on 6/13/03 9:17 AM, David W. Fenton wrote: > On 13 Jun 2003 at 4:54, David H. Bailey wrote: > >> When it gets time to learn about 6/8 time, I keep the same explanation. >> At first, of course, they learn counting 6/8 music in 6, but when we >> start to work on counting it in 2, I invariably get the question about >> why isn't there a 2 in the top part of the time signature. I answer it >> by explaining that there still are 6 beats in each measure, they just go >> by fast enough that conducting each individual 8th note would no longer >> be possible, so we start getting 2 pulses per measure. It looks like 2 >> beats, but the performer has to place 3 8th-note beats within each pulse. > > That's simply an incorrect explanation. > > There is not a 2 on top because there's no single digit to represent > the dotted half not that could be the bottom number.
There's always the semi-modern method of placing a digit over an actual note (2/dotted quarter, etc.) to represent this. Then again... we're used to the old way, and why fix what ain't really broke? :) ------------- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
