Playing In 3/4 Time

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Everything we have been playing up to this point has been played in 4/4 time. Now we are going to take a look at 3/4 time or "waltz time", the other popular time signature used in folk guitar. I know, right now you are thinking "time signature?" When I say that a song is in 4/4 time that four slash four or four over four is a time signature. Up to now we have just taken for granted that 4/4 means four beats to a measure. Now we are going to work on 3/4 time which is three beats to a measure. See the connection? 4/4 time equals four quarter notes to a measure and 3/4 equals three quarter notes to a measure. Nothing to it, right?

In 4/4 time we play four quarter note strums with a count of "one, two, three, four."

In 3/4 time we play three quarter note strums with a count of "one, two, three."

It's a simple idea, but getting used to this new rhythm can be a little tricky. You have spent so much time working on developing a picking pattern in 4/4 time that 3/4 is probably going to feel a little strange. Try just working on strumming three beats or strums per measure for a little while and as you get more comfortable start blending in the alternating bass pattern.

In a basic picking pattern for 3/4 time you are only playing one bass note in each measure. To alternate the bass string in this setting you simply change your bass string in each measure.

Some folks think it's easier to count a pattern like this out as "Five-two-three, Six-two-three" where five and six are the bass strings. Try playing "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" in 3/4 time. Play it at a fairly slow speed and work on keeping that waltz feel to the rhythm. If the alternating bass pattern drives you crazy you can just play a monotonic bass using the fifth string, or just play three thumb brush strums in each measure.

"Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?"
3/4 Time Key of G

Who's gonna shoe your pretty little foot?
Who's gonna glove your hand?
Who's gonna kiss your red ruby lips?
Who's gonna be your man?

Momma will glove my hand.
Sister will kiss my red ruby lips
I don't need no man.

I don't need no man poor boy
I don't need no man.
Poppa will shoe my pretty little foot
I don't need no man

The longest train I ever did see
Was sixteen coaches long.
The only girl I ever did love
Was on that train and gone.

Time Signatures

By now you can play a picking pattern in two time signatures, 4/4 and 3/4. As you start to explore different kinds of music you are going to occasionally run into songs that are played in different time signatures. So it might be useful to understand just what that 4/4 time signature symbol really means.

The number on top of a time signature tells you how many beats to play in a measure. We already know that in 4/4 time we play four beats to a measure and in 3/4 time it is three beats to a measure.

The bottom number tells you what note to count. The two time signatures that we are already familiar with (4/4 & 3/4) both tell you that the quarter note gets the beat. However the bottom number does not always have to be 4. It can be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.

/1 - tells you that the whole note gets the beat
/2 - tells you that the half note gets the beat
/4 - tells you that the quarter note gets the beat
/8 - tells you that the eighth note gets the beat
/16 - tells you that the sixteenth note gets the beat

For example:
3/4 is 3 quarter notes per measure.
5/2 is 5 half notes per measure.
6/8 is 6 eighth notes per measure.

2/4 time is used often in marches and polkas. You may also find it in old time and bluegrass music. It's almost identical to 4/4 time except that in 2/4 time you play two quarter notes to a measure.

"Cut time" is a variation of 4/4 time. It is actually 2/2 time. The reason that it is called "cut time" is that the note values are cut in half. For example, a half note winds up with the time value of a quarter note and a whole note winds up with the time value of a half note.

6/8 time is a little bit tricky at first because it is so different from 2/4, 4/4 and 3/4 time. Your /4 time signatures are "duplet" time signatures. That just means that every beat is made up of two eighth notes (two eighth notes= one quarter note.) Your normal count in 4/4 time is 1 2 3 4 and your normal count for 3/4 time is 1 2 3.

In 6/8 time you wind up counting to three twice. In a single measure of 6/8 time we would count "one-two-three, two-two-three." If you look at it, playing in 6/8 time is really just a matter of doubling everything up from your count in 3/4 time.

You don't have to go crazy trying to memorize this. We are not going to go into 6/8 time in this book, but when you start heading out to jam sessions it may come up so it's a good idea to at least be aware of how things work.

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