- Hi, in this session,
we're going to be talking
about simple and compound time,
which is one of the big
topics for grade three theory.
And don't worry if it doesn't
make any sense at the moment.
Hopefully it soon will.
But basically there are two
different kinds of time,
one of which is called simple
and the other is called compound.
Here's an example of a piece
of music in simple time.
And here's an example of a
piece of music in compound time.
You might just hear from
those two short examples
that in simple time, things
have maybe a little bit more
of a march feeling when there
are four beats in a bar.
When there are three beats in a bar,
it might feel a little
bit more kind of waltzy.
But when you hear that
example in compound time,
can you hear there's
more of a sort of lilt
to the rhythm?
And that's why some composers prefer
to write in compound time.
Anyway, let's see if we can
unpack this topic a little bit
and begin to understand what's going on.
And I'm going to draw a little table
just to help us with this.
And on the left-hand side,
we're going to have some
examples of simple time.
And on the right-hand side,
we're going to have parallel
examples in compound time.
Okay, let's start with a time signature
that we've already met in
the sessions we've been doing
for grades one and two.
Here's a time signature, 2/4.
Remember the upper
number tells us how many
of something there are in the bar
and the lower number tells us what kind
of beats we're dealing with.
So two means there are two beats in a bar.
Four at the bottom means
that those beats are crotchet beats.
So 2/4 means there are two
crotchet beats in a bar.
So in other words, I would
have those two beats.
And this is called a duple time.
And the reason it's called duple is simply
because there are two beats in a bar.
Whenever you have two beats
in a bar, it's a duple time.
So you might be able to think
of other examples of simple duple time
because basically all it means
is it's any time signature
that has two at the top.
So here's another example, 2/2.
Now 2/2 means that there are
two minim beats in a bar.
So the lower numbers change
because here I have crotchet beats
and here I have minim beats,
but the upper number is the same.
It's two, two crotchet
beats, two minim beats.
So they're both simple times
with two beats in a bar.
I could theoretically
have something like 2/8.
It's not a very common time
signature I have to say,
but 2/8 would be telling me
that there are two quaver beats in a bar.
I could even have 2/16, which
may seem slightly crazy,
but that would mean that
there are two semiquaver beats
in a bar.
And as you can imagine,
that's far less likely.
So you're much more
likely to meet 2/4 or 2/2
than you are to meet
something like 2/8 or 2/16.
But they're all theoretical
possibilities at least.
And I'm going to sort of rule off there
and then I'm going to
think about triple time
because if duple means that
there are two beats in a bar,
then triple must mean that
there are three beats in a bar.
Now all I need to do is to think
about these kind of time signatures again
and work out what it would mean
to convert them into simple triple time.
So instead of 2/4, I would have 3/4,
three crotchet beats in a bar.
Instead of 2/2, I would have 3/2,
three minim beats in a bar.
Instead of 2/8, I would have 3/8
and I must say 3/8 is
much more common than 2/8.
So in 3/8, I would have
three quaver beats in a bar.
And 2/16, I can't think
when I last saw that,
but I have on occasion seen 3/16
and that would be three
semiquaver beats in a bar.
So hopefully you're beginning to see
why these are all examples
of simple triple time
while these are all examples
of simple duple time.
Let's go one step further
and that's all we need to do
on this side of the board.
So if that's duple, that's
triple, this must be quadruple.
And you've probably already worked it out
that if it's quadruple, there
must be four beats in a bar.
So let's see if we can now convert
these time signatures into
simple quadruple time signatures.
So how about 4/4?
Where we're going to have
four crotchet beats in a bar.
How about 4/2?
Where we're going to have
four minim beats in a bar.
How about 4/8?
Where we could have four
quaver beats in a bar.
And how about 4/16?
Where we could have four
semiquaver beats in a bar.
So they're all the likely
possibilities in simple time.
Simple duple time's anything
with two at the top.
Simple triple time's anything
with three at the top.
Simple quadruple time's
anything with four at the top.
So simple time is really
what it says on the tin.
It's pretty simple.
If it says two, there are two beats.
If it says three, there are three beats.
And if it says four, there are four beats.
So you're probably already
beginning to suspect
that compound time is a
little bit more complicated.
And you're absolutely right,
but we will soon have it rumbled.
I'm going to give you an example
of the most common compound duple time.
And the most common
example of this is 6/8.
Now you're probably beginning to think,
"How on earth does six
become a duple time?"
I'll come back to that in just a moment,
but bear with me for now.
6/8, let's start by seeing
what it says on the tin.
It says there are six
somethings in the bar
and that those somethings are quavers.
So we're looking for six quavers.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Now this is where we have
to go one step further
because if I had a piece of music
that had six quaver beats in the bar,
it might sound a little bit
manic, something like this.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
It's a bit crazy, isn't it really?
And it doesn't really
sound terribly musical.
So when we're in compound time,
we organise things slightly differently.
So we start by saying 6/8 is telling me
that there are six quavers in the bar.
Then we say we're going to
organise those six quavers
into two groups of three.
Organise them into two groups of three.
Okay, let's just do that.
So here come the six quavers again
and this time, there's the
first group of three quavers
and there's the second
group of three quavers.
And you can immediately see
that we've got two groups
of three quavers because
two threes are six.
Then we say what's the
total value of each group?
Well, if there are three
quavers in each group,
then that's half plus a
half plus a half equals
one and a half.
Do we have a note that's
worth one and a half?
Yes we do.
It's the dotted crotchet.
So in 6/8, we have six quavers.
We organise them into groups of three.
So we end up with two
groups of three quavers each
and then we say what's the total value
of each of those groups?
And here's the total value.
It's a dotted crotchet.
So we end up with two
dotted crotchet beats.
Now hopefully you're
now beginning to realise
how 6/8 can be a compound duple time.
It's duple because we
end up with two beats,
two dotted crotchet beats.
Now, let me give you another example
of a compound duple time.
Let's take 6/4.
Again, remember what we do is we start
with what it says on the tin.
And what it says on the tin is that
there are six crotchet beats in each bar.
So let's just plot six crotchets.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Now, of course crotchets
don't beam together
in the way that quavers beam together.
So we just have to imagine
two groups of three.
So say we think, okay,
there's one group of three.
There's the other group of three.
That gives us our two groups of three
because remember, that's what you do
in a compound duple time.
You say I've got six of something.
Let's divide those six things
into two lots of three.
So here's one group of three crotchets
and here's a second
group of three crotchets.
Then I've got to say
what's the total value
of each group of three crotchets?
Well, three notes that are
worth one beat each are going
to be the equivalent of three.
So do we know a note
that worth three beats?
We do.
It's the dotted minim.
So do you see how again
we end up with two beats?
So in 6/8, we have six quavers.
Divide them into two groups of three
and the total value of each
group of three gives us
two dotted crotchet beats.
In 6/4, we start by
plotting six crotchets.
We divide them into two groups of three
in just the same way.
And we say each group of three
is worth one dotted minim.
So in 6/4, I have two dotted minim beats.
And you can see now why anything with six
at the top is going to be an example
of a compound duple time.
Now remember where we started,
I did give you a sort of example
of a piece of music in 6/8,
where we were feeling six
quaver beats in every bar
and it was a bit crazy wasn't it?
But if we start to feel
two dotted crotchet beats
in every bar, but we're still
delivering those six quavers,
it suddenly sounds rather different.
One, two,
one, two,
one, two.
And that's what gives it
that slightly kind of lilting quality.
So that's how compound duple time works.
Now I wonder from there
if you can work out
how we would get to compound triple time
because remember when
we've got triple time,
we're looking for three beats.
So if 6/8 is six quavers giving us
two dotted crotchet beats.
I wonder what we'd need
to have the same kind
of time signature, but
in compound triple time.
Well, I won't keep you in
suspense for a moment longer
because the equivalent is 9/8.
Let's have a little think about 9/8.
What does 9/8 say on the tin?
It's say there are nine quavers in a bar.
Here we go.
One, two, three.
Let's group them together
because that's our first group of three.
Four, five, six.
Let's beam those together
because that's our second group of three.
Seven, eight, nine.
And let's beam those together
for the third group of three.
And immediately you can see
why this is a compound triple.
There are nine quavers,
I've organised them into groups of three
and I now have three groups of three.
We realised in 6/8 that every group
of three quavers gives us
a dotted crotchet beat.
So here we've got one dotted crotchet beat
for the first three,
another dotted crotchet beat
for the second three, and
another dotted crotchet beat
for the third three.
So 9/8 is an example of
a compound triple time.
And I'm sure you can see straight away
how we would convert 6/4
into a compound triple time
by making it 9/4.
9/8 is much more common than 9/4,
but there are pieces of
music written in 9/4.
And that would give us nine
crotchets, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Seems like quite a long bar, doesn't it?
But when we put them into groups of three,
it suddenly becomes a bit more manageable
because now we're going to
end up with three beats.
Remember we said back here
in 6/4 that every group
of three crotchets is
worth one dotted minim.
So the same will be true here.
Three crotchets, one dotted minim beat.
Three crotchets, there's the
second dotted minim beat.
And three crotchets, there's
the third dotted minim beat.
So again, we end up with
three beats in a bar.
9/4 is an example of a compound triple.
And remember we're working
in groups of three.
Two threes are six, three threes are nine.
So what about quadruple?
Well, if two threes are six
and three threes are nine,
then four threes must be twelve.
So here we go, 12/8.
What does 12/8 mean?
It means there are 12 quavers in the bar.
Because we're in compound time,
we're going to organise
them in groups of three.
Here we go.
One, two, three.
Four, five, six.
Seven, eight, nine.
Ten, eleven, twelve.
So if you thought a bar of nine was long,
a bar of twelve is even longer.
But here we are with our groups of three.
We've got four groups
of three, haven't we,
to give us the twelve quavers
and we're still going to
have the dotted crotchet beat
that we have in 6/8 and in 9/8
because the eight hasn't
changed at the bottom.
And remember, compound
time says organise things
into groups of three.
So the first group of three
gives me a dotted crotchet.
So does the second group of three.
So does the third group of three.
So does the fourth group of three.
So 12/8 is a good example of
a compound quadruple time.
I could theoretically have 12/4.
That's a pretty rare time
signature, but there we are.
Let's just think about it.
One, two, three,
four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine,
ten, eleven, twelve.
Let's get them into groups of three.
There's one group of three,
second group of three,
third group of three, and
the fourth group of three.
And each of these groups gives
us one dotted minim beat.
And so there's another example
of a compound quadruple time.
Now you might notice one or two things
as we've been kind of
unfolding this table.
You might notice, for
example, that in simple time,
all the beats are not dotted.
And you might notice
that in compound time,
all the beats are dotted.
So that's a useful clue
if you're not quite sure
what a time signature is and
you're asked, for example,
to look at a piece of music
and say what the time signature is,
you might just look at how
the notes are beamed together
because if they look at if
they're in groups of three,
it's probably telling you
that you're in compound time.
But if it's in groups of
two or maybe groups of four,
it's more likely to throw
up a beat that's not dotted.
So it's probably going
to be on the simple side.
And of course it's quite easy
once you've understood that
just to remember that simple
times have two, three,
or four at the top and
compound times have six,
nine, or twelve at the top.
Now, you might be asked, as
I say, to look at a rhythm
and to say what you think
the time signature is.
So bearing this table in mind,
let's see if we could work
out what some time signatures
might be in relation
to particular rhythms.
Okay, so here is a short rhythm.
Now let's have a look at that and see
if we can work out how many
beats there are in a bar.
Well, one and a half
plus a half, plus one.
It looks at if it's throwing
up three crotchet beats, doesn't it?
One, two, three.
So the time signature could be 3/4.
Here's a little trick
you might want to try.
You can always half or
double those numbers.
If I half those numbers,
I'm going to get one and a half, two.
Well, that's not going to work
because you never get
fractions inside the top
or the bottom number.
So it's not going to be that.
But I could double those numbers.
Say I double three to six
and I double four to eight,
it must be true that if there
are three crotchets in a bar,
there are also six quavers in a bar.
So we have to look at
this and think, well,
does this look like 3/4
or does it look like 6/8?
Well, we learnt on the
table we just constructed
that 3/4 is a simple triple time
and it's giving three crotchet beats.
6/8 we learnt is a compound duple time
and it's giving us two
dotted crotchet beats.
Well you might look at the first bar
and think, well, I mean that
could be 6/8 couldn't it?
Because that could be the first beat
and that could be the
second beat I suppose.
But when you look at the second bar,
there's no way that that looks like this,
but it does fit with this very nicely.
So on balance, this has to
be a piece of music in 3/4.
So watch out for that because
you might find one bar
that looks quite comfortable in 6/8,
but there are other bars
that would have to be in 3/4.
So that would be how you would
work out the answer to that.
Let me give you another example.
Say we had a rhythm that went like this.
Okay, I'll just give you one bar of that
and you could look at
that and think, goodness,
there are lots of notes here.
There seem to be more
quavers than anything else.
So let's count the quavers.
One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine.
So there are nine quavers
so it could be 9/8 couldn't it?
If I half that, what would it give me?
Something rather funny,
four and a half over four.
If there's a fraction, it can't be that.
So this one must be 9/8,
but if we check it out,
there's one group of three,
there's the next group of three,
there's the next group of three.
And it's really organised into
three dotted crotchet beats.
So you can begin to see how you could look
at a piece of music and
identify the time signature
by doing what we've just done
in relation to your
knowledge of that simple
and compound time signature table.
So I hope that gets you started
on dealing with simple and compound time.
