3/4 vs. 6/8 (time signatures)

[organworthyplayer337]

Can someone help me understand the difference between a 3/4 and 6/8 time signature?


I apologize if this should be in another forum


I did Google, I just need some extra one on one help

 

[Febs]

In both 3/4 and 6/8, each measure contains 6 eighth notes.

In 3/4, the "4" in the bottom of the time signature tells you that the beat is a quarter note, so the six eighth notes are subdivided into three groups of two eighth notes each, and usually counted/conducted in three: "1 and 2 and 3 and."

In 6/8, the "8" in the bottom of the time signature tells you that the beat is an eighth note. Usually, the six eighth notes are subdivided into two groups of three eighth notes, and counted/conducted in two. That is, the eighth notes 1 2 3, 4 5 6 are counted "one two." But sometimes in slower tempos, measures of 6/8 are counted in six.

 

[tuBass]

3/4 time
1 and 2 and 3 and

vs
6/8 time
1 le la 2 le la

 

[Ed Fuqua]

What TuBass is trying to get across is that 6/8 is a complex time signature, that is you can feel both the 3 AND the implied 2. Either ONE two three FOUR five six (which is the 2 over 3 feel) or ONE two THREE four FIVE six.

 

[esa372]

3/4 = three quarter-notes per measure

6/8 = six eighth-notes per measure

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Simple answer. 3/4 is waltz time 6/8 is not. Google waltz time.

 

[buldog5151bass]

3/4 is your tradtional waltz (123)
6/8 - think a pair of triplets, so you are counting in 2:

123. 123 is
1. 2

 

[tuBass]

It's not as simple as that because waltzes are almost always in one pulse per measure, and 3/4 can (and usually does) have 3 pulses per measure

 

[Don Kasper]

Here is a 6/8 tune - it is felt in "2".

 

[Don Kasper]

Here is a 3/4 tune felt in "1".

 

[tuBass]

• 3/4 is a duple feel. 3 pulses per measure, with a firm down and up to each beat. A waltz could just as easily be 3/8 as it is 3/4. Bad example

 

[Don Kasper]

• 3/4 is a duple feel. 3 pulses per measure, with a firm down and up to each beat. A waltz could just as easily be 3/8 as it is 3/4. Bad example

Nope.
3/4 is not Duple. (If it is "straight" eighth notes, then it is Simple Triple. If it has "swing" eighth notes, it is Compound Triple - which COULD be written as 9/8, but is rarely written in the jazz world).
Patsy is swinging the eighth notes, BTW.
Here ya go-
Simple and Compound Meter

 

[tuBass]

Nope. All quartet note based key signatures 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, ect are all considered to be duple

 

[tuBass]

I'm not sure where you teach music or where you have your music degree from, but if that's what you teach, you're doing it wrong

Your website is wrong

 

[Don Kasper]

I teach at California State University at Northridge, CA.
My degree is in Double Bass Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
Here is another "website" with a clear(er) explanation:

Thanks for your time and interest in time.
Don Kasper

 

[tuBass]

Sorry, every person I've ever heard in my life has called any time signature with an eighth note feel as a duple feel, as opposed to a triplet feel. I'm too old to change now, no matter what random links on the Internet say

I don't care if the time signature says 19/4, it's still a duple division of beat

 

[tuBass]

And I've played time signatures before as weird as 17/32, so you can't say it doesn't happen

 

[BassyBill]

I teach at California State University at Northridge, CA.
My degree is in Double Bass Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
Here is another "website" with a clear(er) explanation:

Thanks for your time and interest in time.
Don Kasper

For clarification purposes, this table is correct. Thanks for this.

 

[JimmyM]

The easy way to think of it is that time signatures like 6/8 and 12/8 are for shuffles, swing songs, and slow rock/soul ballads, whereas 3/4 time is mostly waltzes or classical music like "Greensleeves." Or something like the beginning of this Jethro Tull classic would be written in 3/4 time:

 

[winegamd]

3/4 is your tradtional waltz (123)
6/8 - think a pair of triplets, so you are counting in 2:

123. 123 is
1. 2

This is the easiest way to think of it.