1. The same six pulses, a different grouping
Purpose: distinguish a change in grouping from a change in pulse speed. Preparation: count steady quarters and sustain the beat while accents move.
A common hemiola turns two groups of three into three groups of two. Across two bars of 3/4, six quarter-note pulses can be heard as ONE two three, ONE two three, or as ONE two, ONE two, ONE two. The quarter notes take the same total time.
In bars 1–2, emphasize the first quarter of each bar. In bars 3–4, emphasize bar 3 beats 1 and 3, then bar 4 beat 2. The latter pattern crosses the written barline. Its accents fall at pulses 1, 3, and 5 of the six-pulse span.
Count both versions
Tap six even quarters while speaking each grouping in turn. Then play the score with modest accents. The study uses repeated pitches to make the grouping easy to hear; actual music can establish the same effect through harmony, bass motion, or phrase shape.
Check: the hemiola must not become faster because it contains three perceived groups instead of two. Do not insert a pause at the barline to recover the printed meter.
This is a successive regrouping of a span. The earlier cross-rhythm chapters instead place different equal divisions in the two hands at the same time. Related proportions do not make the musical tasks identical.
2. Hear it in Mozart: Sonata in F, K.332
The first movement’s measures 63–65 show a regular three-quarter bar followed by the hemiola. The written meter remains 3/4 throughout.
Follow the change in emphasis
- In measure 63, count three steady quarters. The opening forte gives way to piano, establishing the grouping before the change.
- Across measures 64–65, follow 64:1, 64:3, and 65:2. These forte arrivals lie two quarter notes apart: “ONE two, ONE two, ONE two.” The forte on measure 64 beat 3 interrupts the earlier bar-by-bar pattern.
- Notice that measure 65 begins piano. Its strongest event arrives on beat 2; do not add a heavy downbeat merely because a new bar begins.
- Play the LH alone, then add the RH, preserving its eighth rests. Keep the quarter-note duration steady through all three bars.
The RH often answers a bass attack half a beat later. Follow each hand’s printed dynamics rather than moving every change to the same instant. Let the larger two-quarter grouping emerge without turning each forte into a harsh accent.
Return to the phrase
Compare the excerpt with the simplified exercise on the preceding page. Then listen to measures 60–66 in the complete sonata: hear the established pattern, the temporary regrouping, and its continuation. The double bar here marks the excerpt boundary, not the end of Mozart’s phrase.
Source: re-engraved from the K.332 score handout hosted by Nancy Rogers at Florida State University. Notes, rests, and dynamics checked against measures 63–65; key and time signatures repeated for this excerpt. No fingering added. The handout’s underlying edition is unidentified, so this is not an Urtext claim.
3. When the time signature really changes
This study alternates 3/4 and 2/4. Keep the quarter note constant: the three-beat bars are longer than the two-beat bars. Both hands follow the same line an octave apart so that the changing bar lengths remain the central task.
Count “1 2 3, 1 2, 1 2 3, 1 2.” Then join each three-beat/two-beat pair into a five-quarter phrase. Feel the longer shape without losing the written bar boundaries.
Prepare the next bar early
Before playing, circle every new time signature and say how many quarter notes it contains. Practice the final beat of one bar into the first beat of the next. Do not add a third beat to 2/4 out of habit, or squeeze three beats into the duration of two.
Variation: tap the same five quarters as 2+3 instead of 3+2. Their total length remains equal, but the internal grouping changes. This is a counting variation, not the bar structure printed above.
Check what stays constant
In other music, a change such as 6/8 to 3/4 may preserve the eighth note, or a composer may explicitly equate a dotted-quarter beat with a quarter-note beat. Read any tempo equation before deciding. The new time signature alone does not settle every tempo relationship.
Completion check: play the study with a metronome marking every quarter. Every note should align with a click, including the first note after each meter change. Then try without the clicks and preserve the same bar proportions.
4. Move an accent through a stable meter
The RH repeats C–D–E in even eighth notes while the LH keeps quarter notes. Accenting each C creates groups of three eighths that move through 4/4. The bar lengths and note values remain unchanged.
The RH accents fall on bar 1 1, 2-and, 4, and bar 2 1-and, 3, 4-and. The last C begins a new three-note cell, but the example ends before that cell is complete. Release at the end of the bar; do not add notes to finish it.
Separate the repeating cell from the bar
First play unaccented eighths with the LH. Then bring out each C slightly while counting “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.” If the LH starts following the three-note pattern, simplify it to a single quiet note on each beat.
For a longer loop, continue the C–D–E sequence without restarting it at the barline. The cell and the bar align again after three full bars: 24 eighth notes contain eight three-note cells. A two-bar loop of the printed fragment would interrupt that cycle; use the printed ending as a stopping point, not a seamless repeat sign.
Three questions for a difficult rhythm
- Has the written time signature changed?
- Is the pulse unchanged while accents or harmony suggest another grouping?
- Are two different subdivisions sounding simultaneously?
A passage can combine these devices. Identify one layer at a time, preserve its duration, and then restore the phrase. Irregular phrase lengths likewise need not imply irregular bar lengths: a five-bar phrase may still consist entirely of ordinary 4/4 bars.