Welcome, this is Terry Ewell and this is your video on meter in music. This video supports the reading that is required by Catherine Schmidt-Jones. It is also with the same time, on cnx.org.
One way I found very helpful to determine the meter in music is to use the names of two fruit. So I guess this is the fruit method. The word “Apple” gives you divisions of two of the beat. “Apple, apple, apple…” Divisions of two are always simple meter. The word “pineapple,” pineapple, pineapple, pineapple…, gives three divisions. So a way of determining if it is in simple meter or compound meter is to try to say those words or thinks those words while the music is going on. We will practice here in a moment.
You will also see in the Schmidt-Jones article (that is referenced above), you will see that we present duple with two beats, triple, and quadruple. We first classify meters by whether they are simple or compound and then by the number of beats in the measure. (In other words) how many beats it takes to get to the stressed beat or the downbeat.
With duple you have stressed and unstressed. ONE two, ONE two… With triple you have three beats, one stressed in the three. ONE two three, ONE two three…etc. So something that is simple duple means divisions of the beat of two and it has two beats in the measure.
Let’s take a look hear and listen to some examples. I have several examples lined up, several of which come from that website. You will find that the majority of Western music, that is classical music and American (and Western!) popular music makes us of simple meters, that is, divisions of two. Let’s take for instance, this example from a Bach violin suite.
Here you go. [Music Bach Violin Suite and saying “apple, apple,” “ONE two”]
OK, so this one I can clearly say “apple” during it. I can’t say “pineapple.” [singing]
So it is clearly divisions of two. So this is simple time. And this is a duple meter because the accented beat comes every other beat. I was able to say “ONE two).
Here is another one. Let’s see what we have here.
[Music, a second movement of a Bach violin suite.]
Apple, apple… Clearly this is simple meter. ONE two three, ONE two three. . .
OK so here I have simple triple meter because there are clearly three beats in a here. Let’s have an example of simple quadruple again from J. S. Bach
[Music, another movement of a Bach violin suite.]
Apple, apple… ONE two three four, ONE two three four…
OK, so you have an example here. That was the simple quadruple meter.
Here is a popular song “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles. Let’s see what kind of meter we have here.
[music by Ray Charles]
Apple, apple,… I know that this is in Blues 12-bar form. So I will count that out for you. ONE two, TWO two, THREE two, FOUR two, FIVE two, SIX two, SEVEN two, EIGHT two, NINE two, TEN two, ELEVEN two, TWELVE two.
OK, so clearly I could say the “apples” and I knew that the form was 12-bar blues and this one happens to be in 2/4 or duple meter.
Let’s see what this other one is. “Yesterday,” which is another popular song.
[music “Yesterday”]
ONE two three four, …Apple apple
OK so this was in simple quadruple.
OK, so here is another one, “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.
[music “Satisfaction”]
Apple, apple… ONE, two, three, four… Again this is a simple quadruple meter for the movement.
Let’s move on to some compound meter examples. This is far less common in both the Western classical art tradition as well as in popular song. Here are a couple of J. S. Bach works.
[music J. S. Bach violin suite]
Pineapple, pineapple, … ONE two ONE two…
OK, so you can see here that this is compound time as I was having the divisions of three. Pineapple, pineapple… This was duple, ONE two ONE two.. pineapple, pineapple… Here’s one that is compound triple.
[music J. S. Bach violin suite]
Pineapple, pineapple, … One two three.
This is a little less common as a form (of meter). This has the (pineapple) compound divisions of three.
There is a popular song that I was able to find called “Blueberry Hill” by Fats Domino that also has this compound division. Let me pull this up and listen to this.
[video “Blueberry Hill”]
Pineapple, pineapple,.. ONE, two, three, four, ONE….
Now they are enjoying themselves! Good. You can certainly watch that on YouTube. That particular song. That was compound quadruple.
I hope that this has given you a nice overview. Be sure to read the article and gain a bit more understanding of these terms and how they work in music.