The Difference Between 3/4 and 6/8 Time Signatures - Music Theory
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Date: 2022-03-28
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Comments and reviews: 10
Downpat
A great composer and music teacher of mine often said that our notation system was an imperfect solution with no better system available, meant to be a musical guide as to what notes to play and when. But all of the subtle musical nuance is impossible to notate (exact note start and stops, exact dynamics, pushing and delaying the notes for feeling, etc etc...). The notes are meant to help us recreate the composition over time, as a document meant to preserve the composer's notes. Here lies the world of musical performance teaching and the various interpretations that it requires. Though certain interpretations of the great classical works have become accepted, there is always room for new ways of playing these notes and rhythms and many teachers ready to teach them over their lifetimes! The beauty of notating our musical ideas is that it forces us to make choices as composers, and performers of our own compositions. By writing our ideas down on paper we are making a physical choice that this is our preferred note here which may seem simple but in fact and creates a lot of self discovery. See, often when we play our musical unwritten ideas, they go by quickly without concern. But when we write them down we take responsibility for those notes on paper and we have to say, yea, that is my preferred note choice here. It becomes something of a model composition for what we may have only improvised in different ways until this notation step. As a composer you are saying, I like this way as my standard arrangement, and now you might improvise on it or play variations but you always have authorship of this exact composition for future musicians to reference, interpret, and play.
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A great composer and music teacher of mine often said that our notation system was an imperfect solution with no better system available, meant to be a musical guide as to what notes to play and when. But all of the subtle musical nuance is impossible to notate (exact note start and stops, exact dynamics, pushing and delaying the notes for feeling, etc etc...). The notes are meant to help us recreate the composition over time, as a document meant to preserve the composer's notes. Here lies the world of musical performance teaching and the various interpretations that it requires. Though certain interpretations of the great classical works have become accepted, there is always room for new ways of playing these notes and rhythms and many teachers ready to teach them over their lifetimes! The beauty of notating our musical ideas is that it forces us to make choices as composers, and performers of our own compositions. By writing our ideas down on paper we are making a physical choice that this is our preferred note here which may seem simple but in fact and creates a lot of self discovery. See, often when we play our musical unwritten ideas, they go by quickly without concern. But when we write them down we take responsibility for those notes on paper and we have to say, yea, that is my preferred note choice here. It becomes something of a model composition for what we may have only improvised in different ways until this notation step. As a composer you are saying, I like this way as my standard arrangement, and now you might improvise on it or play variations but you always have authorship of this exact composition for future musicians to reference, interpret, and play.
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Win
YIKES...I'm really confused here. I understand the 2/4 vs 4/4 and 3/4 vs 6/8...I think! Having gone to military school as a kid, being a classically trained drummer (but gave that up 50+ years ago!) and 4 years in the United States Air Force, I thought I knew something about marches! I don't! I note that the great John Philip Sousa march -Semper Fidelis- is written in 6/8! That throws my whole cadence off! One thinks of a march at 120 beats/minute and conducted in 4/4 but this throws a monkey wrench in my theory! How would one conduct -Semper Fidelis-? Thanks. Great video explanations, by the way. I know the great English composer, John Rutter and you sound a bit like him!
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YIKES...I'm really confused here. I understand the 2/4 vs 4/4 and 3/4 vs 6/8...I think! Having gone to military school as a kid, being a classically trained drummer (but gave that up 50+ years ago!) and 4 years in the United States Air Force, I thought I knew something about marches! I don't! I note that the great John Philip Sousa march -Semper Fidelis- is written in 6/8! That throws my whole cadence off! One thinks of a march at 120 beats/minute and conducted in 4/4 but this throws a monkey wrench in my theory! How would one conduct -Semper Fidelis-? Thanks. Great video explanations, by the way. I know the great English composer, John Rutter and you sound a bit like him!
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Karl
As a drummer, I have always loved 6/8 time. For me, 6/8 is a -half-time feel-. I enjoy playing halftime feels because as the name implies the rhythm feels like it is playing at half the speed of the -normal- rhythm. For example in 3/4 I will place the bass drum on beat 1 and will either play the snare on 2 and 3 or just 3. When I play in 6/8 I play the bass drum on beat 1 and move the snare to beat 4 (which in 3/4 would be the + of 2) which -elongates- the groove and makes it feel more relaxed. Anyway, that is how I see it. Thanks!
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As a drummer, I have always loved 6/8 time. For me, 6/8 is a -half-time feel-. I enjoy playing halftime feels because as the name implies the rhythm feels like it is playing at half the speed of the -normal- rhythm. For example in 3/4 I will place the bass drum on beat 1 and will either play the snare on 2 and 3 or just 3. When I play in 6/8 I play the bass drum on beat 1 and move the snare to beat 4 (which in 3/4 would be the + of 2) which -elongates- the groove and makes it feel more relaxed. Anyway, that is how I see it. Thanks!
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Fidelius
Thank you for this simple explanation. It's a pleasure to watch your performances here online.
Did you know that the classic 3/4 beat in a waltz is incorrect? Because the real Viennese waltz does not go 1,2,3 1,2,3 etc. The real Viennese waltz goes 1,2, and perhaps at some time 3.
That's very important and most conductors don't know that. But Strauss composed the waltz for the Schrammeln, that was the name of his band, always with that break between the second and the third quarter.
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Thank you for this simple explanation. It's a pleasure to watch your performances here online.
Did you know that the classic 3/4 beat in a waltz is incorrect? Because the real Viennese waltz does not go 1,2,3 1,2,3 etc. The real Viennese waltz goes 1,2, and perhaps at some time 3.
That's very important and most conductors don't know that. But Strauss composed the waltz for the Schrammeln, that was the name of his band, always with that break between the second and the third quarter.
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BradsGonnaPlay
Edit: I-d be far more interested in a video discussing why 6/8 CANT be felt in 3 even beats. No one seems to have an answer for that.
You explained it phenomenally well, but I just inherently disagree with this practice in the 21st century. Common practice expects us to implicate that there-s no such thing as odd time signatures.
Organizing 6/8 as strictly compound time is archaic at best and functionless at worst.
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Edit: I-d be far more interested in a video discussing why 6/8 CANT be felt in 3 even beats. No one seems to have an answer for that.
You explained it phenomenally well, but I just inherently disagree with this practice in the 21st century. Common practice expects us to implicate that there-s no such thing as odd time signatures.
Organizing 6/8 as strictly compound time is archaic at best and functionless at worst.
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sagnier
I still don-t understand.
Is it possible to have a 3/4 piece of music (that we know should sound a certain way), but then hypothetically substitute one of the bars for a bar of 6/8, and make other changes as necessary, but have it nevertheless sound exactly the same as it did previously?
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I still don-t understand.
Is it possible to have a 3/4 piece of music (that we know should sound a certain way), but then hypothetically substitute one of the bars for a bar of 6/8, and make other changes as necessary, but have it nevertheless sound exactly the same as it did previously?
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Don
Also, you may notice that, at least with popular music, the main chords tend to change on the bar. So, if the chords change primarily every three beats it is likely in 3/4; if the chords change every six beats it is likely to be in 6/8.
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Also, you may notice that, at least with popular music, the main chords tend to change on the bar. So, if the chords change primarily every three beats it is likely in 3/4; if the chords change every six beats it is likely to be in 6/8.
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Lars
Great explanation, Gareth! Could you do a -case study- of the song Drowse by Queen, written by your countryman and composer Roger Taylor, which is in 6/8, and explain to us how it would turn out in a different beat?
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Great explanation, Gareth! Could you do a -case study- of the song Drowse by Queen, written by your countryman and composer Roger Taylor, which is in 6/8, and explain to us how it would turn out in a different beat?
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xbep
Thank you so much! This was so helpful. I took my abrsm exam last month, and without your help, I probably wouldn't have passed in theory! Thanks so much Mr. Green! Every video you make, I get better at theory :D
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Thank you so much! This was so helpful. I took my abrsm exam last month, and without your help, I probably wouldn't have passed in theory! Thanks so much Mr. Green! Every video you make, I get better at theory :D
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dave
Eeeerrrrrmmmmm....just a small observation (on your white board...)... difference is spelt -d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-c-e- and not deffence. Deffence is what separates your garden from the neighbours-
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Eeeerrrrrmmmmm....just a small observation (on your white board...)... difference is spelt -d-i-f-f-e-r-e-n-c-e- and not deffence. Deffence is what separates your garden from the neighbours-
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