in compound time??

How on earth would I write this sensibly?

Would it involve a sextuplet or something like that?

Write eight semiquavers with the figure '8' above them.

probably, but its tooooo late to think!

I'll probably get it in the middle of the night and forget it by the time I get up...

If you have an alternative solution, I'd be glad to hear it...

Didn't see your post.. Yes that would work! Thanks

You're welcome!

Eight dotted semiquavers.

Not necessarily better, but certainly an alternative.

That would be a publishing house's and performer's/sight reader's nightmare...!
But that does not add up to a dotted crotchet!!!

I thought it would be 8 semiquavers written with a 6 over the top ie 8 notes in the time of 6 but just looked this up in the AB Theory Book One by Eric Taylor.

It suggests a dotted crotchet can be divided into 4 semiquavers with a 4 over the top so perhaps 8 semiquavers can be two groups of this. 4 notes in the time of 3 twice. It's on p40.

I think this adds up.

Not sure. I'm sure I've encountered something like that in sightreading (but can't remember where) and not had a problem with it.

Hrmph. No, it doesn't, does it? 8 dotted demisemis then.

The figure on top of the notes should be the number of notes actually notated (and not what the time value they should be played in). Thus, the figure on top should always be 8.

There is no rationale for writing two groups of notes of 4 as the beat is a dotted crotchet and not half a dotted crotchet.



Yes, that would be an alternative. Not convinced it would be popular with the publishing houses.

In my context it does make a bit more sense musically though.

How? What is the time signature of the passage? *intrigued*

Chopin is well known for this sort of figures: For examples, please see Nocturne Op9 No1 or Op27 No2: http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/compositions_b/noct9_1.pdf

Yes - the example on p40 is for compound time and you can't have one dotted crotchet in compound time. It has to be two dotted crotchets or more, so would two groups of 4 quavers with a 4 over the top give eight quaver notes of equal value in, say, 6/8 time? Ah - so you must be right - to make semiquavers mean the same thing it would have to be 2 groups of 8 semiquavers with an 8 over the top as you have already said.
Ummm - I'm off to watch Dr Who - taped from last night!

When you are in simple time and use tuplets, the rule is simple: you use note values that would add up to more than the total time but less than twice that e.g. one crotchet becomes triplet quavers but quintuplet semiquavers. Composers' actual practice when splitting compound time is not consistent, so you could use 8 semiquavers or 8 demisemiquavers, but I suspect most people would prefer the first. 8 dotted demisemiquavers, without 8 over the top, is correct, but ugly.

I completely agree with you!

I would also extend that rule to compound time, hence my use of 8 semiquavers (more than 6 semiquavers in a dotted crotchet but less than the value of 12).