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.

The Beats of the Music:

The diagram below illustrates what the Note Values are. This is essentially how
music is formed. When we put together a combination of these notes within a
given time signature, we can produce a specific beat for a given melody on the
musical staff/stave (where music is written). As you can see below, the
fractions are already becoming clear. The semibreve, worth 4 beats (or counts)
has the longest standard note value in Music. If we divide this by a factor of 2
beats (counts) we get a Minim whose note value is worth half that of a
Semibreve. Thus, a Minim is worth 2 beats. If we keep diving by a factor of 2,
the note values will be worth half of the value of the previous note. Thus, a
Minim is half of a Semibreve, a Crotchet is worth half of a Minim, a Quaver is
worth half of a crotchet etc. Note: The American/British names for notes are
used interchangeably and thus, there is a bit of confusion. However, the
essentials remain. Literacy speaking, they register differently however, the
math’s is the same.
 Time Signatures: Simple Time

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.

Simple Form: 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4:

Simple Form is essentially the most common type of time signatures we

encounter in music today. “Simple” means that each of the beats within a bar
can be grouped/divided into 2 notes to make up either 2, 3 or 4 beats in a bar.
The general rule is that the top number can be regarded as a “variable” such as
“X” and the bottom number indicates the note value for grouping “X”. In short,
4/4 time is regarded as 4 (top number) crotchet beats (bottom number) in a
bar. Four 1-beat notes to make up the value of the Whole note (Semibreve)
worth 4 beats.

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.

The diagram above shows the Compound time grouping:

As you can see, the grouping from Simple and Compound Duple are slightly
different. A crotchet beat can be divided into two quavers which is worth an
Eighth OR 1/2 of a Crotchet beat. However, the standard grouping for a
compound time signature is a Crotchet beat worth 1 followed by a dot “.” After
it. The dot indicates that the note is equivalent to the standard Crotchet beat
(1 beat) + half that of its original value (1 beat + 1/2) [See “Compound time
below]. Simple duple time will therefore have to be grouped into 4 quavers
beats for every crotchet in the 2/4 time. Since there two 2 crotchets, you will
have 1 set of 4 quavers worth 1/2 the beat of the crotchet note OR 2 sets of 2
quavers which is equal to the two crotchet note beats. Either way, the total
amount will equal to 2 Crotchet beats OR 1 Minim beat worth 2 beats.

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.

From A Musician’s Perspective: What is Math’s?

Math. An integral part of everyday life. We use it every day from doing taxes,
working out our weekly salary, finding X (not our ex-girlfriend) and for
musicians to compose music. Although the math in music is considered very
basic to the likes of: Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Pythagoras and even our
dear lecturer Dr. J. Novak, it is the application of it in Music that sets it apart
from the rest. The theme for this Creative Work is “What is Math’s to you?”
And to me, I view math’s as a way of composing and forming music to satisfy
the ears of listeners. Although Music is a creative art form, there is a certain
level of mathematics that one must understand in order to compose a piece of
music. Grouping of notes, Values of notes, how much can I have in one bar?
how many beats per bar? All have a vital role to create the rhythm for a
melody line which can cause people to experience emotions. The common
denominator of all this is that both Math and Music have the ability to let
people experience emotion. Without Math, the proper grouping and not
knowing the value of the notes, we aren’t able to produce music that goes
straight to the heart. Likewise, without Music, the world will be a rather dull
and lifeless place to be in (almost like our lectures). To Conclude, I see Math in
Music and Music in Math. How we group things, how we classify a certain
variable and all of its symbols. All these working hand in hand to provide our
world with the fundamental things needed in life – all working together to
make the world a better place!