In music, how can i convert a simple time signature to a compound time signature

Question:

In music, how can i convert a simple time signature to a compound time signature?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: why would you "convert"? are you doing this for a class? most music is written for a particular time signature--so are you the composer? I don't think so, otherwise you'd have written it already as compound.

so it's for a class then? or just a mental exercise? it would be nice to have more to go on, but assuming you've got a piece that's 4/4 or 3/4, here's what you do:

take the notional downbeat that starts the measure, in 4/4 add an extra beat to every measure. repeat a quarter note, make it a half note, repeat a run of four 8th notes--whatever the measure gives you to work with, add an extra beat.

in 3/4 (as long as you're not working with a waltz, because here in the Western world we don't really comprehend 5/4 waltzes) you'll have to add 2 beats to each measure. As a marching experiment, we tried to take The Star Spangled Banner from 3/4 to 4/4 and then for kicks made it 5/4. it sounded truly awful, no matter how much we worked on it. of course, you can CALL something "compound" and throw 5/4 in front of it and then expect someone to play it as if it were really 3/4 and it sounds the same--but the trick is to make the first downbeat recognizable for your time signature.

the easier thing to do for 3/4 is to take two measures and add one extra beat for those two measures and you've got 7/4. it's easier for me personally to count 3 then 4, 3 then 4, especially if I'm the one creating the music in the first place. which brings me back to my original dilemma with your dilemma: are you revising something that already exists--and what are the parameters of your problem?

good luck!