Posted by Henry Gertcher on March 27, 2002 at 21:03:26:
Hello all,
I am currently reading the book Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics by Arthur H. Benade. I just started this as a hobby to learn more about sound and instruments. Any way, I came across a problem in the second chapter that doesn't make sense so if you have any knowledge of this subject please help me out. The problem that was posed in the book is that if you play straight quater notes at a tempo of 120 you should feel a difference between 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures. This concept I understand, where I am confused is in the repition rate. The book says that this pattern played in 4/4 will produce a repition rate of 30/minute or .5/second. The book also says that the pattern in 3/4 will produce a repition rate of 40/minute or .66/second. The book defines a reptition rate as the number of items per unit time. To me, if the tempo is not changed, than the repition rate should not change because the number of units is still the same over a given time. Am I just understanding this all wrong, am I that bad in math or am I hopeless and should give up this topic as my new hobby?
If any one can shed some light on this please feel free to email me or post a reply.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Henry Gertcher