Hi.
I am studying hard for the grade 5 theory paper, and I haven't done any of the preceding four. I am working my way through the "Music Theory In Practice" books, and although my tutor is practically very good, he isn't instilling me with confidence with the theory bits.
For those of you who have access to the books (and who know the solution) my problem is with "Music Theory In Practice Grade 4" excercise 18 b. Rewriting pieces of music into a different time signature without changing the effect.
Take bar 1 in its original 4/4 time,
a triplet followed by a minim followed by 2 quavers.
I have rewritten this into the given time signature of 12/8 considering that I should isolate the beats
3 quavers (1st beat), a dotted crotchet (2nd beat) a tie to another dotted crotchet (3rd beat) followed by a duplet.
I have followed the tied dotted crotchets bit through each bar, except the last which is dotted minim, dotted crotchet, dotted crotchet.
My tutor is unsure of wether it is right to use tied dotted crotchets, or wether just dotting the minims would correct.
I do hope this post makes sense to someone other than me, and you all don't think i've gone bonkers

I haven't got the Grade 4 theory book to hand at the moment, but from what you say, it's definitely OK just to put a dotted minim. You don't need to split and tie - after all, in the original it's not split and tied as two crotchets!

Yeah I thought about that, but then I thought about isolating the beats and making them easier for the eye to see, and also thinking about the dotted minim being right across the middle of the bar.
Is it OK to be straight across the middle of a bar in 12/8?

If the minim is across the middle of the bar in the 4/4 example, then yes!

Fletch

18( in 12/8 would be: 3 semiquavers, dotted minim, duplet, etc, with a dotted minim in each bar. This is because 2 full beats in compound time are written as a dotted minim and shouldn't be replaced by tied dotted crotchets.

Jen

Yep I saw that one, but opted for the tied crotchets because I thought isolated the beats. Hey ho! better to get it wrong in the work book than in the exam. Thank you all

Hmmm.... how did that emoticon creep in in place of a b, as in 18b????? (Sorry about that...)

That happened to me once! It's because if you type a B and then a ) you get that emoticon. It's like if you type : and then ) then you get

You can get around it by unticking (uncrossing!) the box at the bottom of the text box in which you type your post that says 'Do you wish to enable emoticons for this post?'. Then you can type b) as much as you like!

QUOTE (Fletch @ Oct 3 2004, 03:53 PM)

Yeah I thought about that, but then I thought about isolating the beats and making them easier for the eye to see, and also thinking about the dotted minim being right across the middle of the bar. Is it OK to be straight across the middle of a bar in 12/8?

Some composers would agree with you, but they would not have written the original the way it is.