Entering a melody in 6/8 time

Henry Brooks · Post by **Henry Brooks** » 2 Jun 2014 10:46 am

I want to enter a melody in 6/8 time. I've selected a style which is in 6/8 time. But when I enter the notation window it shows 9/8 time. How do I get 6/8 from this, I don't understand? Need some help. Thanks.
Henry

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 2 Jun 2014 11:47 am

What style are you using? There aren't many stock BB styles in 6/8, but the style determines the time sig. You can override it - under the [Edit] menu there is an option for 'Set Time Signature (range of bars)' but that is for changing a section, not the entire song. Have you tried using an appropriate 3/4 style instead, and adjusting the instruments/tempo to that? Perhaps that won't work for your song, but there are a ton in 3/4. If you open the Style Picker (CTRL-F9) and click the filter button at the top you can select a time sig and other criteria to narrow your choices. Good luck!

Henry Brooks · Post by **Henry Brooks** » 2 Jun 2014 1:06 pm

Thank you for your reply. The style is PW_68CRV from SD#52. I have 2008.5 and the style picker doesn't have a filter option and the Set Time Signature is 4 base only. Henry

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 2 Jun 2014 1:43 pm

Just use 3/4 time with twice as many measures. I do that all the time.

Ian Worley · Post by **Ian Worley** » 2 Jun 2014 2:53 pm

Henry, I loaded that style and it works as expected in 2014. Do you actually see a 9/8 time sig in the notation window? It shows 3/4 in mine. BIAB only deals in 3 and 4, all other time sigs are combinations of those, plus triplets or straight eighth notes. Eighth note triplets in 3/4 gives you a 9/8 feel. The PW_68GRV style is set this way.

You might try saving it as a new style in StyleMaker then open the Misc Settings window (CTRL-F10) and switch from triplet feel to straight time. Also, as Erv suggests, if overall time is too compressed it will alter the feel. That style defaults at 130 bpm. If the tempo is significantly slower than that you could try [Edit] 'Expand (durations of chords by 2)' then double the tempo, or also reduce and halve the tempo if it's too spread out. Hit (CTRL-Z) a few times to undo if it doesn't help. When in doubt of course, you can always try my favorite solution and start over!

Henry Brooks · Post by **Henry Brooks** » 2 Jun 2014 3:25 pm

Erv and Ian. I guess I just don't get it. You could call the style 3/4 time but in the style picker it's labeled 6/8 and that's what I expected. I don't want to get to far off focus, which is to improve my playing.
Henry

Danny Sherbon · Post by **Danny Sherbon** » 16 Jun 2014 1:18 pm

Why not pick out one of the 12/8 styles and put two measures of the melody in one measure of 12/8. Should work and have the correct feel.