Specifically, I mean 3/4 and 6/8.

Of course, Being a musician of reasonable proficiency, I do know the difference. However, my maths teacher (who is an organist) and I were trying to explain to a non-musician how it all worked, and we found ourselves lacking. What is the best way to inform a non-musician as to the differences between 3/4 and 6/8?

6/8 is often counted in two, two groups of 3 quavers. 3/4 is always counted in three, and the beam and rest groups differ from 6/8 to 3/4.

3/4 is three beats which subdivide into 2.
6/8 is 2 beats which subdivide into 3.

^ ^ ^ ^

What they said.

Exactly. When I was at school I WOULD not be convinced of this. It took ages for the penny to drop!!!!

Simple vs compound: It's the difference between iambic metre: "he jests at scars that never felt a wound" (de da, de da, de da, de da, de da) and anapestic metre: "the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold" (di de diddle, de diddle, de diddle, de dum).

OR, it's like a joke: It's the way you tell 'em - it's all in the timing!

Yeah, you could demonstrate using two different phrases with the appropriate timing, i.e. 3/4: "3/4 is for waltzes!" and 6/8: "Educate - 6 on 8!"

~Wobby~

3/4 is Diddle Diddle Diddle
6/8 is Diddely Diddely

They're the same number of quavers, but 3/4 is 3 groups of 2 quavers (Diddle Diddle Diddle, e.g., a waltz) and 6/8 is 2 groups of 3 quavers (e.g., a jig).

It's such a shame that we don't widely dance these different grooves through our formative years ... if we did, we'd have no problem in understanding the significance of these time signatures.

6/8 = LA la la, LA la la

3/4 = LA la, LA la, LA la

3/4

-simple time
-grouping: 3 groups of crotchet value
-strong beat (bold) and weak beat in a bar:
1 2 3



6/8

-compound time
-grouping: 2 groups of dotted crotchet value
-strong beat (bold) and weak beat in a bar:
1 2

A non-musician would understand that 6/8 time could be counted as Pel-i-can Pel-i-can and 3/4 as coffee coffee coffee.