6/8 Time Signature: How to Count It, How It Differs From 3/4, and a Click to Practise With

What 6/8 time means

The bottom number says the eighth note is the written pulse and the top number says there are six of them. Six divides evenly into two threes, so the real beat is the dotted quarter note (three eighths long) and there are two of them per bar. That is what compound duple means: two beats (duple), each dividing in three (compound). 6/8 is to 2/4 what 9/8 is to 3/4 and 12/8 is to 4/4: the same number of beats, each one rolling in three instead of two.

The classic confusion is with 3/4. Both contain six eighth notes, so on paper they look like the same amount of music. They are not: 3/4 has three beats that each split in two (ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and), 6/8 has two beats that each split in three (ONE-and-a TWO-and-a). Same eighth notes, different accents, completely different feel, and swapping between the two inside a piece is the hemiola effect that America from West Side Story is built on.

How to count 6/8

Slow 6/8 (count all six): ONE two three FOUR five six, accents on 1 and 4, with the accent on 1 stronger than on 4. Use this while learning or for slow ballads.

Real-tempo 6/8 (count in two): ONE and a TWO and a, or just ONE TWO. Feel the two big beats and let the triplet subdivision ride underneath. This is how every jig and every 6/8 rock ballad is actually felt.

If you can count ONE two three FOUR five six and the music feels like it has three beats instead of two, you are in 3/4, not 6/8. The accent on 4 is the tell.

What 6/8 feels like

6/8 rocks. Two big beats per bar, each one bouncing in three, produces a sway that straight duple time cannot: fast, it is a jig or a tarantella; medium, it is a march that swings; slow, it is a lullaby or a power ballad. The triplet inside each beat is what does it, giving every beat a little lift at the end that pulls the music forward into the next one.

Songs and pieces in 6/8

• Jigs (Irish and Scottish traditional): the entire dance form is in 6/8, two lilting beats to the bar, and the best place to learn the feel.
• The House of the Rising Sun (The Animals): the arpeggiated guitar figure rolls through 6/8 for the whole song.
• Nothing Else Matters (Metallica): a slow 6/8 ballad, the fingerpicked intro counting out two rolling beats per bar.
• Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen, and most covers): notated in 6/8 or the equivalent 12/8 depending on the version, the guitar arpeggio rolling in threes either way.
• Tarantella (Italian traditional): a fast 6/8 in two, the frantic dance that is said to cure a spider bite.

How to practise 6/8 with a metronome

Tap two, not six. With the click running, tap only the accented pulses (1 and 4) until the bar feels like a gentle two. Then add the subdivision back in. Counting all six at tempo is how 6/8 ends up feeling stiff.

Use a word for the subdivision. Straw-ber-ry straw-ber-ry gives you two three-syllable beats per bar with the weight in the right place. Say it with the click before you play.

Test it against 3/4. Set the tool to 3/4 and then to 6/8 at the same eighth-note speed and listen to where the accents land. Being able to hear the difference is what stops you playing a jig like a waltz.

For the theory behind why the bottom number never changes a meter's class, and how simple, compound and odd meters relate, see Time Signatures Explained. For any meter not covered here, the odd meter metronome plays anything from 1 to 16 beats with its natural grouping.

Questions about 6/8