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12/8 time signature

12/8 means twelve eighth notes in a bar, grouped in four beats of three. It is compound quadruple time: it counts like 4/4, but every beat splits into three, the triplet feel of slow blues, doo-wop and soul ballads.

60 BPM, Larghetto: fairly slow

Make a blues beat in 12/8

Opens the free editor with a beat playing. No account needed to start.

How to count 12/8

Count 1 to 12, leaning on 1, 4, 7 and 10, or count the four beats as 1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a. The metronome counts the tempo in dotted quarter notes, four beats a bar, and clicks all twelve eighths.

12/8 at a glance: its type, its beats and what a bar holds
12/8
TypeCompound quadruple
Beats in a bar4
A beat isA dotted quarter note
A bar holdstwelve eighth notes, four dotted quarter notes or one dotted whole note

Music in 12/8

Slow blues, doo-wop and 1950s ballads, gospel and soul ballads, and slow songs where the piano plays three chords on every beat.

Drum patterns in 12/8, each on a step grid to hear and open in the editor:

BluesDoo-wop

12/8 or 4/4?

Both bars drawn to one scale: the wider a box, the longer its note.

12/8: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
4/4: 1 2 3 4

4/4 also has four beats, but each splits in two. 12/8 is 4/4 with every beat in triplets, written as plain eighth notes; a shuffle in 4/4 plays the first and last of each three.

How to count it and where it is heard are on the page for the 4/4 time signature.

Questions about 12/8

What does 12/8 mean?

12/8 means twelve eighth notes in a bar, grouped in four beats of three. It is compound quadruple time: it counts like 4/4, but every beat splits into three, the triplet feel of slow blues, doo-wop and soul ballads.

Is 12/8 the same as 4/4?

Both have four beats a bar, but in 12/8 each beat splits into three eighth notes and in 4/4 into two. 12/8 is how 4/4 in triplets is written.

What tempo is a slow blues in 12/8?

About 45 to 75 BPM, counting the four dotted-quarter beats, not the twelve eighths.

What music is in 12/8?

Slow blues, doo-wop and 1950s ballads, gospel and soul ballads, and slow songs where the piano plays three chords on every beat.

Other time signatures

4/43/42/45/46/47/42/23/26/89/812/83/85/87/8

For any tempo in any of them, use the online metronome.

A blues beat in 12/8

Open the free editor with a blues beat in 12/8 playing, then add a melody, a bass line or your voice, part by part. No account needed to start.

Start a beatTime signatures

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