Tempo doing my head in

Contratrombone64

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
OK - got a piece in 6/8 where the dotted minim (dotted half note for the yanks here) equals metronome 60. So every bar takes two seconds to play (got it?). Now the tempo changes to 3/4 but the relative speed of the quavers (8th notes) doesn't change from what they were previously in 6/8: what the hell does the tempo of the chrotchet (quarter note) become. I tried to figure it out logically and my brain performed a CTRL-Alt-Del on me ... David
 
Soubasse

Soubasse

New member
Oh bugger it, I posted then realised I did the calculations based on dotted crotchets, hang on ...

I'm really not sure if I'm doing this right, but:

Dotted minim = 60 therefore the dotted crotchets = 120, therefore quaver pulse would be quaver = 360 (3 x 120), therefore crotchet beat of new 3/4 tempo would be half of that quaver pulse, so crotchet = 180.

Bothers me because the reasoning looks shonky, but I've tried it with a metronome and it sounds right to me.
 
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Krummhorn

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
I was thinking on those same lines as Matt ... but none to confident enough to stick my neck out on the chopping block, so to speak :nut:
T'was having problems getting the 3 against 2 out of my noggin on this, too.
 
marval

marval

New member
Sorry David I have only just seen your cry for help. I wish I could help but I am afraid clueless, I am sure the advice you have had will solve your problem.


Margaret
 
Soubasse

Soubasse

New member
Krummhorn said:
I was thinking on those same lines as Matt ... but none to confident enough to stick my neck out on the chopping block, so to speak :nut:
T'was having problems getting the 3 against 2 out of my noggin on this, too.
Click to expand...

That was the first thing that bothered me, but technically speaking it's not 3 against 2 (as in triplet against duplet) if the quavers of the new 3/4 are the same tempo as the quavers of the previous 6/8. It's simply the same quaver beat re-grouped in twos (for the simple time sig) rather than threes (for the compound time sig). I know what you mean though, I was primarily worried I'd have to use ratios, and when it comes to working with ratios, I'm what you might call slightly crap.

EDIT: Have also tried my above calculations with a sequencer program where I did an audio recording of the onboard metronome clicks, and then aligned each clip snapped to the timing grid. For reasons that escape me, it worked!
 
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