There’s More to Playing the Piano


Chapter 18 - Compound Time Signatures

- a compound time signature – has twelve quavers in each bar. Rather than counting 12 quavers, we count four dotted-crotchet beats per bar. Count each bar like this: 1-and-a 2-and-a 3-and-a 4-and-a Compound - because each beat is “compounded” into three quavers. Quadruple - because there are four dotted-crotchet beats in each bar. If the top number of the time signature is a multiple of 3 (but not 3 itself), the piece is in compound time. ...

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