent 1 beat. For example,

4/8 = 4 x 1/8 note (quaver) beats per bar
2/2 = 2 x 1/2 note (minim) beats per bar

Reserved Time Signatures

When we see a time signature like 6/8 we would normally assume that there are 6 beats in the bar, each of which is a quaver (1/8 note). However, 6/8 and higher multiples of 3/8 (not 3/8 itself) are reserved for music which requires a dotted crotchet beat.

These time signatures aren’t what they appear to be; they need to be broken down to be understood. Appropriately, they are collectively known as compound time.

It takes a little while to get used to reading music in compound time. We’re so used to seeing a crotchet as 1 beat that it’s hard not to think of a dotted crotchet as 1 1/2 beats…

The trick for reading compound time is to think of each dotted crotchet as a fast bar of 3. More on this later…

Hierarchy Of Compound Time

Bars have strong and weak beats. This is true for both simple and compound time. The only difference is whether a beat naturally divides into halves or thirds.

Below are the hierarchies of strong and weak points in 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8.

How To Read And Play Compound Time

In simple time, we can make a piece easier to learn by slowing it to half the tempo and counting every half-beat as a beat. For a reminder, please visit 3. Beats, Tempo and Timing.

In compound time, the same method would have us slow down to 1/3 of the tempo so each quaver can be counted as a beat. Practically, we don’t need to slow down quite so much, but the principle is the same.

Think of each dotted crotchet grouping as a miniature bar of 3 quaver beats, a bar of 3/8. Three beats per bar at a fast tempo is familiar to many as a waltz. If you know what a fast waltz feels like, you’re well on the way… if not, practice each dotted crotchet’s worth of notes as a separate bar of 3 until you feel the rhythm.

Once you can feel character of each beat of 3/8 as a simple 3-beat rhythm, you can start to speed up the tempo a bit until each bar of 3/8 feels like a beat in the overall time signature.