Six-four time
A meter with six quarter notes per bar.
What it means
Six-four time is a meter in which each bar contains six quarter notes, or their equivalent value in other note durations.
Like the related six-eight time, six-four time is generally not felt as six even beats but as a compound duple meter made up of two groups of three quarter notes, which can also be grouped as two dotted half notes.
In the notation
Six-four time is notated with the time signature 6/4; within the bar, note values and beaming often visibly divide the two groups of three, for instance through dotted half notes or by beaming the first and second halves of the bar separately.
Musical use
Six-four time occurs less often than six-eight time but appears in stately, broadly conceived music, such as slow movements or chorales, where the longer note values of quarter-note time create a calmer, weightier basic pulse than comparable passages in six-eight.
Six-four time should be distinguished from three-four time, with which it shares the same basic note-value unit but differs through its doubled bar length and the resulting duple grouping within the bar, and from six-eight time, which shares the same duple grouping but is based on eighth notes rather than quarters, and so tends to feel faster and lighter.
Performance practice
Count six-four time first in two large beats of three quarters each, rather than in six individual beats, to grasp the meter's compound character correctly from the start. Aim for a calm, sustaining basic pulse that matches this meter's broader character.