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This course is part 2 of a two-part course in basic music theory and includes elements of notation and musicianship.
Part 2 is made up of 21 lessons of about 30 minutes duration. This amounts to one semester at one lesson per week or a 6-week course at one lesson every two days.
Although each lesson is self-contained, the lessons are designed to run in numerical order.
Lessons are grouped in modules of just a few lessons. You don’t need to commit to the full course; just work though one module at a time.
Requirements
Part 2 assumes that you have completed Part 1 of this course or have an equivalent understanding of the following:
basic music notation
counting in bars and beats
simple time
scales, keys and key signatures
major, minor and perfect intervals
Although Part 2 includes music notation, like Part 1, musicians who play by ear are well catered for with plenty of audio, video, text and illustrations.
Recommended Additional Resources
This is primarily a music theory course. The notation exercises included are far from comprehensive and may be supplemented by music reading, beginner music theory workbooks and transcription exercises.
The musicianship/ear training exercises in this course are also far from comprehensive. I have focused on the most generally useful skills for this course. There are a number of dedicated musicianship courses available to further develop these skills.
Outcomes
An Understanding Of The Following Musical Concepts
Syncopation in simple time
Compound time
Triplets in simple time
Swing notation
Anacrusis (upbeat)
Harmonic minor scale
Melodic minor scale
Augmented and diminished intervals
Inversion of intervals
Major and minor triads
Modal (open/power) chords
Inversions of triads
Doubling
Relative chord names
The chords of the major scale
Dominant 7th chords
Musicianship Skills
Tap or play syncopated rhythms in simple time down to semiquavers
Tap or play simple rhythms in compound time down to semiquavers
Count in for an anacrusis
Sing major and minor triads in all inversions
Recognise and name major and minor triads in all inversions
Recognise notes that belong to a major or minor chord and sing them in your octave
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.
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!
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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.
For example,
Zoom in a little. Think of each beat as a bar of 3.
It may look more familiar if we rewrite it as 3/4. Simply double each note value.
If you’re familiar with simple rhythms in 3/4, you’ll be able to play them at the tempo of a fast waltz.
Tap, clap or play along:
3/8 has the same beat structure as 3/4, it just looks different. Just count quavers as beats instead of crotchets…
Once you’re used to the character, increase the tempo until it’s quite fast, say 180 bpm.
As you speed up, you’ll start to feel each group of 3/8 as a single beat.
Once you feel the character of the whole rhythm, you can increase the tempo further if needed.
In the next lesson we will look at some common rhythms in compound time.
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* Audio extract from Another Hopeless Situation by Erik Kowarski
