6/8 TIME SIGNATURE

HOW MANY BEATS PER MEASURE?

WHAT KIND OF A NOTE GETS THE BEAT?


If you follow the classic formula, 6/8 Time suggests there are 6 beats per measure, and an 8th note represents one beat. This isn't altogether wrong, but its not helpful.

It's also easy to assume it's related to 3/4 time, as this is what 6/8 would reduce to in fractions.

6/8 is a compound meter (or time signature). All this means is that the beat (or pulse) divides into 3, or a triplet feel. 6/8 is a way to manipulate a notation system that is suited for dividing rhtyhmic concepts into two (whole/half/quarter/eighth/sixteenth, etc...) and create a time signature in which you can divide a beat into three without using triplet notation.

This might help. Imagine a six-pack of cans of soda.

Is this two sets of three cans...

...or three sets of two cans?


Of course it's either, and if you have six eighth notes in a measure, they can be though of as three sets of two eighth notes, or two sets of three eighth notes.

...or three sets of two cans?

Of course it's either, and if you have six eighth notes in a measure, they can be though of as three sets of two eighth notes... or two sets of three eighth notes.

or two sets of three eighth notes.

So, while we are comfortable with thinking about 3/4 as three beats in the measure, we have to get used to 6/8 feeling like two beats per measure, and the challenge is then getting use to the idea that a dotted quarter note, which is the length of three combined eighth notes, is now one beat long, and not a beat and a half. On the same token, a dotted half note is now two beats long, and not three.