Time Signatures

Now that y'all take an idea of bones rhythmic values and note used in music, yous need to learn a petty about fourth dimension signatures.

A time signature tells you how the music is to be counted. The time signature is written at the outset of the staff after the clef and key signature.

Time signatures consist of two numbers written similar a fraction.

The acme number of the time signature tells yous how many beats to count. This could be whatever number. Nigh often the number of beats will autumn between ii and 12.

The bottom number tells you what kind of note to count. That is, whether to count the beats as quarter notes, eighth notes, or sixteenth notes. And so the simply numbers you will run into as the bottom number (the denominator) volition stand for to annotation values:

  • 1 = whole notation (you'll never run into this)
  • ii = half note
  • iv = quarter note
  • 8 = eighth note
  • 16 = sixteenth note

You could continue on with 32, 64, but you will hopefully never encounter them! Afterwards a while it gets a bit unwieldy. The most common bottom numbers are four, viii and xvi.

Let me requite y'all some examples and then you improve understand the concept...

4/4 Time Signature Example:

A time signature of 4/4 means count four (peak number) quarter notes (lesser number) to each bar. So the pulse, or crush, is counted 1, 2, 3, iv, 1, 2, iii, 4, and so on.

That means all the notes in each bar must add together upward to four quarter notes. Any combination of rhythms can be used as long as they add up to four quarter notes. For case, a bar could contain 1 one-half note, i quarter note residuum and 2 eighth notes. (Run across diagram.) Summed together they add to 4 quarter notes total. You can never have more than or less than the sum total of the number of beats in the time signature.

3/iv Time Signature Case:

A time signature of 3/4 means count iii quarter notes to each bar. This is an often-used time signature giving you a waltz feel. one, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3…

Again, the rhythms in each bar can be anything as long equally they add to 3 quarter notes. This is where time signatures first to seem illogical and students often get confused. How can iii quarter notes add up to a whole measure out? Y'all take to call back that all of our rhythmic terminology is based on 4/4 time since it is the nearly common. Yous'll just have to accept the fact that music has some weird conventions merely as any language. Recollect of all the illogical ways similarly spelled English words are pronounced.

six/eight Time Signature Case:

A time signature of 6/viii means count 6 8th notes to each bar. This is also a very often-used fourth dimension signature. Y'all would count the trounce: i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, one, 2, 3, 4, five, six, and so on…

Now you volition wonder why can't y'all just reduce six/8 to iii/4? After all, they add up to the aforementioned corporeality. One reason y'all might pick one time signature versus the other is how the music is organized. vi/viii is grouped into 2 groups of three eighth notes. 3/4 time would exist grouped into three groups of ii eighth notes. Depending on the construction of the bassline or song, information technology may make sense to grouping information technology 1 fashion instead of the other. So 6/viii feels more than like two, while iii/4 feels more than like three.

Time Signature Abbreviations

A few other time signatures yous may see use special abbreviations instead of numbers. 4/4 is called common time since it is so common. iv/4 fourth dimension is often marked with a C instead of 4/4. It means the aforementioned thing.

[Completely unimportant historical annotation: the C is not actually curt for the word mutual. It is actually an incomplete circle from an older class of note called mensural notation.]

Another common abbreviation is for cut time meaning 2/2 time. Cut time is usually written as a C with a slash through it.

Time Signature Summary

This was only a brief guide to what time signatures hateful and their annotation in written music. In later lessons I will explain meter and time signatures in much more than detail.

The main thing to remember is a time signature tells you: How many of what kind.

That's it. A time signature is the number of beats and the type of note the beat is.