A bit more on grouping of notes and rests and time in music

In the last post, we looked at how notes are grouped according to different time signatures, and covered the basics.

Simple and Compound Time

Notes smaller than a crotchet are beamed together in crotchet groupings. These can include rests.

This works in exactly the same way even if the beat is a quaver (as in 4/8), a crotchet (as in 4/4) or a minim (as in 2/2). In 3/8, things are a little different as a whole bar of quavers or semiquavers are beamed together.

6/8 time is treated as two groups of 3 quavers, and you do the same thing for each group as you would for a bar of 3/8.

What is a beat?

In the first of this series of articles, we saw that we only know what a beat is if we can refer to a time signature. For example, the 4 in 2/4 tells us that one beat is the note value you get when you divide a semibreve in to that many parts – a crotchet. The upper figure (2 in this case) tells you how many of those crotchet beats there are in each bar.

In simple time, the value of the beat can be a demisemiquaver, semiquaver, quaver, crotchet or minim. It might even be a semibreve. In compound time the beat can be any of those values, but with a difference: the addition of a dot.

2/4 is two crotchet beats in a bar; 6/8 is two dotted crotchet beats in a bar.Both 6/8 and 2/4 have two beats per bar – 6/8 is the compound equivalent of 2/4 – but more of that next time!

Firstly, let’s take a look at irregular time. The time signature for any irregular time will have a top number greater than 4, but not divisible by 3.

Here are some examples of irregular time:

We’ll have a look at how notes are grouped in irregular time after we’ve considered simple time and compound time.

There aren’t really many rules to observe, and here are the main things you need to know.

In simple time, notes of less than one beat are grouped to make single beats. For example, where there are quavers and semiquavers in 2/4, 3/ 4 or 4/4 time, they will form groups which make one crotchet beat.

A whole bar of quavers in 2/4 or 3 /4 will join up. In 4/4, however, you need to complete each half of the bar separately. If there are eight quavers in a bar of 4/4, the first four will join, then the second four will join. Joining notes together is called beaming.

While it’s fine to put a minim across the middle of a 4/4 bar, it’s not OK to beam quavers across beats 2 and 3.

In compound time, as we saw in the previous article, notes are grouped in threes. The grouping of notes in compound time was discussed a bit there. Up to now, we’ve dealt only with the basics, and there will be more to be said in a later article.

In irregular time, there are no hard and fast rules about grouping notes. 5/8 time can consist of three quavers plus two quavers, or vice-versa. It could even be a minim followed by a quaver, and that could be reversed too. 7/8 can be 4+3, 3+4, or 2+2+3 and so on.

Famous examples of music with five beats per bar include the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6^th Symphony, and Dave Brubeck’s Take Five.

None of all this is exhaustive, and there will be other aspects of the grouping of notes to consider another time. Everything that has been said about notes applies to rests as well.

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Simple time has the top figure 2, 3 or 4. In compound time the top figure is greater than 4, and divisible by 3. Irregular time has a top figure greater than 4, but not divisible by 3. For example, 5/8 or 7/4 are both irregular time signatures.

Let’s take a look at compound time. Notes are generally grouped in threes in compound time. For example, in 6/8 time, there will be two groups of three quavers. The illustration below shows some of the possible combinations of notes in 6/8 time:

You’ll know, of course, from the previous article, that the top figure of the time signature tells us how many beats per bar. The bottom figure tell us what kind of note is worth one beat: so 6/8 time looks as if it ought to be 6 quaver beats per bar.

You’ve probably guessed that there’s a bit of a catch to this one! In slow music, counting the six beats in the bar is no problem. In a fast piece, counting six could be an enormous problem, so mostly, we end up counting the groups of three quavers as if they were one larger beat.

In a faster piece in 6/8, you will feel two pulses: a strong one on the first quaver and a lesser on on the fourth quaver. So you end up counting two in a bar. There are two beats, each of which divides into three. 6/8 time makes quite a decent march tempo, as some of the military marches of the early 20^th Century show.

Liberty Bell by Sousa is a good example of this – a lot of people will know this as the introductory music to Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Six-eight time is usually described, then, as two dotted crotchet beats per bar, rather than six quaver beats per bar.

You might find it useful to learn this little formula: compound time has a top figure greater than 4  but divisible by 3.

Of course, there are other compound time signatures too: 9/8 and 12/8 are examples. In 9/8 time, there are three groups of three quavers (or three dotted crotched beats per bar); and in 12/8 time there are four groups (four dotted crotchet beats per bar).

In the next articles, we’ll be looking at irregular time, and the way notes are grouped in simple, compound and irregular time.

Do you need a versatile, fantastic little metronome which not only does the basics, but dotted rhythms and compound time as well? Email info@hofnote.co.uk for details!

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Here’s an interesting question … what is a beat? If you think about it, the only answer you can give is, “I don’t know!” You could, I suppose, say that it is a measurement of time – but you really need some more information.

That information comes as a time signature, which is the two figures on the stave at the beginning of a piece, for example, 4/4.

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Welcome to the About Music  blog. This is the place to come to find out about all sorts of helpful things to get you through your music exams.

There will be practical, helpful advice about music theory, aural tests and exam pieces.

Over the next few months, I’ll be exploring the ABRSM piano exam syllabus in my other blog, pianonotes.wordpress.com. There will be an in-depth look at the playing issues that each piece raises, and some pointers to achieving a distinction-standard performance.

In the Autumn, I’ll be looking at the ABRSM aural tests and how to get top marks in this often neglected but very useful part of the exams.

To start off, there will be some articles about music theory.

Watch this space!

Many people have difficulty in getting to grips with the technical names of the seven different notes of the scale. Musicians often refer to them by their technical names, so you'll often hear the words tonic, subdominant, dominant, and so on. You might hear the notes of the scale referred to as the degrees of the scale, but there's no mystery here: the first degree is simply the first note, the second degree is the second note, and so on.
The question for many people, though is which degree of the scale is which! The most used names are tonic (the first degree of the scale), dominant (the fifth) and subdominant (the fourth).

Here's the complete list:

1. tonic

2. supertonic

3. mediant

4. subdominant

5. dominant

6. submediant

7. leading note

Remembering which is which!

There are three main names that you have to know: tonic, mediant and dominant and these are the notes of the tonic triad (the chord formed by the first, third and fifth notes of the scale).These notes make the arpeggio – for example, C E and G in the key of C major.

The other notes relate to these: the 3rd and 6th are mediant and submediant; the subdominant is one note below the dominant. The leading note leads to the tonic (it's one note below)and the supertonic is one note above the tonic.
The tonic is probably the easiest one to remember. You can think of this one as the naming note of the scale, so, for example, the tonic of the scale of C major is the note C.

The supertonic (second) is the one just above the tonic.

The mediant (third) – you'll just have to memorise this as being the third!

The subdominant (fourth) is next. The sub part tells you this is one note below the dominant, which is next.

The dominant (fifth)can be thought of as the next most important note to the tonic, for reasons we'll explore in a later post.

The submediant (sixth) comes next. Unfortunately, we can't apply the same logic as we did to explain the subdominant. The submediant is related to the mediant, though, and you'll notice that these come either side of the subdominant and dominant.

The leading note (seventh) does what it says: it leads us to the tonic again.

It's probably a good idea to learn the list by off by heart, but here's another angle on it:

If you know tonic sol-fa (doh, ray, me fah soh lah te) you can think of me as short for mediant. It's also the middle note between tonic and dominant.

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