Understanding 6/8 Time 

This comment should be the basis for a reality show.

Adult you: Fuck I learned maths by learning music theory.

Really wished I had learned math!

This is what I fear because I'm personally horrible at math.

like knowing math gonna make you succesful in life

So true

I agree. Wow i typed the same thing.

Its just a shame that what you are expressing is unfathomable.

or 123-123 for a 6/8, at least for me

Ok

If you play dream theater there´s a lot of 6/8 count as: 123412 - 121234

any updates on MJ?

Wow 123 223 Awesome

Lol. Same concept as singing and playing drums, it's pretty hard.

and singing while playing violin....

Whose Money music is math that you can hear. if you can't do the math you have to have the feel of it. with that said you're on the losing end of it if you can't hear the piece before you play it. don't let it get you down. just try harder

chuck thomas: Music is music; it is not math that you can hear. That is a nice-sounding phrase but it isn't true. There are mathematical relationships in music that really matter, and rhythm is the most obvious expression of that. Intervals and the relationship between them is another. Composing music like Bach (best example) entails lots of mathematical reasoning. But performing music and appreciating music is absolutely not like solving equations or even thinking analytically. Reading music and counting lines and spaces or transposing pieces to other keys requires mathematical thinking but it is not doing music. It is more aesthetic or as I've heard it said, artsy-fartsy, than all of that. When you play or listen you feel rather than reason, and after lots of practice you don't come to the correct answer; you just do the music.

aa bb spliting hairs. Music is music, music is math that you can hear. The length of words used to say one of these statements is more true is a waste of effort. Arguably, music is physics you can hear. Music is air you can hear. The list goes on

Noah and Chuck: Alright, sure enough. I agree with you and really how could one not. The definitions of music go from physics to poetry and everything in between, and I think we're on the same page when we say that they're not mutually exclusive. Maybe the constants are performance and enjoyment. I have observed people who do music, and enjoy music, and I have envied people who do it and enjoy it more or better than I do. And I do believe that what's called "feeling" might be a matter of physics, but it can't be expressed in terms of physics. I don't mean it's magic. I mean that everyone who really wants to care about music and invests the time in it, will get their own little piece of magic. Some people will get more--listen to Joey Alexander--but for we mere mortals, treating music as math, on one hand, or magic, on the other, doesn't really help us understand or do. Instead, we should treat music as music, and recognize it as distinct and not completely reducible.

When you catch a ball you are "doing" a lot of rather complex Newtonian physics without actually understanding any of it. I think you are quite right.

+Bryan Westbrook Hey that is awesome. Nothing like seeing a real difference when you're writing actual music. Feel free to share something you're working on at some point. And good luck!

I'll be happy to. As Murphy's Law would have it, just as I was working on that first piece, my hard drive fried. Lol. The PC board is toast. It's in the shop, fingers crossed they can fix it, and then I'm back in action. I've also been sharing your channel with all my old band mates and musician friends, just about all of whom view music theory as some Holy Grail...there but always out of reach. For someone like me, someone who has been making music (like an illiterate person writes a novel but you can get away with that in metal..sort of) it was like lifting me out of the fog. Something I was very familiar with came into complete focus. What a great feeling! Thanks again!

How was the exam

You know, this really help me with my music homework, so yeah. Thank you😂😂😂

Michael New, Has anyone told you your a dead ringer for a young John Barrowman? It could just be me.

+Lily 5/7

+Catman 5/7?

Lily Its a meme

EmmuFlicks Actually it was a 9GAG meme.... thats where I got it from at least.

+EmmuFlicks I remember that

+Michael New 6/8 bar = 3/4 bar

+张媚 I dont think so mahn....MIchael please clarify....this guy is wrong, isnt he?

+Aayush Gupta Yes, he is incorrect. I've talked about it a couple times, particularly in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yx9VuRWM1aM.html

In a strict way they aren't the same, but both got six 8th notes per bar, the only thing that changes is the beat and how u write it in the score. they are not the same, but they are so close to each other, in south america, there are some rythms that mix both beats at the same time, creating some very interesting grooves. Greetings from Chile! Nice video.

Aayush Gupta I know this is old, but I think this would be valuable to future readers. The different time signatures, though they may look equivalent, are used to signify a different musical feel. A 3/4 measure written with 16th notes would sound roughly like this: BUM ba bum ba bum ba With quarter notes, it is the traditional waltz feel of DUM da da However, 6/8 is used to signify a measure with 2 of these emphatic pulses per measure. It sounds almost like music composed in 2/4 but with triplet subdivisions or DUM da da DOOM da da While it is difficult to explain in words, music composed in 3/4 and 6/8 actually feel very different. Try listening to a traditional rendition of “Amazing Grace”, a piece composed in 3/4 time, and compare that with “How He Loves Us” by Jesus Culture, a song composed in 6/8 time. Two “mathematically equivalent” time signatures with two different musical feelings.

mike oldfield style

There's definitely some great 7/8 and 5/4 music out there. I have really no experience with 7/4.

do you have any recs?

lavinder11 look up "The Dance of Eternity"

Reza, could you give some links where we can listen to such music?

Key and Peele?

+bertaga41 I remember when you actually did rate RU-vid videos on a five-star scale. Those were the days.

Anna Elizabeth that's what I came here for too😂

Same

yes my dude

Actually a lot of older waltzes, particularly faster Viennese waltzes are written in 6/8

I’m learning this to play metal on guitar

Rolly Praise .

+plasticspine Thanks for explaining it!

InTheDecay because it can get complicated with too many subdivisions

Phrasing.

Maybe because the number of beats in a measure changes?

The reason has to do with how the two time signatures feel. In 6/8, you frequently feel 2 sets of three like he explains in the video. In 3/4, however, you tend to feel all three beats. There is plenty of music that feel 3 beats as one--namely waltzes--which is basically the same as the 6/8 feel. In short: 3/4= ONE TWO THREE ---or-- ONE two three 6/8= ONE two three FOUR five six

Riley Kazukiewicz that accenting makes sense, but what always confuses me is, if you were to have two 3/4 bars back to back, wouldn't the resultant "ONE two three ONE two three" be the same as "ONE two three TWO two three".. Of course I'm sure that's wrong, but I struggle to see how. Is it to do with melodic phrases being double the length?

You can think of them that way, but keep in mind that a triplet is something that happens in simple time. A triplet essentially means "cram 3 notes into the space of 2". When you're in compound time every beat is broken into three parts by default, so you're technically not going to call it a triplet. -Teacher

@@r.b.4611 oh so it sounds like a simple triplet but it's also just a regular beam of 3 in compound?

@@r.b.4611 Thanks for that! That supplemented the video perfectly.

Or... 1 & a, 2 & a, 3 & a, 4 & a

You know count of 4 right? Now can you further divide this count of 4 as double beats within same time frame of the count? {Yes, the result is 8 beats (notes) in 4 counts}. Those are the 8 notes.

You can think of them that way, but keep in mind that a triplet is something that happens in simple time. A triplet essentially means "cram 3 notes into the space of 2". When you're in compound time every beat is broken into three parts by default, so you're technically not going to call it a triplet.

got it, thank you so much. i might want to watch all your vids ;-)

Well, technically you could look at 6/8 as 2/4 using mainly triplets. It would make things needlessly complicated, though ;).

+Aaron Watkins Remember that time signatures are not meant to be fractions. Even though 3 quarter notes *is* equivalent to 6 eighth notes, the way you accent those notes is completely different.

If I may ask what determines how a note is accented?

Cool, thank you!

So there are six notes and eight beats for every measure. How can you divide eight notes by six and still maintain whole numbers. I'm dreadfully confused.

+Michael New How would the accents change if I substituted a bar (in 6/8), "ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six", with two bars (in 3/4), "ONE-two-three(-)ONE-two-three"? It seems like two different ways to express the same thing.

Yes but with work it becomes very easy

+RottingintheMidwest Anything in particular you found confusing? Remember this video has 2 or 3 videos leading up to it, so if you jump in right here it can be tough.

Michael New ffggjhhjjjjjk

RottingintheMidwest b

Michael New Juhjhh

CFC Yyyytyg

Watch more youtube music theory clips. @12Tone building blocks has some stuff you may enjoy if this is the most informative you have seen so far. There are handy tips in this clip. The library of knowledge on youtube can be incredible if you start refining your choices.