At the beginning of practically any score of music you have ever looked at and will ever look at, there are numbers and symbols which clarify how to interpret the music notation on the score in front of you. As a music learner, you’ve become familiar with these symbols and you know that the numbers tell you how to interpret the music’s rhythms, to count and keep track of the music in time, and that if you’re playing with other performers—the numbers help you stay together!Yet, there are so many numbers and so many ways for these numbers to be written. And these are just some of the time signatures you might encounter. Notice also in the above image that there are time signatures in the form of letters instead of numbers, which adds even more possibilities and potential complications into the mix! However, these letters really just stand in for numbers with added special meanings.All of these time signatures raise the questions: do we really need all of these different time signatures? Do they really mean different things? Why do composers and musicians prefer some time signatures over others?These time signatures really do have slightly different meanings and purposes in music, but some can sound the same to the ear.
Time Signatures (upper school) 2/4 3/4 4/4 5/4 6/4 7/4 6/8 7/8. Sheet includes: Standard notation 4 bar examples of each time signature written out with drums and guitar. Guitar changes chord every bar to make it easy to identify when listening.
Some are quite rare and others are used much more commonly. This article will explain the basics of reading time signatures and meters, show how the various time signatures are related to each other and can sound similar and different, and why composers might choose certain time signatures over others! Sound in TimeFundamental to the definition of music itself is that music must move through time—it is not static. Hence, music is sound organized through time. This organization of music through time is managed in the Western music system through time signatures!
The time signatures give us a way to notate our music so that we can play the music from scores, hear its organizational patterns, and discuss it with a common terminology known to other musicians. The organizational patterns of beats as indicated by the time signature is how we hear and/or feel the meter of said piece.
When discussing music, the terms time signature and meter are frequently used interchangeably; but time signature refers specifically to the number and types of notes in each measure of music and meter refers to how those notes are grouped together in the music in a repeated pattern to create a cohesive sounding composition. The methods for classifying the various time signatures into meters is discussed in detail later in this article. RhythmsMeter is the comprehensive tool to discuss how music moves through time, but there is another way that musicians also discuss how music moves through time, and that is through rhythm. Rhythms are the lengths of the notes in the music itself, rhythm is what notes are long and what notes are short—in relation to each other.
Musicians know how to play these rhythms in the context of each piece because of the time signature. The NotationIn musical scores, we organize the music into “bars” or “measures.” A “bar,” also known as a measure, “measure” is where the five horizontal lines of a staff are intersected vertically with another line, indicating a separation:Each measure has a specific number of notes allowed to be placed in it, and that number of notes is dependent upon the time signature. NotesThe most common notes which are used to make the short and long rhythms in the various meters are included in the chart below, beginning with the longest held notes and going to the shortest.
The chart below also mentions the length relationship between the note values.As the notes in the various metric breakdowns continue getting bigger and smaller, the equivalent relationships continue. A double-whole note would last as long as eight quarter notes! Reading the Time SignaturesThe number of notes allowed in each measure is determined by the time signature. As you saw in the time signature examples above, each time signature has two numbers: a top number and a bottom number: 2/4 time, 3/4 time, 4/4 time, 3/8 time, 9/8 time, 4/2 time, 3/1 time, and so on.The bottom number of the time signature indicates a certain kind of note and the top note reveals how many of those notes there are in each measure! If you look at the American note names from the chart above, there is a fun little trick to it.Take the 2/4 time signature for example: with the 2 on the top of the time signature you know there are 2 beats for one measure, and this leaves you with a fraction of 1/4 —a quarter, the note-length the time signature is indicating to you then is a quarter note.
Therefore, you know that there are two quarter notes worth of time in every measure:Let’s try another one. In 9/8 time, you know that in every measure there are 9 notes in a 1/8 length.How about in 4/2 time?In 4/2 time, each measure has 4 notes of 1/2, so we have 4 1/2 notes:Now try 3/1 time!In 3/1 time, so we have 3 notes of a 1/1 length aka whole notes!
Common Time and Cut TimeThe above steps are how you figure out the notes and numbers of most time signatures, but what do you do with the two time signatures that are letters? As a matter of fact, the two letter time signatures are actually shorthand and variations for the most common time signatures most musicians see!The 4/4 time signature is so common that it actually has two names and two forms, the first being 4/4, and the second being the, literally called “Common Time.” So whenever you see the in music, you know that it is actually 4/4 time (which has how many notes of what kind of length?).Another prevalent time signature is the.
It looks a lot like the “Common Time” signature, except it has a slash through it. Technically, these measures have four quarter notes in them as well, but it is called “Cut Time,” hence the C being slashed or “cut.” This “Cut Time” change to “Common Time” means it goes twice as fast, so instead of the quarter note getting the beat, the half note gets the beat!
The is like 2/2, just written different and used for faster tempos than 2/2.Below is an example from the opening of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” This excerpt is in marked in Common Time with a big C, which means 4/4. If you count the notes in the measures given, you will see that there are four quarter-notes worth of time per measure. Meter ClassificationsThose are the basics of reading and deciphering time signatures, and now we get to move onto learn how those time signatures can be understood as meters!
There are two levels of classifying meters, the first level of classification focuses on how the beat indicated by the time signature is subdivided.There are only two ways for the beat to be regularly subdivided in Western music, and that is into two or into three smaller notes! Refer to the note value charts above. All other subdivisions are either multiples of these two subdivisions or some complex form of adding them together.
For ease of notation and classifying the subdivisions as meters then, we have: Simple Time, Compound Time, and Irregular Time. Simple TimeSimple time is any meter whose basic note division is in groups of two. Examples of these meters include the time signatures: Common Time, Cut Time, 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 2/2, 2/1, and so on. These meters are simple time because the quarter note divides equally into two eighth notes, the half-note divides equally into two quarter notes, or the whole note divides equally into two half notes. You can see these divisions if you refer back to the above note length chart. Compound TimeSlightly more complicated then is compound time, which is any meter whose basic note division is into groups of three. You automatically know you are not in simple time if there is an 8 as the bottom number of your time signature.
An 8 to mark simple time would be pointless, as will be demonstrated below with beat hierarchies and accents section. So, when you see an 8 as the bottom number of your time signature, you know that your eighth notes should be grouped together in groups of three instead of two! In 6/8, you have two groups of three eighth-notes, in 9/8 you have three groups of three eighth notes, and 12/8 has four groups of three eighth notes.Technically, to get a compound time sound, composers could use a simple time signature and then mark all of the main beat subdivisions in triplets—making a duple division into a triple—throughout an entire piece to get the same effect. However, using triplets throughout to get a compound time sound would appear quite messy and cluttered on the page. An example of the 12/8 against the 4/4 using triplets is in the table below, to the listener, these examples sound exactly the same.
Additionally, it might be confusing for performers used to switching between Time Signatures, duples and triples, and could be confusing as to the composer’s intentions with the piece.Even though it is more common to see a simple time signature with the duple divisions in Western music of the past five or six centuries, it was actually compound time which developed and was notated first! Because Western music notation developed alongside church music, much of the underlying theory surrounding music had a theological basis. For meter, the most common subdivision was in compound or triple divisions to relate musical time being three in one, similar to the Christian Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Irregular TimeThe final option for beat subdivision is an irregular or unequal subdivision of the beat, which covers everything else! Even though these are “irregular” meters, they do have patterns which are discernable for the performer. The most common irregular meters actually mix simple time and compound time together in a single measure. Thus, in each measure, there are beats with three subdivisions and there are beats with two subdivisions.
Examples include such time signatures as 5/8 and 7/8. Because there are 5 eighth notes per measure or 7 eighth notes per measure, you cannot have equal groupings of 2 or 3 eighth notes. Therefore, similarly to 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8, how the groups of eighth-notes are beamed together to a larger count, in 5/8 and 7/8 they are beamed together to make a larger count as well, but in 5/8 and 7/8 then, because the number of eighth notes is odd (and prime), the count lengths in each measure are uneven—or irregular. The eighth note typically stays the same length, but because some counts have two and some counts have three eighth notes, they are irregular!You can see the groupings of three eighth notes with two eighth notes in each measure of 5/8 above, and groups of two eighth notes against two groups of two eighth notes in each measure of 7/8. In 5/8 and 7/8 then, the first count of each measure is one eighth-note longer than the rest of the counts. Depending on where the placement of the longer beat, composers can create different accents and atmospheres.
Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840—1893) uses an irregular meter in the second movement of his Sixth Symphony. When you to the movement, it sounds like it should be a waltz with three beats per measure, but the “beats” of the meter are uneven, sometimes the first beat is longer, sometimes it is shorter because the subdivisions are irregular. To the listener, because it sounds like a waltz and like a dance, it feels at once familiar, but then also lopsided and distant. The irregular beat patterns are unexpected and un-danceable (at least without some serious practice and memorization!). The familiar becomes distorted, distant, potentially dangerous and frightening. Duple, Triple, and Quadruple ClassificationsThe second level of classification for meters is how many beats there are in a measure.
There are three which are the most common: duple (2/2, 2/4, 6/8), triple (3/4, 9/8, 3/2), and quadruple (4/4, 12/8, 4/2). A duple meter has two beats per measure, a triple meter has three beats per measure, and a quadruple meter has four beats per measure. Beat HierarchiesMusic is sound organized through time and the time signature tell us how to structure that music in time. Another important piece of information within that time signature, is which notes — which beats — are more important and should get accented.
![4/3 Time Signature 4/3 Time Signature](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125637438/348140964.png)
This accentuation of beats is known as a “beat hierarchy.” In almost all Western Classical music, the first beat of every measure is the strongest and most important beat of every measure and should carry the most weight. In duple meters then, the second beat is weak and any subdivisions of the beat weaker still. In quadruple meters, beat three of the measure is actually stronger than beat two, but not quite as strong as beat one, and beat four should lead into the next downbeat (beat one of the next measure).
Triple time starts with a strong beat one, has a weak beat two, and then begins to build on beat three, leading to beat one again.Understanding the beat hierarchies of the different time signatures can help you to interpret repertoire, especially those that use minimal articulation. For example, this 3/2 Spirtuoso movement from Telemann’s Fantasia #6 for solo flute.Because this piece is marked in 3/2 time, it should be in triple and simple time. The beat hierarchy of the triple and simple time meter would sound like this link to audio file. However, there are no phrase markings and some musicians who have studied Baroque performance practices have argued for sections of this piece being in two instead of three. Switching the meter from a two to three feel is like giving the piece a 6/8 time signature and making the 6/8 eighth note equal to a 3/2 quarter note. With a 6/8 type meter, the Fantasia would be duple and compound, changing the beat hierarchy and accents from every second quarter note to every third quarter note. Changing the beat hierarchy to a duple and compound meter feel would sound more like this link to audio file.
HemiolaThe particular Telemann example above, when performed with a changing beat hierarchy, can be an example of a metric and rhythmic technique called hemiola. Hemiola is a two against three subdivision of beats being played against — and right next — to each other. SyncopationAnother way to disrupt the beat hierarchy of meters in music is to use syncopation. Syncopation is the rhythmic shifting of the accented beat from the traditionally strong beats of one and three. In most cases this is done by a really short note on the downbeat which is immediately followed by an accented long note, or having a tie to an un-articulated downbeat, so that the downbeat gets completely lost. A textbook example of syncopation disrupting beat hierarchy can be seen in the ragtime piece “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin.From the very first verse, the melody line bounces quickly off the sixteenth-note downbeat onto the accented eighth-note.
Then, the next measure’s melody downbeat is tied over from the previous measure. Without the score or the repeated eighth-note chords in the left hand of the piano, you would not know where the downbeats were or be able to track the movement of the measures as easily! So we have all of these meters and this is how they’re broken down, but why?We have all of these different meters and possibilities for subdividing meters to fit the wide variety of music we have! Essentially, different kinds of music require different Simple or Compound time signatures and duple or triple meters. When we connect the music to how it is or was supposed to be used, we find some of the answers to this.Take a March for example: marches are meant to be marched to, in strict time, and as humans, we only have two legs!
So out of necessity, marches have to be in a duple or quadruple time. That is why marches are (almost) always in Cut Time, 2/4, 4/4, or on occasion, 6/8. Sousa’s iconic is in Cut Time. Even though “Stars and Stripes,” and other marches still being composed through today, are rarely still marched to, they are still written in a duple time.Dance music is another example of music that has to be in a specific meter. Most dances throughout history have had a prescribed number of steps and the music that accompanies the dances must match! For example, waltzes have to be in triple time because they follow a pattern of three steps before repeating the cycle.The choice of meter and note length provided in the time signature is also a possible indicator of tempo.
Generally speaking, one would expect a piece notated in 4/1 to move at a slower tempo than 4/4.So, that is how you read time signatures, how they’re similar and different, how they’re used, and how they can change the music we hear! Many are interchangeable and can sound the same but have slightly different origins or uses. Meters are how composers organize music through time and communicate that organization to the performers.For fun, try seeing if you can “play” with any of the meters of your repertoire as if they were in a different meter and tell us about your experiments below!
I’m struggling with understanding signatures and some of the jumps that are made or not explained and it’s doing my head in.Reading the Time Signatures9/8 Time, Why are the notes suddenly grouped into threes with no explanation of why?Common time and cut time.I get common time (or at least I think I do) but I don’t really understand the explanation of cut time. You say“Technically, these measures have four quarter notes in them as well This “Cut Time” change to “Common Time” means it goes twice as fast, so instead of the quarter note getting the beat, the half note gets the beat!” What half note? If its twice as fast won’t they be 1/8 notes?In the score for the Peer Gynt Suite why are there 1/8 notes went time is 4/4. Are you allowed to have notes of different duration to the one identified in the bottom of the signature?
How does that work? Why are they grouped as 4 x 1/8 and then 2 x 1/8. Whats the rule an why is this done.
Dear Steve,Thank you for reaching out to us with your questions!As explained later in the article, the eighth notes are grouped in threes instead of twos because 9/8 is a compound time signature. In compound time, each individual beat gets divided into three notes rather than two. The 9/8 eighth notes are grouped in threes to show that all three notes belong to the same beat. In simple time, which includes time signatures like common time and 2/4, the beat is divided into two notes and are thus the eighth notes are grouped in twos and fours in the other examples.In cut-time, if the eighth note were to get the beat instead of the quarter note, then the music would move twice as slow, as in, you would double the number of beats in each measure—making it twice as long to get through. The rhythms stay the same in proportion to each other, but they go twice as fast. To go twice as fast as the quarter note beat, you would need a beat that fits two quarter notes in length, and that note, based on the diagram in the article, is a half note.Regarding the Peer Gynt Suite questions, you are allowed to have notes of different duration to the one identified in the bottom of the time signature. The number at the bottom of the time signature simply tells what type of note gets the beat so that the musician knows how to interpret the rhythms of the notes.
If you could only have the note-lengths that are indicated by the bottom of the time signature, then there would be no difference in rhythms—no long notes, no short notes, all the notes would have the same duration in every piece.The eighth notes of the Peer Gynt Suite are grouped in 4 and then 2 because of the time signature. The 4 and 2 groupings reinforce that this time signature is a simple time signature and when you have a series of eighth notes then, you can only group them in groups of four or two. If they were grouped as a group of 6, that would indicate compound time and a different subdivision of the beat. Because we’re going to be going into cut-time with this example, the composer or publisher of the piece grouped the eighth notes to show the emphasis on two “beats” per measure rather than the common time four beats. That is why the first four eighth notes are grouped together—the four eighth notes equal the same length as one half note, which is one beat in cut time. The next two eighth notes are grouped together because they are on the next beat of the measure, but as they are eighth notes, they cannot be barred with the quarter note that follows. And these two eighth notes and the quarter note make up the second beat of the measure.
This is a question I received the other day and I was surprised about how in-depth the answer became. All musicians are familiar with time signatures at the beginning of pieces – whether it’s 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, or even something like 12/8 – but why is there no 3 at the bottom of time signatures? The answer to this question comes down to what a time signature means.The top number in a time signature represents how many beats there are in each measure. In other words, each measure (the box around each set of notes) of music on your sheet has that many beats contained within it – for example, a piece in 3/4 would have 3 beats in each measure of music.The bottom number in a time signature represents the kind of note getting one beat. For example, a 1 would stand for a whole note. So a time signature with a 1 at the bottom – such as 4/1 – would mean that each whole note gets 1 beat and the top number tells you that there are 4 beats in each measure of music. A 2 at the bottom of the time signature would represent a half note and that means that every half note gets one beat.
A 4 on the bottom would represent a quarter note and that would mean that every quarter note would get one beat. This goes on and on with each number representing a different note.
But you might have noticed we just skipped 3 and instead went from 2 to 4; why is this?There is not really a 3 note in music. What about something like triplets? Couldn’t you have a triplet getting one beat? The answer is not a simple yes or no.Composers are able to make triple divisions as part of a time signature but they aren’t represented by a 3 at the bottom of the time signature.
When you see time signatures like 6/8 or 12/8 these are actually functioning differently than you might think. There are certainly 6 beats in a 6/8 time signature and there are 6 8th notes to a measure. The question is, how is this different from 3/4 where you have three quarter notes in a measure?
After all, three quarter notes equals the same amount as six eighth notes; it is exactly the same amount of time that’s measured. So how are these different?When you have something like 6/8 time or 9/8, or even 12/8 time it’s actually a triple division. 6/8 time is actually two groups of three – sometimes referred to as a duple meter. In these triple division time signatures, the bottom number can represents dotted quarter notes. So 6/8 time is like having 2 dotted quarter notes in each measure.
9/8 time can be thought of as a piece with 3 dotted quarter notes in each measure. (Each dotted quarter note contains 3 eighth notes.) So, this is how a triple division of the beat is achieved with time signatures.So why can’t we just put a three at the bottom of the time signature?
Because there is simply nothing we can denote as a three note – every time signature must have a note represented in the bottom number and 3 is not represented by any particular type of note.Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this topic or any others, please contact us at: (949) 244-3729.