Until now I’m still confused about how to deal with the bottom number of time signatures.
-The top number of the time signature tells us how many beats to count.
-The bottom number tells us what kind of note to count.
Is there any way to easily adapt that bottom number? I’m thinking about how to deal with 6/8 and 12/8.
yeah, I understand the beats of songs House of the Rising Sun and You Put a Spell on Me. However, I went through the trouble thinking about that bottom number especially if it has 6/8 and 12/8 on the time signature.
Should I emphasize the bottom number or just move forward and focus on that beat (top number)? Thank you
Not entirely sure I understand what you are trying to do here…
The “bottom number” basically gives you the unit of subdivisions to be applied (here eighth notes).
12/8 is often used for (slow) blues, which feels like it’s in 4/4 (i.e. four counts per bar), but with each count being subdivided in three, giving it a triplet kind of feel.
So, you’d count 1-2-3 2-2-3 3-2-3 4-2-3
Here is an example:
There is a heavy emphasis on the strong beats (the ones in bold above), but you should be able to “feel” the eighth notes going by as well (three per strong beat). You can also hear that in what they play (what motifs and phrasings they use).
6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 are compound time with subdivision in triplets.
You should count them as time with 2, 3 and 4 movements.
12/8 has 4 movements each One subdivised in 3 eigths
The top number is key, and when you have something like 6/8, for example, this is divided into two parts, where I emphasise the first note (if I play a straight rhythm) in each group of three: 1 2 3 4 5 6 | … Then you can emphasise the “1” in each group of 6 a little more to distinguish bars. Of course, in a band context, the drummer might hit 1 and 4, you might not even play on 1 and so on.
If you want to start with the basics, the link below has you covered. Personally, I liked the explanation that simple time signatures just divide by two and compound by three.
