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Old 11-19-2018, 01:04 PM
philjs philjs is offline
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Location: Halifax, NS, Canada
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
My brain is currently wired to 4/4 time it would seem. My brain also likes to resolve melodies within 2 to 4 bars which is stifling a lot of creativity on my part. Why are there different time signatures, other than ease of notating?
Hi Barry,

To me the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 is the pulse: 3/4 is odd while 6/8 is even.

In 3/4 you've got an odd count to each bar often, for waltzes anyway, with the accent on the first beat of each measure, ie. | ONE two three | ONE two three | OR it can be counted as | One and Two and Three and | One and Two and Three and | but both give you three distinct beats in each bar.

In 6/8 you get an even count because the bar is divided into two groups of three (rather than three groups of two) usually with the accent on the first beat of each group of three, ie. | One and a Two and a | One and a Two and a | etc. As LJ pointed out, it can often be counted similarly to 2/4 because the accents are simply One Two, One Two, etc.

Hope this helps...

Phil
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