{"id":3856,"date":"2017-04-06T17:37:32","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T21:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/?p=3856"},"modified":"2023-01-25T13:40:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T18:40:25","slug":"time-signatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musikalessons.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/time-signatures\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Time Signatures in Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you don\u2019t read music, you might not be privy to the world of time signatures. Time signatures are simple devices in music meant to serve as a sonic grid or road map. Without them, we wouldn\u2019t have the vital organizational direction we need to know how many and what kind of beats to assign per measure of music. Terms like \u201ctime signatures\u201d might seem stuffy or downright boring, but if you are serious about learning to play an instrument, you\u2019ll need to know and understand them well. In this article, we\u2019ll show you how to read and understand time signatures, and we\u2019ll also show you examples of popular songs that feature common and not so common meters.<\/p>\n

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Tempo Vs. Time Signatures<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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First things first, we need to get something important out of the way: Time signatures do not determine the speed at which a piece of music is played. The tempo of a piece will determine how fast or slow the music should be played. Popular music doesn\u2019t give musicians a lot of help as far as instructions to indicate the tempo (speed) of a piece should be played, but classical and art music typically contain general instructions at the top of sheet music for tempo. The terms are usually written in different languages like the dynamic marking \u201cAdante,\u201d for example, which is Italian for \u201cat an easy walking pace.\u201d Time signatures purely exist to tell us how many and what kind of beats are featured per measure in a piece of music.<\/p>\n

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What Are Time Signatures?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Time signatures are the set of two numbers stacked on top of each other at the beginning of a piece of music. Here\u2019s an example of the most common time signature, 4\/4:<\/p>\n

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\"time<\/p>\n

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The top number of the time signature determines how many beats there are per measure. The bottom number indicates the note value of the beats. In the case of our 4\/4 example, the bottom \u201c4\u201d is referring to a quarter note. So, in music-speak, 4\/4 translates to four quarter notes per measure. Time signatures are not set in stone and can switch throughout one song or piece of music. Though rarely found within popular music, there are many examples of multiple time signatures found within one piece of music in the classical and art music world. The subversive \u201cMath Rock\u201d genre has built its reputation on its use of frantic and unpredictable changes of meter within one song.<\/p>\n

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The song \u201cTonto\u201d by Brooklyn math rock geniuses Battles is an example of a song that features multiple time signatures:<\/p>\n

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