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6/8 and 3/4 Time Signature: How to Count and Tell Them Apart

6/8 and 3/4 both hold six eighth notes in a bar, but they group them differently. In 6/8 the six eighth notes form two groups of three, so you feel two big beats per bar, with the weight on the 1st and 4th eighth. In 3/4 they form three groups of two, so you feel three beats per bar, with the weight on the 1st eighth and lighter pulses on the 3rd and 5th. Below: a side-by-side table, a four-step test for hearing the difference, real recordings of a 6/8 march and a 3/4 waltz with the speed we measured, and a converter that turns one tempo number into the other.

6/8 and 3/4 at a glance

The same six eighth notes, grouped two ways
6/8 3/4
Beats you feel per bar 2 3
Note that gets the beat Dotted quarter Quarter
Each beat splits into Three eighth notes Two eighth notes
Eighth notes per bar 6 6
Where the weight falls Eighth 1 and eighth 4 Eighth 1 (strongest), 3 and 5
Type Compound duple Simple triple
Count the beats ONE-la-li TWO-la-li ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and
Feels like A rolling two A turn: one heavy step, two light

Same bar length, different feel: a 6/8 bar at 60 dotted-quarter beats per minute lasts 2 seconds, and so does a 3/4 bar at 90 quarter-note beats per minute. Both hold six eighth notes at 180 per minute. What changes is which eighth notes carry the weight. Definitions follow the Wikipedia article on the time signature.

Tell 6/8 from 3/4 by ear in four steps

Put the song on and follow these steps in order. You only need your hand and the song.

  1. Tap the beat you feel. Tap or nod to the steady pulse without counting yet. Pick the pulse you would walk to.
  2. Find the heavy beat and count the taps between two of them. The bass note, a chord change or the drum thump usually lands on "one". Say "ONE" on each heavy beat and count the taps until the next "ONE": two taps points to 6/8, three taps to 3/4.
  3. Check how each tap splits. Say a word between two taps. If every tap splits into two, "ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and", it is 3/4. If every tap splits into three, "ONE-la-li TWO-la-li", with a rolling gallop, it is 6/8.
  4. Tapped very fast? Count to six. If you tapped every eighth note, count 1 to 6 and notice where the weight falls. Weight on 1 and 4 is 6/8; weight on 1, 3 and 5 is 3/4.

Quick check, not a proof: sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (6/8) or "Happy Birthday to You" (3/4) over the beat and see which one sits on it without squeezing the words.

Two traps

Hear a real 6/8 and a real 3/4

Both clips are 20-second excerpts of real performances by the United States Marine Band, in the public domain as works of the US government (as stated on Wikimedia Commons). No generated sound is used. The speed figures are our own estimates from an onset analysis, so read them as measurements of that one performance.

Sousa, The Washington Post (1889) — 6/8 march The President's Own United States Marine Band, 2017 recording Try: count ONE-la-li TWO-la-li over it.
Sousa, La Reine de la Mer (1886) — 3/4 waltz U.S. Marine Band, 1989 recording Try: count ONE two three and listen for the weight on ONE.
Mozart, Symphony No. 40, K. 550 — III. Menuetto — 3/4 minuet Musopen Symphony, from our Allegretto BPM guide Try: three beats per bar at about 146 beats per minute, about 49 bars per minute.
What we measured in the two Marine Band clips (estimates)
Clip Time signature Beat we count Beats per minute Bars per minute Eighth notes per minute
The Washington Post 6/8 Dotted quarter about 120 about 60 about 360
La Reine de la Mer 3/4 Quarter about 182 about 61 about 365

Read across the rows: the two clips run at almost the same bar speed (about 60 bars per minute, a bar roughly every second) and the same eighth-note speed. The numbers a metronome would show, 120 and 182, differ only because they count different notes. That is why a tempo number alone cannot tell you the time signature.

How we measured the speed

We decoded each full recording, detected note onsets, and looked for the spacings that repeat most strongly in the 20-second excerpt. In the march the strongest repeats sit at about 0.33, 0.50 and 1.00 seconds. We read 0.50 seconds as the dotted-quarter beat, which makes one 6/8 bar 1.0 second; the other reading, a two-second bar, would make the march a very slow 60 steps per minute. In the waltz the repeats sit at about 0.33, 0.66 and 0.98 seconds: one, two and three beats, so the bar is about 0.98 seconds. Performers flex time, so these are estimates for one performance. To measure a recording you care about, tap along on the Tap Tempo page or use the audio analyzer.

Recordings: The Washington Post (track 38 of The Complete Marches of John Philip Sousa: Vol. 3 (1889–1898), conducted by Lt. Col. Jason K. Fettig) and La Reine de la Mer (from Semper Fidelis: Music of John Philip Sousa), both by the United States Marine Band and hosted on Wikimedia Commons as public domain. The Washington Post clip starts 60 seconds into the file and the waltz clip 260 seconds in; both are converted to mono WAV, adjusted to the same loudness as our other clips, with a short fade-in and fade-out. The Mozart clip is the one on our Allegretto BPM guide.

How to count each one

Pick the row that matches what you are doing.

Counting 6/8 and 3/4
6/8 3/4
Count the beats ONE-la-li TWO-la-li ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and
Count every eighth note ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six ONE-two-THREE-four-FIVE-six
Where to tap On 1 and 4 only On each of the three beats, the first one loudest
Hand pattern for conducting Two beats per bar Three beats per bar

In 6/8 each beat is a dotted quarter note, which lasts three eighth notes, so six eighth notes make two beats. In 3/4 each beat is a plain quarter note, which lasts two eighth notes, so six eighth notes make three beats. For 3/4 versus 4/4, the same tap-and-count test works: three taps between heavy beats is 3/4, four is 4/4.

Same speed, two time signatures: tempo converter

A tempo number counts one kind of note. Type the number you have, say which note it counts, and see what it becomes in the other signature when the bar length and the eighth-note speed stay the same.

At the same bar length
Value
One bar lasts 1 second
Bars per minute 60
6/8 dotted-quarter beats per minute 120
3/4 quarter-note beats per minute 180
Eighth notes per minute 360

Worked example: 6/8 at 60 dotted-quarter beats per minute is a 2-second bar, 30 bars per minute and 180 eighth notes per minute. A 3/4 piece at 90 quarter-note beats per minute has the same bar and the same 180 eighths. Only the grouping differs.

Which number should you copy?

Write the note next to the number. The same 6/8 music can be tapped as 60 (dotted quarters), 90 (pairs of eighth notes) or 180 (single eighth notes), and all three are correct for the note they count. Scores in 6/8 normally give the tempo per dotted quarter. Find Key & BPM reports a tempo, not a time signature; if the number looks twice or half what you feel, use the Half and Double buttons or read the half time vs double time guide.

Songs to check your ear against

Time signatures below follow the Wikipedia articles read on 2026-10-11. Other arrangements and recordings of a song can be written differently.

Songs and the time signature their source gives
Song Time signature Source
Row, Row, Row Your Boat 6/8 Wikipedia, score of the tune
The House of the Rising Sun, The Animals' version 6/8 Wikipedia
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), The Beatles 6/8 Wikipedia
The Washington Post, Sousa (our clip) 6/8 Wikipedia
Happy Birthday to You 3/4 Wikipedia, score of the tune
Amazing Grace 3/4 Wikipedia, score of the tune
La Reine de la Mer, Sousa waltz (our clip) 3/4 Wikipedia, "Waltz"
America, West Side Story Alternates 6/8 and 3/4 Wikipedia

6/8 and 3/4: quick answers

Is 6/8 the same as 3/4?

No. Both bars hold six eighth notes, but 6/8 groups them as two beats of three (a dotted quarter each) and 3/4 as three beats of two (a quarter each). The notes can look alike on paper; the weight falls on different ones: 1 and 4 in 6/8, 1, 3 and 5 in 3/4.

How do you count 6/8?

Count two big beats and say the three eighth notes inside each: ONE-la-li TWO-la-li. At a slow tempo count all six, ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six, with the weight on 1 and 4.

Why does 6/8 have two beats?

The 8 says the eighth note is the unit and the 6 says six of them fill a bar. The eighth notes come in groups of three, so the ear usually hears two groups: two beats, each a dotted quarter note. Very slow 6/8 can be felt in six.

How can I tell if a song is in 3/4 or 6/8?

Tap the beat, find the heavy "one", and count the taps between two of them: three taps is 3/4, two taps is 6/8. Then check how each tap splits: into two is 3/4, into three is 6/8. The four steps above spell it out.

Is a waltz in 3/4 or 6/8?

A waltz is a dance in triple time written in 3/4, as Wikipedia's Waltz article says. Our La Reine de la Mer clip is one, at about 61 bars per minute.

What song has a 6/8 time signature?

Row, Row, Row Your Boat, The Animals' version of The House of the Rising Sun, The Beatles' Norwegian Wood and Sousa's The Washington Post are all in 6/8 according to the sources in the table above.

What famous songs are in 3/4 time?

Happy Birthday to You and Amazing Grace are in 3/4, and so are waltzes and minuets such as the Mozart movement in our Allegretto BPM guide.

What does 6/8 time feel like?

A rolling two: two long steps per bar, each rolling through three short notes. 3/4 feels more like a turn: one heavy step and two lighter ones. Feel is personal; the tap-and-count test settles it.

What does a 3/4 time signature mean?

The 3 means three beats per bar and the 4 means a quarter note gets each beat, so a bar holds three quarter notes, or their equal in other notes such as six eighth notes.

How is 3/4 different from 4/4?

3/4 has three beats per bar and 4/4 has four. Use the same test: count the taps between heavy beats, three for 3/4 and four for 4/4. Counting a 3/4 song in four makes the beat slide out of step.

Can a song switch between 6/8 and 3/4?

Yes. "America" from West Side Story alternates bars of 6/8 and 3/4, as the Wikipedia article shows. Both bars hold six eighth notes, so the eighth-note speed can stay steady while the grouping changes.

What BPM should I use for a 6/8 song?

Use the note the score names, normally the dotted quarter, and write it next to the number. The converter above turns it into eighth notes, bars per minute and the 3/4 equivalent.

What this guide cannot decide