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Time Signature

Although the Time Signature is a somewhat advanced concept, I will briefly give an overview of its basic elements so you won't be totally overwhelmed later. We'll revisit the Time Signature again in Lesson 3: Rhythm. Note: A knowledge of fractions is greatly helpful when trying to understand the concept of a Time Signature.

The Time Signature consists of the numbers, written like a barless fraction, that comes after the Key Signature and appears at the beginning of all music notation. It establishes the rhythm of a piece. When we count "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2,..." we are counting to the rhythm prescribed by the Time Signature.

There are two parts to a Time Signature. The top number describes the number of beats in one measure and the bottom number describes which note gets one beat. The top number because it is very straightforward. It simply tells us how many counts should be in each measure. But the bottom number is more difficult to understand and deserves an explanation.

So what exactly does "what note gets one beat" mean? As you recall, there are many types of notes, and every type of note has a different beat value. For example, a half note will have one beat value and a quarter note will have another. This creates problems because, how do we know which type of note should form the basis of "one" beat? Therefore, we must establish which of these notes to give the beat vallue of "one" to, and this is precisely what bottom number of the Time Signature tells us.

Without the bottom number, the top number is meaningless because we don't know what type of note receives one beat, and thus, we cannot maintain the same number of beats per measure.

Example: In the above picture, the bottom number is 4, which means that quarter notes should get one beat. As a result, all measures should contain beats equal to four quarter notes, because the top number tells us that there are 4 beats per measure.

Review

1. The Time Signature contains two numbers and is written after the Key Signature. It is required in all forms of standard music notation.
2. The top number of a Time Signature describes the number of beats per measure.
3. The bottom number describes what note gets one beat.