Understanding metre

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson. I'm Miss Mensell and I'm gonna be your teacher for today. Let's get started. Today's lesson outcome is, I can identify simple, compound, and irregular time signatures. Keywords for today are: Simple time signature. So that's where each beat is divided into two quavers. So 4/4 and 3/4 are examples of this. Compound time signature. That's where each beat is divided into three quavers. 6/8 and 12/8 are examples of this. And irregular time signature. That's where the number of beats cannot be divided by two or three. So for example, five beats or seven beats. Today's lesson on understanding meter has three parts. Simple time signatures, compound time signatures, and irregular time signatures. Let's get started with Part One, simple time signatures. The most common time signatures in Western music are simple time signatures. In a simple time signature, each beat is divided into two quavers. How many examples of these can you think of? Have a go. What did you come up with? You could have said any of these that Jacob said. 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 2/2. Simple time describes the type of beat. Each beat has two quavers. Here you can see 2/4, the two crutches, two in a bar. And then you can see two quavers, one and two and, in each beat. When describing the number of beats in a time signature, if there are two beats in a bar, it's a duple time signature. Three beats in a bar, this is a triple time signature. And four, this is a quadruple time signature. So 2/4 would be described as simple duple time. How would you describe 3/4 and 4/4? What did you think? Here's 3/4. It's simple triple time is 3/4. One, two, three. That's a triple. And you can divide each beat into two, one and, two and, three and. So, simple triple time. And then you can see 4/4. 4/4 is simple quadruple time because you've got four beats in a bar. So, one, two, three, and four. And you can divide each beat into two, one and, two and, three and, four and. Have a listen to this song in a simple time signature. Count the number of beats to identify the time signature. Have a listen now. How many beats did you think? Did you find it a bit difficult to tell whether it was 2/4 or 4/4? That can be really challenging. They sound really similar. Unless you can hear a really clear emphasis every two beats, it's fair to assume that the music is in 4/4. That's much more common. Let's do check for understanding. How many quavers are in each beat in simple time? Is it A, one, B, two, C, three, or D, four? Pause and have a think. Well done if you got B. There are two quavers in each beat in simple time. 3/4 could be described as simple what time? What's the missing word? Well done if you've got triple. 3/4 is simple triple time. Let's do Task A. So we want you to identify if each clip has duple, triple or quadruple time, and then name the time signature. So pause and have a listen to all four clips and note down whether it's duple, triple or quadruple. What do you think the time signature is? Pause and listen to those clips now. How did you get on with the listening? So for clip one, it was quadruple and the time signature was 4/4. For clip two, it was triple and that was in 3/4. Three was triple. That was also in 3/4. And then four, that was quadruple because that was in 4/4 I hope you got all of those. Let's move on to Part Two of lesson, compound time signatures. A compound time signature is grouped into beats of three quavers. They're extremely common, including in popular music styles. Can you think of any common compound time signatures? Pause and have a thing. You could have said 6/8, 9/8, 12/8. Those are all common compound time signatures. Both of these examples have an overall feel of four beats in a bar, but the beats are subdivided differently. So have a listen to the example of simple time. (meter ticking) (drum thumping) Did you hear how we can count one and, two and, three and, four and. And now have a listen to the example of compound time. (meter ticking) (drum thumping) Because that's in threes, you can hear one and a, two and a, three and a , four and a. True or false. Compound time signatures are more complex than simple time signatures, so they do not get used often. Is that true or false? Well done if you've got false. While slightly more complex than simple time signatures, to compose or play using compound time signatures is not particularly difficult. Compound time signatures are extremely common, including in popular music styles. The key to identifying compound time is counting the three quavers in each beat. Have a listen to these three clips and count the quavers in each beat. Can you identify which one of these clips is in compound time? Have a listen to the clips now. (rhythmic percussion music) (meter ticking) (rhythmic music) (meter ticking) (rhythmic music) Which one did you think was in compound time? If you got the third one, well done. Once we've identified that a time signature is compound, we can then identify the number of beats. The most common compound time signatures are 12/8. It has four beats in a bar, so quadruple compound time. Have a quick listen to that. (rhythmic percussion music) 9/8, so that has three beats in a bar. That's triple compound time. You can listen to that. (rhythmic percussion music) And then 6/8, that's two beats in a bar, duple compound time. So have a quick listen to that. (rhythmic percussion music) Which compound time signature has three beats in a bar? Is it A, 6/8; B, 9/8; and C, 12/8? Which do you think? Well done if you got B. 9/8 has three beats in a bar. Name a compound duple time signature, compound duple. Have a think. Well done if you've got 6/8. So let's move on to Task B. Have a listen to these four clips. Is each one simple or compound and duple, triple or quadruple. Name the time signature in each clip. So go ahead, pause and have a listen to the four clips. How did you get on? So clip one was compound quadruple. That's 12/8. Clip two was compound duple. 6/8 was the time signature. Three was simple quadruple. That's 4/4. And clip four compound triple, that's 9/8. Hope you got on okay with those. Let's move on to part three of our lesson, irregular time signatures. An irregular time signature is one in which the number of beats, so the top number, cannot be divided by two, three or four to create a whole number. Can you think of any examples? The most common are time signatures with five or seven beats. And examples of that might be 5/4, 7/8 and 7/4. Time signatures are irregular if you cannot count consistent groups of two or three continuously. In 3/4, you can continuously count groups of three beats. See one, two, three there. In 4/4, you can continuously count groups of two beats. So one two, one two in a bar of four. How could we divide up a bar of 5/4 using two and three? Have a think. Did you decide how to count it? You can divide a bar of 5/4 into a group of three and then two. One two three, one two. Or you can do two then three. One two, one two three. How might you divide up a bar of 7/8? Think about that. We could count three, two, two. So one two three, one two, one two. Or two, two, three. One two, one two, one two three. Sometimes the way you want to count a bar just depends on the context and the piece of music. Which of these is an irregular time signature? Is it A, 6/8, B, 3/4, C, 11/8, or D, 3/8? Pause and have a think Well done if you've got C, 11/8. Can't divide 11 by two or three. If we identify that repeated groups of only two or only three do not fit within the bars, we know it's an irregular time signature. Then by counting the number of beats in each bar, we can work out the time signature. Focus on identifying the number of beats, for example, it might be five or seven, rather than trying to identify the difference between 5/8 and 5/4, for example, as that can be quite hard to determine just by listening. Have a listen to this example and work out the beats. Can you count repeated groups of two or three? If not, how many beats seem to fit in a bar? Have a listen. Well done if you are able to count five. There are five beats in a bar. So this time signature is either 5/4 or 5/8. Which counting method best suits 7/8? So is it A, one two three, one two, one two? Is it B, one two, one two, one two, one? Is it C, one two three four five, one two? Or D, one two three, one two three, one? Which counting methods do you think best suit 7/8? Well done if you've got A, one two three, one two, one two. It's a common way of counting 7/8. Let's do Task C. Identify if the time signature is irregular, simple or compound in each clip, then name the time signature. So pause and have a listen to these clips. How did you get on? Clip one was compound. That's 12/8. Clip two was irregular. That was in 7/8. Did you hear that? Clip three was also irregular. That was in 7/4. And clip four was irregular again. That was in 5/4. Some quite tricky counting there. I hope you got on okay. Let's summarize today's lesson on understanding meter. Time signatures, or meter, can be grouped into simple, compound and irregular time signatures. Simple time signatures have two quavers in each beat. Compound time signatures have three quavers in each beat. Simple and compound time signatures can also be described as duple, two, triple, three, or quadruple, four beats. Irregular time signatures cannot be counted with groups of only two or three beats. Examples of this are 7/8 and 5/4. I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.