Can You Count This? Where Simple Meets Compound - PHH 146

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Welcome to the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I'm Ann Sullivan, a harpist on a mission to empower every harpist to experience more harp happiness. Over my decades long harp journey, I've had lots of successes and more than a few failures. And I know firsthand what it's like to feel that playing the harp the way you want may not be possible for you. Now, I play and teach all over the world, and I know what most harpists are never taught the secrets to gaining the skills and confidence you need to play the harp with beauty, freedom and joy. That's what the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast is all about, showing you simple steps to help you play the music you want the way you want. If you're an experienced harpist looking for that next level, or a harp newbie anxious to avoid the pitfalls, or a harpist who just wants more fulfillment and a little encouragement, you're in the right place, my friend. So let's get started. Welcome to the show. See if you can guess the answer to this what sometimes feels gently rocking like a boat on a lake on a calm summer's day, and other times puts a lively spring into your step. It isn't hard, but it's never simple. You've almost certainly encountered it in your harp music, and even though you may be able to play it easily, you may not be able to explain it. You might think of it as double trouble or as a triple threat in the way it compounds the challenges in your music.

Can you guess what it is? Well, if you're the type who likes to figure things out, then pause the podcast here for a moment and then come back when you're ready for the answer. Okay, you ready? Here's one final the answer is a meter signature, and I know it's one. You know, maybe you've guessed it. The meter signature or time signature, I mean, is six eight. I know you've seen it and played it. Green sleeves or what child is this is a melody that's most often written in 6 8. It has that gentle lilt to it, like the rocking boat I mentioned a moment ago. Irish jigs think the Irish washerwoman are very often in 68 time. That's the other side of 6 8. The rollicking, dancing side. Today I'd like to discuss some of the important characteristics of 6 8. Not just how to count it, but why we count it that way. We'll touch on the other time signatures that share those same attributes, ones that may puzzle you when you first encounter them, like 6, 4, or 128 or 3 2. We'll also talk about the practicalities of these meters, what kind of fingering or placing strategies are best, and why. And along the way we'll clear up some of the music terminology that may be confusing. I want you to come away from this episod episode feeling like you've learned something useful and practical, something that will help you play the harp better. Not just today, but over the long term too. I do have a couple of reminders for you before we get going. Today is our first podcast in March and so you are welcome to join us on our March Hub Challenge for the month of March. We are running a challenge called Jigging it like an Irish Jig and it kind of goes with our podcast theme for today, but it has easy prompts that follow all the way through the month of March. We had a lot of people participate in our February Challenge, which was on expression and in fact on the live Monday warmup this week, which either will be happening or has happened depending on when you're listening to this, the live Monday warmup for March 4th, we will be announcing announcing the winner of our February Challenge. If you're not already a member of the Heart Mastery Hub, this is our social media free social platform. It's totally free. You only need to register with your email. There's no, you know, we don't do pictures of food. We there are no ads. There's nothing that, you know, Facebook like about it except that you can participate. And we've got these monthly challenges. We always have a little prize winner for the for the challenge. Every month we have different kinds of meetups and the live Monday warmup always happens in the Hub on Monday morning at 11:00am Eastern Time. And the warmups, if you were listening to our podcast episode last week, that would be episode 145. That was a play along episode and and I got some terrific feedback about how interesting it was to play along and think about tone in that sort of slow, focused kind of way. This is the sort of thing that we do every week in the Hub on our live Monday warmups and I invite you to join us there. So all you need to do is register in the Hub and you'll have access to it. We do the warmups, broadcast them live in our Facebook group, the Harp Happiness HQ Facebook Group, and on our YouTube channel as well. But when you join them through the Hub, the access is a little bit easier and the commenting is a little bit easier. So while you can use any of those platforms, I invite you to Join the Hub. And of course, that's where our challenges are in the Hub. So quick reminder there to start our new Jigging It March challenge and join us for that. And of course, I want to remind you to join, if you haven't already, to register and join our Finish It Intensive. It's starts a week from today, starts Monday, March 11th. Although we have a kickoff party on Friday, March 8th, a little startup launch party. That's going to be a lot of fun. And the Intensive is. I'm so looking forward to it. It's all about how to finish your pieces in a very clear way that I've never taught before. You know, finishing pieces. This is something I've done all my life. You know, I'm a professional harpist. This is what we do, we finish pieces. But. But it's not always so easy to teach that. And you know, we talk about playing through things, we talk about playing past your mistakes, but really there's more to it than that. And over the past number of years, I've been really working hard at trying to figure out how to communicate that to harpists who have not experienced what it's like to finish pieces or who are or who have trouble finishing them on a consistent basis. So that's what this is about. And it's going to give you a really systematic way to look at the finish process. We're going to start with talking about what the finish means. That's our first workshop. Finishing is different for every piece. Finishing is different for different circumstances, for different people. So you get to define the finish by. But in the process of defining the finish, you're going to find out what it is you really need to accomplish, what those hallmarks of the finish are for that particular piece or in general. Our second workshop is the, the one I'm so excited about. I'm excited about all of them, but particularly about this one. And it's about the different kind of mindset that you need in order to really finish. It's. It's about finished practice, it's about playing practice, which is different from learning practice. And you have to know how it's different and then how to get to that mindset, how to make that switch so that you're practicing the right way and so that your mindset is correct when you want to play. It's very different to play a piece or to learn it. And I want to make that clear and I want to show you how to do it. So that's the second workshop. The third workshop is all about about starting your pieces so you can finish them. And it's not just about doing the right things, but it's about shortening the path, how to start the piece so you can create the shortest possible path for you from the start to the finish, which will give you a way to, to actually be able to predict more accurately how long it's going to take you to finish a piece. Are there things you can't account for along the way? Yeah, sure. But this is going to be able to give you the biggest jump start and you're going to be able to add, actually start finishing your pieces at the same time you're starting them. Pretty cool, right? So those are the three workshops, but there's so much more. We've got practice halls, we've got the startup party, we've got a post intensive call to help wrap things up. There's a live masterclass where I'm going to be able to help a few of our intensive students get the past, wherever they are, in a piece right now, and really get started on the finish. So we're going to be doing that as well. The workbooks that, there's the forum, the Finish it forum, where we can communicate live all the time. So there's so much going on and I really want you to be able to be a part of that. So you can click the link in the show notes or you can go to heartmastery.com, look under upcoming events and you'll see the Finish it intensive and you can jump in and register for that. I think it's a bargain at 47. There's a lot here, but I mean, really, what's, you know, would $47, would that be worth it to be able to finish one piece that, that piece that's been so elusive that you just can't quite get it to, to playing stage. You know, for me that would have been a bargain. I don't know about for you, but in any case, that's what it is. Go to that webpage, see everything that's included and please do it right away because we start our startup party is Friday, so it's coming up very soon. And I really, I'm so excited about sharing this information with you. I would like you to be able to finish your pieces to feel confident that you've, you know, that you're able to play the pieces the way you want. And the intensive is going to be a terrific way to learn how to do that. So if you haven't registered already, please jump in there and register Now. And now we're back to talking about 6, 8. You might be asking yourself, why talk about 6, 8? Of all the time signatures in the world, what is it about 6, 8? And why are we talking about a time signature anyway? Well, I'll try to make that clear as we go along. But here's the short answer. 6, 8 is an interesting amalgam of a couple different things that happen with meters and with time and with rhythm and. And so it's a really great way to look at how to count things and how to sort out rhythms and how to work your fingering so that you can really work on them well. But it also gives me an opportunity to hopefully clarify some of the terms that we use so that you can really understand what happens with time and music just a little bit better. And that's where I really want to start today. I want to clarify some of those terms. For instance, I just used the term meter and meter signature. And maybe you're used to calling it a time signature. As terminology goes, meter signature and time signature are pretty much interchangeable. I mean, there's nothing wrong with calling it one or the other. What I like about the word meter is that it implies what is so critical about those numbers that we have at the beginning of our music. And that is that it's a meter. It's a pattern. It's a pattern that repeats. Meter is so much a foundation of everything that we do in music. And it's that primeval reaction to the beat. But it's not just beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, where all the beats are the same. Even our heartbeat, the beats aren't the same. Right. It's a pattern of beats where some are stronger and others are weaker. That pattern is what allows the music to feel like it's flowing and to give it a certain sense of predictability. If all the beats in music were the same, we wouldn't have the impulse to continue. But because there's a pattern of stronger beats and weaker beats, we get the sense of something coming next we can anticipate. And it's that cycle of repeating strong and weak beats, that pattern, that meter, that gives music its impulse. So meter is the foundation of the time element in music.

Above meter, we have rhythm. Rhythm is not the same as meter. Rhythm would be the note values that fit into that meter. Your eighth notes, your quarter notes, things with dots and ties and half notes and whole notes, the notes that you actually play. Those note values, quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, etc. They form the rhythm of the piece and the rhythm of the piece matches up. And overlays is an overlay to the meter of the piece. So that underlying that rhythm, we have the sense of meter. And in 6, 8, we're going to have a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, right? A 6, 8 meter has sort of two bigger accents. The first eighth note and the fourth eighth note. And then the others are weaker. And of course, that's what the numbers in a meter signature mean, right? The top number is the number of beats in a measure. You knew this. And the bottom number is the number of the note value that gets that beat. So six eight tells us there are six eighth notes in each measure, just the same way that four four tells us there are four quarter notes in each measure. So in those six eighth notes in six, eight, we have strong, weak, weak, strong, weak, weak, or strong beat, weak beat, weak beat, medium, strong beat. That's the fourth eighth note, weak beat, weak beat. So dum, bum, beep, bup, bump, beep, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup. And that's our pattern. And whether or not the notes that we play are exactly on those beats or over more than one beat or coming in between them, the 6, 8 doesn't alter. So that's the difference between rhythm, the notes that we're playing, and meter, the beat, the pulse of the music that's happening, whether that's exactly what we're playing or not. The third ingredient in time in music is tempo. Now, I have heard some people talk, talk about meter and tempo interchangeably, and they are not. Tempo is the speed. I know that tempo, as an Italian word, means time. But the meter is the pattern of the beats. The tempo is the speed of the beats. Meter might tell us that we have six eighth notes in the measure 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But it's the tempo that tells us how fast or slow those beats are, right? An Allegro 68 might be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4,. 5, 6. A Largo 68 might be 1, 2', 3, 4, 5, 6. Very, very different. So meter is the pattern. Rhythm is the note values. Tempo is the speed. Got it? Three different dimensions of time in music. And the one we're specifically talking about first in our discussion of 68 is the meter idea. Because that pattern of strong, weak, weak, medium, strong, weak, weak, right? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 is what lies at the heart of 6 8. Now, I said that 68 is kind of a special meter, and it is, because six eight is an interesting combination of Two things. It's a combination of two and it's a combination of three. Way back in the beginning of the show, I said, you know, I was a double treble or a triple threat. Well, this is what I meant. There are a couple different ways to look at 6, 8. 68 is considered a duple meter. Duple, as in double. Right. It's a duple, meaning that there are two big beats, 1 and 2. And now I was before counting it in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But those are the same two big beats, 1 and 2 and 1 and 2. And the fact that it has those two big beats means that we call it a duple meter. However, unlike some other duple meters like 24 or 22 in 6, 8, each one of those two big beats has three parts.

Think about 24 for a second. We'd be more likely to count 2, 4, 1 and 2 and 1 and 2 and. But not 6, 8. 68 still has two big beats, but we count each one of those in three parts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1 and 2. And so that each one of those big beats is divided into. Into 3, not into 2. And that's what makes 68 as a duple meter, different from 2 4. For instance, as a duple meter, a meter like 24 or 2 2, where we would usually count 1 and 2, and that's called a simple meter, meaning that the beats are normally divided into two parts or four parts. But a triplet would be something outside the norm. In a regular 24 kind of meter, we'd usually have 1 and 2. And every once in a while we might see a triplet, but the triplet is the special thing. But in 6, 8, the triplet is the norm. A group of two would be unusual. We usually have 1 and a 2. And so the meters like 2, 4 and 2 2, we call simple meters. 68 is a compound meter, meaning that its beat is usually divided into three. So now you've got a couple more terms to add to our new definitions of meter and rhythm and tempo. You have simple meters, which are normally divided into two parts for each beat. And you have compound meters, where the beats are usually divided into three. Now, what makes 6 8, interesting this way is that it allows us to hear it a couple different ways. You could hear 6, 8 as a duple compound meter, which is what it is, where it's got two big beats and each big beat has three parts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Or if you didn't know what you were listening to, you weren't looking at the music. You were just hearing it. You might hear it as 3, 4, where it was 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

So that one measure of 6, 8.

Could sound like two measures of 3, 4.

Interesting. So this is why every once in a while, you'll run into a piece like Greensleeves, which would most often be written in 6, 8, and it'll be written in 3, 4. Oh, interesting. So 34 as a meter is a triple meter because it has three beats in it. And it's a simple meter because each beat would normally be divided into two parts, not triplets. So 6, 8 has 6 8th notes in it, and it's a duple compound meter. 34 could also have 6 notes, 6 8th notes in it, but it's a triple simple meter. More terms. Okay, that's what I wanted to share with you so that you understood a little bit more about the counting of six, eight. But I can hear you saying, okay, okay, enough with the theory stuff. Anyway, get to the practicalities. How am I going to use this in my playing? I know I tend to geek out on the theory stuff. It was something I taught for years, and it's something that is so fascinating to me how the components of music work together. But I realize that may not be what you're listening to this podcast for. So we're going to get practical right now. What I want to explore with you right now are the two kinds of really common rhythms that happen in 6, 8, and how you're going to play them both from a rhythmic perspective and from a fingering, placing perspective. And so we're going to consider this by using Greensleeves, that melody, as a model, mostly because it has both of these rhythms that I want to talk about right in there. So here's just a little bit of the opening of Green Sleeves.

Maybe you're able to picture in your mind's eye what that rhythm looks like on the page. But just in case you can't, let me just make sure that we're talking about the same thing. Remember that I talked about those two big beats in six, eight, right? One and two. And. Well, each one of those big beats would be represented by a dotted quarter note. And so when you see those dotted quarter notes in the measure, you know that that's taking up that entire big beat, either 1, 2, 3, or 4, 5, 6. But the rhythms that we most often play aren't in the big notes. They're in the little notes, the easy Ones to interpret are the ones where you have 3 8th notes. Just 1, 2, 3, or 4, 5, 6. That's really easy to see and play, right? But the combination of note values is a little bit trickier. Perhaps the Most common in 6, 8 would be a quarter note followed by an eighth note. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1. And you'll recognize that's the beginning of Greensleeves, right?

6, 1, 2, 3, 4th, 5. Right, so it's. We have the. What would be an eighth note, then a quarter note, an eighth note, and then onto the next note. So that long, short, long, short one. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Nice characteristic. It's got that rocking sound, exactly what we expect 6, 8 to be. The reason I'm mentioning it is not necessarily because you don't know how to count it, because I expect you probably do. But I want you to think about those long notes as fingering opportunities. And this is what I mean. Now, you could take that entire little section that I just played for you and connect all that fingering, right? You could connect all of this.

But what if instead of connecting it, you used that long note, that quarter note, as an opportunity to lift, an opportunity to raise, if that's the word you use, but to get off the string rather than staying connected to it. Okay, now, I could sense that that was sort of rocking your world. Perhaps, at least for some people listening, that might be something different. Well, you know, I like to connect because I have my fingers on the strings. Yeah, I get it. And sometimes connecting something like that is a wonderful way to get a sense of legato. If the tempo is very fast. Talking tempo, talking speed. Again, if the tempo is very fast, it's a great way to get. Keep the line going, to have your fingers connected and staying on the string. But if the tempo's slow enough, you can use that to help put some air into the line. Let it breathe, let get some relaxation going in your own hands, right? But to help create this sense of lift and sustain in the line that we don't necessarily get just from connecting. It's something worth trying. Just remember that the rule is this. Connect from the short note to the long note, lift on the long note, and that's that L thing you can remember. Lift on the long note, don't lift on the short note. So in that same phrase, we have short, long, short, long. So you're going to lift on the long, connect from the short to the long, lift on the long, connect from the short to the long, and lift on the Long. I invite you to try that kind of fingering. If you're used to connecting all your fingers, especially at a slow tempo, then this might give you a new way to listen to your music. And you might enjoy the added resonance and the added life that the lift gives to your sound. Doesn't have to be a big one, just a little one. Just getting off the string and moving your hand away from the string just a little bit. Remember, I can't stress this enough. Lift on the long, connect from the short note to the long note. Got it? Okay, that's important because I'm going to talk about that other rhythm, the one that comes right after that in the Greensleeves melody. It's this.

And if you were looking at that in music, that would be a dotted 8th, a 16th note, and an 8th note going to the next note. So it would come out if you were counting it. Four, five and six. You've seen that it's all over pieces in six, eight, bum, badum, badum, that little hoppy rhythm that just moves things along. In 6, 8, whether it's a slow piece or a fast piece, you're almost certain to find it 4, 5 and 6, or 1, 2 and 3, dotted 8th, 16th and 8th. I'm mentioning that here because the same lifting or connecting principle applies. So that long Note, the dotted 8th in the beginning, is a place for you to lift. The place for you to connect is from the short note to the next long note, and maybe even the next two in that case. Right? So you're going to lift on 4, 4, 5 and 6 1. That might be where you want to connect. If you look at your placing that way, lifting on the long notes, placing from the short note across to the next long note, you may find that it also helps your reading ahead that you don't get stuck so often at the beginning of that next measure or at the beginning of that next big beat, but that it helps you get across that barrier and move into the next beat. Thinking about your fingering in terms of the musical flow like that can be very helpful. Remember, you don't have to connect everything. You only need to connect what seems to get stick together musically or what actually helps you play. When your fingering gets too complicated, it sometimes can actually get in your way. So don't be afraid to experiment with smaller groups of connected notes, especially at a slower tempo. As I mentioned before, at a fast tempo, you're going to want to have more fingers connected to the strings more of the time, because it's Going to give you more security and more speed, but at a slow tempo. Don't be afraid to incorporate that air and that relaxation into the sound. So, something to think about. One more quick little music theory kind of tidbit, because I can't resist throwing it in here. I Talked about how 6, 8 is a compound meter. There are other compound meters that you may very well run into, or maybe you already have meters like 9, 8 or 12, 8 or 6, 4. Less likely to run into 12, 4. But it happens. Those meters are also compound meters where you've got a certain number of big beats in each measure, but each beat is divisible by three. And here's how you know if you're working in a compound meter or a simple meter. In a compound meter like 6, 8, for instance, the top number of those two is divisible by 3, but is not 3, 6, 6, 8, 6 is divisible by 3. You divide it by 3 and you get 2. So it's, you know, it's a compound meter and it's got two beats, because three times two is six. So it's a duple compound meter. Nine, eight, nine is divisible by three, but is not three. It's three times three. So it's a triple meter. It's got three big beats. And each beat is divided normally into three parts. So 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 12, 8. Guess what? It's a compound meter again, but it's a quadruple compound meter. It's like four beaks, four big beats. 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a. But each beat has three parts. Even if the bottom number isn't eight, but the top number is still divisible by three, but not three. It's a compound meter like 6, 4, 6, 4 has three, right? Divided by three, you get to two. It's a duple meter. Two big beads. Each big beat has three parts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But now the six parts are all quarter notes because the bottom number is four. Okay, so that's simple and duple, or simple and compound meters for you, rather. 3, 4, 3, 2. That's a simple meter. Because it's only three. It's not a multiple of three. So that would be a simple meter where each beat is usually divided into only two parts. So there you go. Simple compound. It's kind of fun. One last thing. I should say that that lift on the long note concept doesn't just apply to 6, 8. It applies to any passage of running notes or any kind of rhythm, any place where you might need to adjust your fingering when you're writing in fingering, when you're trying to figure out the best fingering for a passage, remember that you're going to lift on the long note, connect from the short notes to the long notes. That's a concept that works for any kind of rhythm, any kind of meter. Okay? Now next week here on the podcast, we're going to be talking about how to study a piece. Not how to practice it, but how to study it, what to look for and what to listen for as opposed to what to do. So we often talk about studying a piece and I know that, that you're on top of that and you, you do all this sort of studying as you learn a piece, as you, maybe even before you learn a piece. But we're going to talk about all the different components that you might want to include and you can see which ones you're doing and maybe which ones you're missing and think would be helpful for you. So we're going to be talking about how to study a piece on next week's podcast. One more reminder to please check out the intensive. Our finish it. Intensive is so I think it's, I think it's earth shattering or, okay, that might be too strong a term. But this is material that I have wanted to figure out how to teach and I finally have a pretty good grasp on it and I think it's going to be so helpful for you. So while it may not, you know, rock your world, it actually might rock your world. So I really would love you to check out the intensive and, and register for that. And it's starting one week from today, so follow that link in the show notes or hop over to heartmastery.com and go to upcoming events and you'll find it there. And I hope to see you on the intensive and of course, I hope to see you right back here on the podcast next week. But in the meantime, remember, every day is a day. You can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp happiness and every day. See you next time.