What's the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 time?

this video is sponsored by the piano learning app scoove there can often be disagreement and confusion about whether a song is in 3 4 time or 6 8 time now later in this video i'll play some examples of songs that are either in 3 4 or 6 8 and you'll have an opportunity to guess which one you think is but before we do that let me explain what the difference actually is between 3 4 and 6 8. if a song is in 3 4 time it means that there are three quarter notes in each bar of the music [Laughter] but in six eight time the signature is telling us that there are six eighth notes in each bar now this is where the confusion arises three four has three quarter notes in a bar right but those three quarter notes will also fit into a bar of 6 8. [Laughter] likewise 6 8th notes can also fit into a bar of 3 4. so what's the difference if a piece of music in 3 4 can always fit into a bar of 6 8 then isn't one of the signatures just redundant well no and there's actually a clue to why in the way that i've written these six eighth notes out yes both a bar of three four and a bar of six eight can contain six eighth notes but the difference is in how we group them see one aspect of time signatures that people often miss is the difference between simple and compound time simple time is when each strong beat of the bar divides into two equally spaced eighth notes the eighth notes are grouped into sets of two three four is what we call simple triple time ie has three strong beats in the bar and each of those strong beats divides down into two eighth notes the alternative to simple time is compound time compound time is when each strong beat of the bar instead divides down into three equally spaced eighth notes the eighth notes are grouped into sets of three six eight is what we call compound duple time i.e it has two strong beats in a bar with each of those strong beats dividing down into three eighth notes i'll say that again six eight has two strong beats in a bar not six but two so even though any piece of music written in three four could technically be forced into a six eight time signature the way three four and six eight actually sound is very different so what do they actually sound like well 3-4 has very much got a waltz feel to it with a clear sense of three beats in the bar you fill up my senses like night in a foreign [Music] six eight on the other hand feels like it's swinging from side to side like a pendulum everybody cries [Music] everybody [Music] a song that directly contrasts the difference between 3 4 and 6 8 is america from leonard bernstein's west side story america jumps back and forth from 6 8 to 3 4 creating a sense of the tempo getting faster and slower as we're jumping between having two strong beats in the bar and three strong beats in a bar [Music] another thing to bear in mind is when 6 8 is played particularly slowly it can start to sound like 3 4 because our ear can't really latch onto the two beats in every bar because they're moving too slowly for example gravity by john mayer is in 6 8 time so we should feel it as having two beats in each bar like this [Music] but as you may have found just then because it's so slow our ear can instead begin to latch onto the eighth notes instead so we hear the music like this likewise if a song in three four is played at fast tempo it can start to sound like it's in six eight for example i've seen differing opinions on whether america by simon and garfunkel is in three four or six eight personally i can see a case for both the relatively fast tempo means that you can feel it as having three beats in a bar like this or you can feel it as having two beats in the bar like this [Music] [Applause] so whether a song is in 3 4 or 6 8 can sometimes be up for debate particularly if that song is at a significantly slow or fast tempo if you've always been interested in learning to play the piano then you can get started right now with scoove scoove is an easy to use interactive app that can teach you real songs by classic artists like the beatles alicia keys and elton john start your free trial today with the link in the description so now that we've gone over the differences between 3 4 and 6 8 i'm going to play you 10 examples of songs which are either in 3 4 or 6 8 and i want you to guess which time signature they're in [Music] time after time done my sentences [Music] these are a few of my favorite things that fly with the moon on their wings these are a few of my favorite things i break up day when that man drove away i was waiting [Music] i drove away i was waiting say something i'm giving up on you [Music] say something i'm giving up on you i'm gathering [Music] many depression firsts in my soul [Applause] many depressions [Music] so let me know in the comments how many you got right so that's the difference between three four and six eight but what would a piece of music sound like if it was in both three four and six eight at the same time in other words what if one part had three strong beats in the bar whilst another part had only two well this would be a three against two polyrhythm and is exactly what happens in radiohead's daydreaming the right hand of the piano is playing in 3 4 and the left hand is playing in 6 8. in other words for every 3 beats in the right hand the left hand is playing 2 beats of course as is the case with all polyrhythms we don't tend to use different time signatures on the page at once so although one part of the music has a 6 8 fill and the other has a 3 4 fill we write it all down in one unified time signature in this case 3 4. now there's just a couple more common points of confusion with 3 4 and six eight that i wanted to cover before the end of this video the first of which is what's the difference between six eight and twelve eight well whereas six eight is compound duple time so it's got two strong beats in a bar each dividing down into three eighth notes twelve eight is compound quadruple time so it has four strong beats in a bar and once again they divide down into three eighth notes now at faster tempos 12 8 is effectively a swung or shuffled 4-4 but at slower tempos 12 8 is effectively the same thing as two bars of six eight so sometimes the same piece of music can be written down in six eight or twelve eight for example i would consider lou reed's perfect day to be in six eight times however i've seen other people transcribe this song in 12 8. [Music] and it doesn't really make much difference to me it feels a bit unusual to have such long bars but maybe that's just me different musicians will sometimes have different preferences on which signature to use and lastly i wanted to discuss the difference between 3 4 and 9 8. what time signature would you say this song is in [Music] and what about this one [Music] well if you said 3 4 then that is technically correct however you could have also said 9 8. these two songs are examples of what's often called a jazz waltz in other words they're in swung three four time so to notate this we could write them down in three four like this but with an instruction to swing the rhythm [Music] however alternatively we could write them down as nine eight nine eight and three four both have three strong beats in the bar but whereas in 3 4 these strong beats divide down into two eighth notes in nine eight these three beats divide down into three eighth notes and dividing down into three eighth notes gives it a swing fill [Music] it's the only thing i must note though that in practice songs with a jazz waltz feel like these will generally be notated in 3 4 time with an instruction to swing the rhythm as they're easier to read this way and also allow the performer more freedom over how they swing the rhythm 9 8 used as compound triple time i.e three strong beats in the bar dividing down into three eighth notes is usually only found in classical music in pop rock and jazz if you come across a 9 8 time signature it will instead usually mean that the song is in an odd or complex meter because although in 9 8 we can group the nine eighth notes into three equally spaced beats we can also group them into uneven groups to make 98 work as an odd time signature stings i hung my head groups the nine eighth notes into a group of four and a group of five so 9 8 can be the compound equivalent to 3 4 or it can be an odd time signature so hopefully that's improved your confidence with the difference between 3 4 and 6 8. at the end of the day any piece of music in 3 4 could be written down or interpreted in 6 8 and vice versa it just comes down to the way that you want to feel the music the way that the pulse is meant to be recognized and on occasion some pieces of music will do just as well in either signature [Music] if you can think of any other examples of songs in 3 4 or 6 8 then do leave them in the comments down below and i'll leave you today with a piece of music i've written that switches between 3 4 and 6 8. [Music] and thank you as always to all of the wonderful people who support me on patreon including the names you see on screen right now and andre science diagram andrew andrew brown andrew sussman austin barrett austin russell bob mckinstry brittany parker cameron oliveina colin aiken chris cabell christopher ryan david rivers donald howard dr darren wicks elena scorchenko es ben hansen eugene leroy fd hodor lamo latona hamesh brocklebank hugo miller james kayo j.a kochensberger john dye justin figger lavender monroes mark height mark ziegenhagen max o'keefe melody composer squared melody shownut michael vivian nancy gillard nathan lawrence nathaniel park paul miller paul paisle peter dunphy pioche milovsky roger clay sam lin scott finley sean kennedy steve daley stephen lazzaro tim beaker toma aharoni tricia adams tim payne toot victor levy vidad flowers vladimir kodakov and volte you

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 268,246

Rating: 4.9705811 out of 5

Keywords: 3/4 time, 6/8 time, the difference, examples, songs in, music theory, analysis, explained, meter, 3/4, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8, compound time, simple time, time signature, metre, what time signature is, notation, how to, tell the difference

Id: N4q2kBe82-o

Length: 16min 17sec (977 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021