On Pg.18 of the Music Theory in Pracice workbook, note (3) states:

"except for in 3/8, do not beam together more than 4 semiquavers..."

yet on Pg.32 of the First Steps book (G2 section) it says you can beam together 8 semiquavers which could be replaced by a minim in 2/2, 3/2 & 4/2 time.

Have I misread this? If anyone can explain, I would appreciate any advice. Thanks

They are both right.
In simple time beam the semiquavers in beats. So, if beat is a crotchet as in 2/4, 3/4 etc then you can beam 4 semiquavers (one crotchet beat) together. If beat is a minim as in 2/2, 3/2, etc you can beam 8 semiquavers (one minim beat) together. Exception is 3/8 when you can beam 6 semiquavers to fill whole bar.

In case this helps to illustrate the above...

What's that saying? - a picture is worth a thousand words - or something like that anyway. Thanks Solari.

Sort of, I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm awful at reading stuff and forming a picture from it - to me it's easier to look at a picture in the first instance but I'm a bit dense like that! I wasn't treading on your toes or anything

Your post cleared that particular beaming issue up for me too

Icons from the Noticons thread btw

Thanks Jim and Solari - ....Beam together semiquavers in beats. If a crotchet beat, beam 4 semiquavers and if a minim beat, beam 8 semiquavers. Exception is 3/8 which can fill the bar. You both make it clear.............I just think note (3 ) is confusing as it tells you not to beam more than 4 semiquavers unless you're in 3/8!

Thanks again