im still confused :(

[lea]

Well this are the replies to the post "hey...its me again" that i put in. But it still dont get some of it, so scroll down to the bottom to see what i dont understand and see if u can help me!!!!

thanx

lea  

FIRST POST

Posted by: lea
Posted on: Apr 21st, 2003, 5:33am
To find out what kind of time the time signature is you  do what?

like, if i looked at a time signature and i knew what kind it was, like simpe, duple, triple etc how would i figure it out? something to do with the top or bottom note and dividing it by whatever? does it involve dividing??

is compound time what? beat in 3? isnt that triple? then whats the equivalent for beats in 2?? its not duple or quadruple or simple? is it

im really confused..............  


thanx

lea  

NEXT POST

Posted by: natasha
Posted on: Apr 21st, 2003, 6:50am

agreed!!  

NEXT POST

Posted by: amee
Posted on: Apr 21st, 2003, 11:46pm

Lea,

You seem to have two questions here, they are;

What is compound time?
What is duple, triple, and quadruple time?

I'll try my best to explain, although I'm not crystal clear on the facts myself.  

Compound time is when the beats can be divided into threes, for example a dotted crotchet (it can be divided into three quavers).  Examples of compound time are 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8.  The opposite of compound time is simple time, where the beats can be divided into twos (like a crotchet beat can be divided into two quavers).  Examples of simple time are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4.

NEXT POST

Posted by: amee
Posted on: Apr 21st, 2003, 11:50pm

Hopefully you have understood my explanation on compound time  

Now, the question is what is duple, triple, and quadruple time?  You can describe time signatures in two ways,  

1) as duple, triple, or quadruple
2) as simple or compound.

So here are some full descriptions of time signatures:

2/4 or 2/2 - simple duple time
3/4, 3/2, 3/8 - simple triple time
4/4, 4/2 - simple quadruple time

6/8 - compound duple time
9/8 - compound triple time
12/8 - compound quadruple time

So quite simply, the top number in a time signature refers to whether it is duple, triple, or quadruple time.  2 or 6 is for duple, 3 or 9 is for triple, and 4 or 12 is for quadruple.  Here is where the division comes in; in compound time you need to divide the top number of the time signature by 3 to get whether it is duple, triple, etc.  

The bottom number refers to whether it is simple or compound.  

I hope that helps!  

WHAT I DONT UNDERSTAND

Hey every1

these are the things i dont understand:

in amee's first post, she says that:

Examples of compound time are 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8.  The opposite of compound time is simple time, where the beats can be divided into twos (like a crotchet beat can be divided into two quavers).  Examples of simple time are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4.

What i dont get about this is that, if 8 is the bottom number then it cant be simple??? or is it because all the top numbers divide into 3??? and then why cant 3/4 be both???

also , for amee's SECOND POST , referring to her helpful words, is there a division trick for the simple times???

thankyou amee sooo much

and if nyone out there can answer my questions i would be really grateful

thankyou

Lea

[amee]

Lea I'm not sure I understand you...could you explain more clearly please?  What do you mean by,

"What i dont get about this is that, if 8 is the bottom number then it cant be simple or is it because all the top numbers divide into 3 and then why cant 3/4 be both?"

[lea]

ok

sorry
 

Examples of compound time are 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8.  The opposite of compound time is simple time, where the beats can be divided into twos (like a crotchet beat can be divided into two quavers).  Examples of simple time are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4.

from this paragraph you are saying that basically, say if you have 3/4 then it is basically divided into 2 quaver beats, as the bottom number is 4.

And you are saying that with the 3/4, it is not compound as it is not a dotted crotchet, and olny dotted crotchets can be compound times???

is that what you are saying?

also, does it depend on the top number to find out if it is compound/simple???

what does the top number and bottom number in a time signature represent?

[amee]

Hi Lea,

Now I'm getting confused as well hehe...

I think there's a misunderstanding of what I meant.  I did not mean 3/4 can be divided into 2 quavers, in my earlier post I gave an example that a crotchet can be divided into 2 quavers.

The top number in a time signature represents the number of beats in a bar.  The bottom number is the type of beat that equals one beat.  For example, in 2/4 time, the bottom number 4 refers to a crotchet.  The top number 2 says there are 2 crotchet beats in a bar.

I am not too sure about simple and compound time myself and I'm sorry if my posts are confusing you.  

[lea]

grrrrrrrrrr....youd betta be sorry...

thanx nyway i stil understood .....some.....of it

lea

ps thankyou 4 taking the time to reply 2 my annoying posts!!!!!


lea

[classicarts]

lea, go get some help.  Your beyond  in needs of help here in this forum. okay.