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Fractions: A Guide To Simple and Compound Time in Music By: Robbie de La Vega
Fractions: A Guide To Simple and Compound Time in Music By: Robbie de La Vega
Background Information:
As a Musician for over 15 years, a lot of budding musicians have asked me: “Is
there a way to differentiate Simple and Compound time in a numbers based
form?” The answer in short is, yes. Mathematics and Music work hand in hand.
This guide will help demonstrate Simple Time and Compound in Music and
how fractions and grouping can make reading music a whole lot simpler and
easier to understand and to visualize through listening.
Time signatures are an essential part when it comes to forming music. The
time signature is essentially the “rule” for the grouping of the notes for a piece
of music. Time signatures come in two forms: Simple and Compound Form.
The song “Old McDonald” has a time signature of 4/4. The fraction here is that
the crotchet beat is worth 1/4 of a Whole note (or Semibreve). A semibreve or
Whole Note has 4 beats and a Crotchet/Quarter note has 1 beat. Therefore, a
Crotchet beat is 1/4 of a Whole note (Semibreve) which is worth 4 beats. The
Time Signature 4/4 is also called “Simple Quadruple time” Simple means that
each of the beats can be grouped/divided into 2 notes. If there are 4 beats in a
bar, taking into account “Simple”, 4 beats or a whole note can be divided into 2
half notes and 2 half notes can be divided into 4 Quarter notes (known as
Crotchets).
In the next line of music, the time signature written is 3/4. This can be grouped
into three 1 beat notes (3 Crotchet notes) in Bar 1 and in bar 2, One Minim
note worth 2 beats OR 1 Half note of a Whole note i.e. 2 beats for Half note/4
beats for Whole Note (2/4 simplified is worth 1/2 in math) and One single
crotchet beat. To put this into perspective of the music in Bar 2, The minim
note is worth 2 beats + the Crotchet note is worth 1 beat. 2 + 1 = 3 which gives
us the variable for “X” at the top of the time signature. The bottom number of
the time signature tells us how to group the notes. We can group these notes
using 3 crotchet beats (or 3 Quarter note beats to satisfy the fraction) and to
satisfy the musician the grouping would be 3 crotchet notes in a bar. In Bar 1,
there are 3 Crotchet notes therefore, 3 beats in a bar and in math’s terms: 1/4
+ 1/4 + 1/4 notes to make 3/4 – this is known as Simple Triple time where the
notes can be grouped into either 3 crotchet beats OR 1 minim beat + 1
Crotchet beat to make 3 counts/beats in a bar.
In the last line of music, beats are getting smaller which means the pace or the
value of the note decreases. Musically speaking, the notes are becoming
shorter (figuratively and literally speaking). 2/4 refers to Simple duple time
where the notes can be divided evenly into 2. The first bar indicates that there
are 4 notes of which the value for each note is 1/2 of a beat (1/2 of a
Crotchet). 1/2 multiplied by 4 = 2 which gives us the top number. 4 indicates
the specific grouping we must use. Thus, 2/4 means we must group the bars in
such a way that we will have 2 Crotchet beats within it. The first bar has 2
Crotchet notes within it. How? Well, a Quaver is worth 1/2 of a Crotchet. Thus,
1/2 + 1/2 gives us 1 single Crotchet beat. This forms half of the bar. If we
repeat the same grouping process, this will form the other half of the bar
where end up with another 1 single Crotchet beat. Therefore 1 crotchet beat +
1 Crotchet beat = 2 Crotchet beats. Again, a Crotchet has a beat of 1 and is also
referred to as a Quarter Note (1/4 of a Whole note which has 4 beats). Thus,
mathematically speaking if we have 2 Quarter notes (or Crotchet) which has a
beat of 1 per Quarter/Crotchet note, this will make up 1/2 of a Whole note
whose value is worth 4 beats since 2 Quarter notes = 2 beats and 2 beats is 1/2
of a beat for a Whole note who has 4 beats.
Time Signatures: Compound Time - “The Conversion”
Compound time is slightly different from Simple Time. Compound means to
group the notes into 3’s rather than 2’s. Bearing in mind that Simple time
groups notes into 2, compound time will group its notes into 3.
In Compound Duple time however, the grouping must be changed. The reason
for this is that, rather than grouping the notes in two’s, we now need to group
them into three’s. In Simple duple, the notes are grouped into 2 crotchets to
satisfy a minim beat worth 2 beats which satisfies the time signature (since you
must have 2 beats in the bar AND the minim or “Half Note” is half of that of a
Whole note worth 4 beats). Therefore, the notation changes. Instead of having
two crotchet beats in Duple time, we must have 2 Dotted crotchet beats. A
dotted crotchet beat is equal to 1 crotchet beat + half that of its original beat
value. Therefore, if we have 1 crotchet beat + half that of its beat value, we
simplify by dividing 1 crotchet beat into 2 half notes which equals 2 quavers.
Thus, 2 quavers (for Crotchet) + half the original value (which is a quaver) = 3
quavers. We do the same for the other dotted crotchet (bearing in mind there
are 2 dotted crotchets in Compound duple). Thus, we have a total of 6 quaver
notes (half beat values) which we group into 3’s to satisfy the 2 dotted
crotchet values. In 6/8, the 6 refers to the variable “X” i.e. how many we can
have and the 8 refers to the type of note (quaver).
Simple Triple (3/4) into Compound Triple (9/8) and Simple Quadruple (4/4) into
Compound Quadruple (12/8) will all be converted in the same way. Rather
than 3 crotchets beats for 3/4 time, we have 9 quaver beats OR 3 Dotted
crotchet beats! And, rather than 4 crotchet beats for Simple Quadruple, we
have 4 Dotted Crotchet beats! For every dotted crotchet beat, there will be 3
quavers. Thus, in 9/8 we have 3 Dotted crotchets beats, we therefore have, 9
quavers (3 for every dotted crotchet beat). In 12/8, we have 4 dotted
Crotchets beats thus, we will have 12 quavers in grouped in 3’s (for every
dotted crotchet beat.