About This Chapter: In Chapter 5, we talked about sixteenth notes in simple meters. In this chapter, we’ll see sixteenth notes in compound meters. Just like in simple meter, the sixteenth notes in compound meter are the subdivision of the division. The following figure shows the metrical grid that we’re building by dividing the eighth note divisions of a compound meter like 6/8 into sixteenth notes.

Rhythmic Syllables: Just like when we added sixteenth notes to simple meters, we’ll need some new syllables now that we are seeing them in compound meters. Again, we want to keep the syllables we’ve used for compound meters so far—numbers on the beats and “la” and “li” off the beats. For the sixteenth notes that fall between those syllables, we’ll use “ta.” Check out the example below. From measure 1 to measure 2, we divide the measure into two beats. From measure 2 to measure 3, we divide each beat into three equal parts. From measure 3 to measure 4, we divide each of those divisions into subdivisions—six per beat.