How do you count out 3/8 time in Music?!


Question: Please, be as detailed as possible. I want to play a piece on clarinet called "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and it is in that time and I don't know how to count it out.


Answers: Please, be as detailed as possible. I want to play a piece on clarinet called "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and it is in that time and I don't know how to count it out.

In 4/4 time, there are 4 beats per measure and the quarter note gets the beat. But, when you play in 3/8 time there are three beats per measure and the eighth note gets the beat instead of the quarter note. Basically, every single note's value is double what it would be in 4/4. 16ths are counted as eighths, eighths as quarter, quarter as half, and so on.

It means 3 quaver beats in a bar. So I guess u can count "one-two-three, one-two-three" and so one. It's similiar to 3/4 (3 crotchet beats in a bar) but slightly faster

It's basically the same as counting in a quarter beat time; just count one-two-three. The 8 in the time signature just means that there are three eighth notes in a measure, rather than the regular quarter notes, which would be denoted by 4.

So, to count in three-eight, just give each eighth note one beat, give sixteenth notes a half beat (I was taught to say one-and-two-and-three-and) and thirty second notes a quarter of a beat (one-ee-and-a-two-ee-and-a...).

By the way, contrary to what a previous answerer said, 3/8 time is NOT necessarily faster than 3/4. The time signature has nothing to do with the tempo; you can find the tempo by reading the composer's marking (allegro, andante, largo etc.), and occasionally the composer or the editor will put a metronome marking with the tempo indication. I immagine that Dukas has given you an Italian tempo marking, and such a popular piece has probably been given a metronome marking by the editor. Don't be decieved by a time signature though; a piece in 3/8 or 3/16 or 3/256 (you'll never see this, but it's just for the example) is not made any faster by its time signature.

3/8 time should never be counted 1 2 3 unless the tempo is slow. 3/8 is rarely slow as it is a dance meter and therefore should be counted with 1 beat per bar. There are 3 "small" beats but the pulse should be felt only once on the first of each bar. Counting it 1 2 3 is incorrect when 3/8 is a dance tempo and in most cases a composer uses 3/8 to bring out the dance quality. The best way to count it is 1 La Li because it brings awareness to the strong 1st beat and teaches you that there are not 3 beats in the bar but that strong single pulse.

How you count it will depend on the tempo. generally it is similar to counting in 3/4.
In a fast tempo it is usually best to count 1 beat to the bar with 3 sub-divisions. so count 1-and-uh or trip-e-let.

sometimes it may be better to count the hyper-meter, and count the same way you would count 6/8 (sometimes in 9/8 or 12/8 depending on the phrase structure). to do this you have to find where the phrases are so that the stronger hyper-metric beats are the 1 of the 6/8 and the weaker hyper-metric beats are the 4 of the 6/8.

in a slow 3/8 you count much the same way you do in 3/4. remember that each beat has a different character to it, and this character can change depending on what genre of piece you're playing.

usually 1 is the strongest beat, 2 is an after-beat, 3 is anacrucic.
one (of several) exception is in a sarabande this changes so that 1 is a weakly accented downbeat, 2 is an accented syncopation, 3 is anacrucic.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a relatively fast piece of music (at least, once it takes off; the first couple of minutes are slow but once the famous bassoon melody comes in, it takes off.) Since the 3/8 meter occurs during that fast section, you should count it as if it was in 1, with each group of 3 eighth notes occurring with each downbeat of the music.

If this seems confusing, just rent the Disney movie "Fantasia" (or "Fantasia 2"), and listen to the section when the brooms start coming alive.

Unbelievable. It's incredible how our school music programs have failed us. Almost all of these posted answers are incorrect.
3/8 time simply means that there are 3 beats in a measure and the eighth note gets the beat. If you tap your foot while you play, each tap would occur on the eighth note or eighth rest. The song you are talking about is in the lesson book Accent on Achievement book 2 that I teach out of at school. You can hear the song on you tube if you type in the name in the search engine. Practice tapping your foot to the beat.



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