Understanding Time Signatures (the different meters) in Music. Learn all about keeping the beat and maintaining rhythm while playing music. This is nothing but the number of beats in every measure/bar of music. And what is a Measure/Bar? It is nothing but the series of sections that you get when the vertical black lines called bar lines divide the staff.
Introduction
Time units are numbers that show the nature of beats in timed measures of music. A time signature is also known as meter and it is the composer of the music who decides what should be the meter of the song. There are several time-signatures on which a song could be based, the most common being the 3/4 and the 4/4 meter. The meter is mentioned at the beginning of the first bar!
Many get confused by the subject of time units. They see these numbers at the beginning of a line of music as just numbers and that is why they forget the significance of what the numbers mean.
In music notation, the units are just the part of the time signature that gets the beat.
This is the bottom number.
The top number of the is always telling you how many beats are in one measure of music. The bottom number always tells you what kind of note gets the beat in that measure.
For example, if the bottom number is 4, it means the quarter note gets the beat.
If the bottom number is 8, that means the eighth note gets the beat.
If the bottom number is 16, it means the sixteenth note gets the beat.
What is a beat?
A beat is the method by which you count out music (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4…). It is the top number of this sign. It is NOT the same as the time unit. The unit is what value note is being given the beat.
So, no matter what number is on the bottom of the time signature, you will always count using the top number (the number of beats in a measure).
For example, if you are in 9/16, you would count the measure out: 1, 2, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9.
If it is in 6/8, you will count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6–knowing that the eighth note is the unit getting the beat.
If you would like a little more information on how to count measures of music and sub-divisions these figures, check back frequently as I will be updating this page often.
Here’s a nice video that explains beats and Time Signatures:
Common Time
This is the most common meter in music. It is also known as 4/4 meter. This time signature indicates that every bar has four quarter note beats.
Waltz Time
Another common meter is the ¾ meter, which is also known as Waltz time. This meter has three quarter note beats in every bar.
March Time
This is the 2/4 meter, which is also known as March time. This meter has two quarter note beats in every bar.
Other Time Signatures
The above mentioned time signatures are the most common and you will find almost all the songs based on them. But there are some other time signatures as well, basically the non-quarter note time signatures.
6/8 time – It has six eighth notes in a bar
3/2 time – has three half notes in a bar
Simple and Compound Time
We have discussed some of the most common meters used in music but we will take this discussion a bit further to improve our understanding of Music theory.
All the time signatures can be classified further based on two factors.
Number of beats in a bar – Based on the number of beats in a bar, a meter may be called as Duple, Triple, or Quadruple.
Simple or Compound – Simple time would mean that each of the beats in a bar can be divided into two notes whereas Compound meter means they can be divided into three notes.
More Examples
3/4 time is simple triple – “Triple” because there are three beats in a bar and “Simple” because each of the beats can be divided into two notes!
6/8 time is compound duple – This sounds a bit confusing so carefully read the explanation. The six eighth notes in a bar can either be spread across two beats, in which case it would be a compound duple, or across three beats, in which case it would be simple triple. Since 3/4 is already known as simple triple, as shown in the first example, 6/8 is referred to as a compound duple.
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