Described in the simplest terms, meter is the repetition of counts or a grouping of counts.  Based on these groupings, music is broken up in to smaller units called bars or measures.  The organization of beats, or pulses and their subdivisions within each measure define the meter as duple, triple, compound, or odd.

 

 

The term: Duple meter implies that the measures are divisible by groups of two counts (or larger groups divisible by two).  2/4, 4/4, 2/2, 4/2, etc.  In 2 / 4, for example, there are two counts per measure, and the quarter note is the note value for each count.

 

 

In triple meter, the measures are divided up into groups of three counts.  The most common time signatures in triple meter are 3 / 8, and 3 / 4.

 

 

Compound meters are usually signified by 6/8, 9/8, or 12/8. These are meters, which may have a duple or triple “feel,” as the above meters, but are characterized by the fact that the individual counts are divided by three rather than two.  In 6 / 8, for example, there is primarily a duple feel, the counts are divided by two, rather than three.  9 / 8 would be considered a triple meter with triplet subdivisions, or triple compound.

See the Meter Cheat Sheet for comparisons of simple and compound meter

 

Odd meters usually include, but are not limited to 5/4, 5/8, 7/4, and 7/8, meaning they have five and seven counts per measure, respectively.  These are referred to as being odd meters because they are asymmetrical and, aurally, go against the even phrases of 4 or 8, or their multiples, which we are used to hearing.  Odd meters can be very interesting because they can add or omit moments in time and space which would normally exist in symmetrical phrases to change the feel, shape, and character. 

 

Generally, these types of meters are broken up into smaller groups.  For example, 5/8 might be broken up into two smaller micro-phrases, one of three counts and one of two counts or vice versa. 

For example 3 + 2

or 2 + 3

Meters like these might be used to create a phrase, which might be, in nature, less stable, or to combine different qualities of movement.  For instance, there might be 3 counts of movement with a pendular quality, commonly associated with triple, followed by 4 counts of movement, which is more “straight.”

It is not uncommon for modern dance teachers to combine meters.  A simple example this would be the use of 4 / 4 and 12 / 8.

 

 

One of my (two) favorite “odd” meters is actually a combination of meters:

9/8 + 2/4 (or 13/8).

Here is an example of the melding of triple compound and duple simple meters.  As a phrase, it has five main counts, or pulses, but they are not all of the same duration.  Broken down as 3 triple counts plus 2 duple counts, it might be counted like this: 1  & a 2  & a 3  & a 1  & 2  &

 

On one occasion during a modern technique class, the teacher created a phrase using repeated combinations of three different meters.  The phrase was organized as such: three bars of 13 / 8 (9 / 8 + 2 / 4) followed by three bars 5 / 4.

 

 

 

This type of counting can get tricky, but everyone in the class was able to pull it off and there was definitely a different feel to the movement which, may not have been found with out switching meters around. 

 

Another odd meter commonly used is 10 / 8.  This might be counted as ten counts, two sets of 5 counts, or even something like 3 + 3 + 2 + 2, or 6 + 4.

  

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