BPM vs Play Time
I am curious about how BPM works in Musescore, or regular sheet music for that matter.
As I understand time signatures, in a song that is 6/8 time, there are 6 beats per measure with the eighth note representing a beat. This song has 20 measures, the tempo is set to 120 beats per minute.
6 beats/measure * 20 measures / 120 beats/minute = 1 minute. However, when I play back the music in Musescore, the music takes 30 seconds to play. What am I not understanding?
Obviously, I very new to music notation. I thank Musescore for making learning music fun; I learned more about music in the past 3 months playing with this program than I have in the previous 4 decades of my life.
Also, how would I set the tempo marking: Allegretto or Prestissimo, eighth or quarter note, = 120 or 240?
(I currently have Allegretto (Eighth note = 240) with the tempo set to 120.) Thanks.
Comments
Normally, when you specify a tempo, you write in whether you want it to be the quarter note, eithth note, or whatever, but the default is quarter note for anything over 4, dotted quarter for 6/8, 9/8, or 12/8. I think musescore always uses quarter notes as units, however.
Regarding time signatures, conventional music theory would have you believe that the bottom unit of the time signature (the denomin ator as it were) represents the kind of note worth one beat.
This works fine for simple time signatures.
Compound time signatures - 6/8 9/8 12/8 etc - do not actually work this way, but, as Marc has hinted at, work with a dotted crotchet beat., so 6/8 is the compound equivalent of 2/4, 9/8 of 3/4 and 12/8 of 4/4.
Currently there is no way to define anything other than a crotchet as a unit of bpm in MuseScore, so if you are writing in a compound time signature you need to make the actual metronome mark quicker to compensate.
Regarding the tempo names, there are no fixed metronome markings for these, despite the fact that they are listed on any metronome you buy. Rather they are indicators of mood as well as tempo, and predate the invention of the metronome in usage.
In reply to Regarding time signatures, by ChurchOrganist
"Compound time signatures - 6/8 9/8 12/8 etc - do not actually work this way, but, as Marc has hinted at, work with a dotted crotchet beat., so 6/8 is the compound equivalent of 2/4, 9/8 of 3/4 and 12/8 of 4/4."
(Crotchet being the equivalent of a quarter note).
Thanks
In reply to Regarding time signatures, by ChurchOrganist
Just one addendum - whole MuseScore indeeds makes you enter the tempo (in the tempo text properties dialog) with quarter note / crotchet as the unit, you can certainly have the text say anything you like, including using the eighth note symbol from the F2 text symbol palette.
I thought this might be the case.
So basically, regardless of the time signature, the BPM need to be specified as Quarter notes (Crochets) per second. Which puts my music at 120 bpm. And the time signature is whatever I like within the "range" of the terms: "Allegretto (Quarter note = 120)" it is.
Before I go, I like to share one observation a friend of mine had on the subject of tempo: As I am my own conductor, musician and audience, I should play as fast or as slow as I want. And playing a piece of music slower or faster than the composer had in mind makes for some interesting variations.
The only reason it is important to get the numbers right is that I use the play back feature of Musescore to learn the rhythm and tempo of the music.
Again, thank you all.
In reply to Thanks Guys. by Steve Miller
"So basically, regardless of the time signature, the BPM need to be specified as Quarter notes (Crochets) per second."
To just emphasise Marc's point - it is just MuseScore that needs the BPM to be defined this way.
You can put any metronome marking you like as a tempo text for humans to read and they will interpret it accordingly whether it be a crotchet, minim, dotted crotchet or quaver beat.