Simple and compound time
Time signatures fall into two basic categories - simple time and compound time. Simple time is any time signature where the basic beat is divisible by two E.g. in *, ^, and % the basic beat is a quarter note which may be divided in half to become two eighth notes per beat. Any time signature where the basic beat is divisible by three is called compound time. The most common example of compound time is six eight time ()). Other examples of compound time would be _ and +. In compound time, the basic beat is felt as a dotted quarter note which can be divided by three.
The Six Eight Time Signature
This is the six eight time signature.
There are six eighth notes in one bar of ) time.
The six eighth notes are divided into two groups of three.
The following song shows some typical note groupings in ) time. Notice the similarity in feeling between this time signature and the triplets and swing eighth notes you learnt earlier.
Here are two more songs written in ) time. House of the Rising Sun is in the key of D minor, while Greensleeves is in G minor. Congratulations on finishing the book. You will now be ready to move on to a study of Classical music on the recorder, or to begin playing another wind instrument such as Flute, Clarinet or Saxophone.
In the D melodic minor scale the 6th and 7th notes are sharpened when ascending and returned to natural when descending. This is the way the melodic minor is used in Classical music. However, in Jazz and other more modern styles, the melodic minor descends the same way it ascends. An easy way way to think of this scale is as a major scale with a flattened third degree.
