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they hear. Always remember, these types of exercises and practice techniques can be modified

based on the group. As an example, I don’t typically have college students move around the

room, but I do have them stand up and perform the stomp/clap motions while standing in place.

They tend to participate fully and give very robust foot stomps on the basic beats.

After mastering the difference between simple and compound duple, the same types of

body motions can be used for simple and compound triple, with a few alterations. As I like to

explain to my classes, duple and quadruple time fit perfectly into our natural ability to walk, but

triple time is more like dancing. We don’t walk in triple so we have to somehow adjust foot

movements for the third pulse. I usually have students stand and use one foot to tap a basic

pulse, with an emphasis on the first of every three pulses. So their stomping sounds like this:

1-2-3/1-2-3/1-2-3. I also demonstrate a body motion on the downbeat – a movement where I

lean into the motion on beat 1, combined with a slight nodding of my head; they copy my

example and feel the emphasis on the downbeats. After setting a somewhat slow tempo and

making sure that everyone feels the emphasis on the downbeat, students add clapping for simple

triple, then shift into clapping for compound triple.

With quadruple time I try to make one more adjustment to represent the lengthened bar. I

have the students use a little bit more space by having them walk forward four small steps

(sometimes the classrooms are crowded) and then walk backward four steps, back to the starting

point. Once we do the walking, always with a moderately slow tempo, we add simple division

clapping to demonstrate simple quadruple, and then compound clapping to demonstrate

compound quadruple. There is always a strong emphasis on the downbeat, and a secondary

emphasis on beat three - never as strong as the downbeat, but slightly stronger than beats two and

four. When these patterns are felt in the body, using basic motions like stomping and clapping,