Music Banter - View Single Post

Neapolitan · 05-06-2020, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by logic1976

Thanks for helping me out but I still don't get it. When you say that you're not supposed to add half notes together, on the contrary, in order to calculate if a bar accords with 3/4 time then it follows that one beat equals one-quarter note and there are to be three such beats in a bar. If two-quarter notes equals the same amount time as one-half note, then it follows that in the bass clef there are 6 beats, which is three too many. I still don't understand where the rest is supposed. Let's also break this down in terms of time. The tempo is set at 42 quarter notes per minute. 60/42 = 1.42. Hence two-quarter notes should be played 1.42 seconds apart and two half notes at 2.84 seconds apart. Each bar then should last 4.26 seconds. The bar in the bass clef would last 8.52 seconds.

It was an analogy. When you see bass and treble clef you're not adding all the notes together to get six quarter notes in the one measure. You understand there are two parts happening at the same time. Well the same is true in the bass clef in the third measure. There are two parts. The rest and the D note is one part, the B half-note and B quarter-note are another part. Each of part is in 3/4 time. Three notes: B D B. Each note is played are on the beat.

The composer wants the B to last for two beats, so he writes it as a half note, the D is to last two beats so he writes it as a half note. You're not to suppose to add there value together to get a whole note. All you have to do is play B D B on the beat. Three notes, three beats. There no other math involved.