1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,781
[BLANK_AUDIO]

2
00:00:03,781 --> 00:00:06,800
Now let's move on to meter, as promised.

3
00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:08,530
As you might imagine, this is closely

4
00:00:08,530 --> 00:00:10,990
related to poetic meter or rhythmic
grouping.

5
00:00:12,340 --> 00:00:16,760
Music is most often organized into groups
of two, three, or four beats per bar.

6
00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:21,640
We use bar lines to indicate bar
boundaries and to make reading easier.

7
00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,620
Less standard groupings, or meters, would
be five, seven,

8
00:00:26,620 --> 00:00:29,780
eight, ten, or in fact, any number of
beats.

9
00:00:29,780 --> 00:00:32,550
So any grouping is possible, but two,
three

10
00:00:32,550 --> 00:00:34,600
and four beats per bar are the most
common.

11
00:00:36,420 --> 00:00:40,260
These bars then represent the meter, so
when we speak of duple

12
00:00:40,260 --> 00:00:44,670
meter, typical of marches for example, we
mean two beats per bar.

13
00:00:46,020 --> 00:00:49,410
Triple meter, typical of waltzes, would be
three beats per bar.

14
00:00:50,670 --> 00:00:54,570
Quadruple meter, or four beats per bar,
would be the four-four

15
00:00:54,570 --> 00:00:59,090
that's most common in western classical
music or electronic dance music.

16
00:00:59,090 --> 00:01:01,830
In fact it's so common that it's called
common time.

17
00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,260
Generally, we're talking about crotchets
or

18
00:01:05,260 --> 00:01:07,850
quarter note beats here, though it's
possible

19
00:01:07,850 --> 00:01:12,066
to have the beat be minims or quavers, or
any basic rhythmic duration.

20
00:01:12,066 --> 00:01:17,280
So though four-four, four crotchets per
bar, is most common, it's possible

21
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:21,720
to have quadruple meter with eighth notes
or minims as the basic beat.

22
00:01:23,330 --> 00:01:26,670
The way we indicate meter is with a time
signature.

23
00:01:26,670 --> 00:01:30,080
This consists of two numbers: a numerator
on top, and

24
00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:34,150
the denominator on the bottom as with
fractions in arithmetic.

25
00:01:34,150 --> 00:01:36,460
The numerator tells us how many beats
there are

26
00:01:36,460 --> 00:01:40,520
per bar, and the denominator indicates the
beat type.

27
00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:44,930
So four-four means four quarter notes or
crotchets per bar,

28
00:01:44,930 --> 00:01:49,390
whereas three-eighth means three quaver
or eighth notes per bar.

29
00:01:49,390 --> 00:01:54,920
Now, each of these bars has, or tends to
have, weak or strong beats.

30
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,250
In Western classical music, we tend to
favor

31
00:01:57,250 --> 00:01:59,360
the down beats, or odd beats, in general.

32
00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:03,370
If you have a four-four bar, that is a
quadruple

33
00:02:03,370 --> 00:02:07,950
meter, the accent would generally be on
beats one and three.

34
00:02:07,950 --> 00:02:11,170
So, for instance, if we listen to Mozart's
Eine kleine

35
00:02:11,170 --> 00:02:14,802
Nachtmusik, you can see quite clearly and
hear these accents.

36
00:02:14,802 --> 00:02:24,802
[BLANK_AUDIO]

37
00:02:25,848 --> 00:02:31,460
Some pop and jazz music on the other hand,
tends to favor the off or even beats.

38
00:02:31,460 --> 00:02:35,140
In a four-four bar this would be beats two
and four.

39
00:02:35,140 --> 00:02:39,980
And this gives it the characteristic
rhythmic feel we associate with this type

40
00:02:39,980 --> 00:02:44,474
of music, very often with a strong snare
drum stroke on those off beats.

41
00:02:44,474 --> 00:02:54,474
[MUSIC]

42
00:03:01,369 --> 00:03:03,620
It doesn't stop there, I'm afraid.

43
00:03:03,620 --> 00:03:09,380
In Western notation, we speak of two basic
types of meter: simple and compound.

44
00:03:09,380 --> 00:03:14,570
Simple meters are those that divide into
beats of two, four, eight, ect.

45
00:03:14,570 --> 00:03:17,100
So when we look at a simple four-four bar,
we

46
00:03:17,100 --> 00:03:20,950
tend to subdivide that into eighth notes,
sixteenth notes, etc.

47
00:03:20,950 --> 00:03:24,170
That is, groups of two, four, eight,
powers of two.

48
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,510
Compound meters, on the other hand, use
dotted rhythms as their

49
00:03:28,510 --> 00:03:32,180
basic beat, so it is very easy to
subdivide into three.

50
00:03:33,250 --> 00:03:36,060
The most common compound meter would be a
six-eight bar.

51
00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:41,190
This clearly does have six quavers or
eight notes per bar.

52
00:03:41,190 --> 00:03:44,780
But instead of being felt as six beats per
bar, it's felt as

53
00:03:44,780 --> 00:03:50,512
two dotted crotchet, or dotted quarter
notes per bar, each subdivided into three.

54
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:56,537
This allows us in this case to avoid
having to write tuplets all the time,

55
00:03:56,537 --> 00:04:00,619
or triplets, because essentially the
equivalent would be

56
00:04:00,619 --> 00:04:03,492
a triplet eighth note in a two-four bar.

57
00:04:03,492 --> 00:04:07,729
[BLANK_AUDIO]