Kevin Jimenez for example, in 4/4 time, you have the options of 8th or 16th as quads or 8th or 16th note as triplets.

But for example, in 12/8, you only have the natural 8th and 16th triplets, but not the quad division.

Here’s a screenshot.

Kevin Jimenez I guess … part of my confusion is, how many beats are in a 12/8 timing? 12?

Justin I understand what you are asking. There’s two ways to think about it.

Twelve 8th notes in a measure. (Counted as 123 456 789 101112) there’s other ways as well.

Or four dotted Quarter Notes if you are feeling the pulse in 4. (1 2 3 4)

Because of the time signature it’s grouped in 3s. When you do 16th notes there will be 6 of them per beat.

Let me know if that makes sense.

Kevin Jimenez thanks Kevin!

I’m still letting it sink in, as I’m still fairly new to drums. I learned that compound timing is when the top number is divisible by 3.

Here’s a pic of how I was thinking about it. The top two rows are 4/4 timing, showing the first quarter note in both a quad division and a triplet division.

I then drew the 12/8 under it, while showing the natural triplet form and then the quad form. Meaning, taking the 3 notes and sub dividing them by 4. I don’t know what kind of note value you call that.

I’m not sure if what I’m labeling as eighth notes is accurate in this drawing. Like, in 4/4 it’s two boxes, but in 12/8 it’s one box.