What is a Time Signature?

The time signature of a piece of music is that fraction-like pair of numbers found at
the beginning of a piece of sheet music:

Numbers are usually there to measure things, so just what are these numbers
measuring?

About Those Numbers

Most music throughout the world is organized in regular rhythmic patterns of strong
and weak beats. Beats are grouped into bars, also called measures. Though there
are exceptions, namely free rhythm, we will be discussing more structured music in
this article.
The time signature is there to ensure that bar-to-bar, the overall beat of the music
stays constant. It contains two numbers, which tell you how to count the music, and
indicate how the bars will be organized:

● The top number in a time signature indicates how many beats will be present
in a bar
● The bottom number in a time signature indicates what kind of note is
considered one beat

While time signatures come in all sorts of different flavours, some weirder than
others (13/16 time, anyone?) the vast majority of music will have a time signature
with a top number between 2 and 12, and a bottom number that corresponds to a
note value – that is, 2, 4, 8, or 16 (32 and 64 also exist but they’re extremely rare!)
In 4/4 time, therefore, that top number is telling us that each bar will have four beats,
while the bottom number indicates that the quarter note gets one beat. Similarly, 2/4
time tells you that the quarter note again receives one beat, but each bar will only
have two beats. If you need an introduction or a refresher on note types and the
concept of beats, head over to School of Composition’s excellent primer.
Time Signature and Meter
By setting the number of beats in a bar and the note value assigned to one beat, the
time signature ensures that there is bar-to-bar consistency in the music where
rhythm is concerned – it helps ensure that there is an underlying structure, called
meter.
Meter is defined as the structure of beats – more specifically, the fact that some
beats are naturally more strong, or “stressed”, than others. The meter engages the
ear through consistency, and is what gives music its “feel”. In an overwhelming
majority of simple time signatures, beat 1 is the strongest beat in the bar, meaning
you can often hear when a new bar starts by listening for an emphasized note.
The easiest example of this is a clock – we hear it as tick-tock, not tick-tick. This is,
in fact, an example of duple meter, which means there is a primary division of two
beats to a bar. The first beat of every bar is stressed, resulting in the “tick” being
stressed as well.
Depending on the time signature, different beats will be stronger and weaker than
others. We will look at concrete examples in just a minute, but keep this concept in
mind as we introduce you to new time signatures.

Simple Time Signatures

Some good news: the majority of pop, rock, country, and folk music uses
simple time signatures. These are the most straightforward time signatures to
figure out and to play.
In simple time, the top number will always be 2, 3, or 4 – this ensures that there is
only one “group” of beats per bar, distinguishing it from compound time signatures
(more on these later). Study Bass has an excellent quick-and-dirty summary of the
simple time signatures.

4/4 Time
We’ll start with the popular kid in school – 4/4 time, being so ubiquitous that it’s
commonly referred to by its alternate name – common time. It can appear on sheet
music in one of two ways:
With four beats to a bar and a quarter note taking on the value of one beat, 4/4 is a
time signature that is agreeable to the ear and fits perfectly with the structure of most
rock and pop songs.
So what makes a song “sound” like it’s in 4/4? It’s the pattern of emphasized beats,
which is as follows:

As we said before, beat 1 is the strongest beat in the majority of simple time
signatures, and 4/4 is no exception. Beats 2 and 4 are the weak beats in the bar,
with beat 3 being a little bit more emphasized.
This lends itself well to the classic rock drum beat, or the kick-hihat-snare-hihat
pattern. The kick falls on the strongest beat, the hihats occupy weak beats 2 and 4,
and the snare takes beat 3. You can hear this here:

4/4 Drum beat (Rock)

Try counting or clapping along with the song; chances are, it will sound like clap-
clap-clap-clap clap-clap-clap-clap, or one-two-three-four one-two-three-four.

3/4 Time
The quarter note still gets one beat, but we now have three beats to a bar.
What does this mean, considering the first beat of every bar gets the strongest
emphasis?

As you can hear, the resulting accent pattern in each bar is one-two-three. This
lends a lulling, waltz-like quality to the beat. It then makes sense that waltzes
themselves use this time signature, with the beat pattern corresponding to the
dancers’ foot movements.
Try clapping along with the following:

Five years - [The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars] - David Bowie

2/2 Time
In 2/2 time, the half note gets one beat, and there are two beats to a bar. The first
beat gets the emphasis, and the second beat is the weaker one:

The resulting accent pattern of one-two is reminiscent of a ticking clock, or a march.

This time signature is also referred to as cut time.
Sure enough, the accent pattern means that marches are often written in this time
signature. Try clapping along to the following:

Stars and Stripes Forever - John Philip Sousa

Compound Time Signatures

Though they may appear complicated to the ear and on paper, compound time
signatures are just multiple simple time signatures squished into one. Examples are
6/8, 12/8, and 9/8.
The rules remain the same – the top number tells you how many beats exist in a bar,
and the bottom number indicates the note value that represents one beat.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that a complication arises.
We know that in 3/4, for example, the beat pattern is strong-weak-weak. However, if
we have a compound time signature of 6/8, how do we assign emphasis to the beats
in a way that each bar still has structure and discernible rhythm?

6/8 Time
The answer is to think of 6/8 time as two groups of 3/8:
You may notice that your clapping or counting pattern follows a pattern of one-two-
three-four-five-six, with beat 1 being the strongest, and beat 4 also getting some
emphasis to signal the beginning of the second half of the bar.
When it starts moving along, it’s easier – and more common – to count 6/8 in two –
one–two-three-two-two-three.
Try clapping along with Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”:

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

You can really hear the two-beat split within each bar – it’s emphasized by the guitar
strum pattern, with a chord change signaling the end of each 6/8 bar.
To better understand this time signature and how it relates to it’s cousin, 3/8 time,
check out Hoffman Academy’s engaging video on the topic.

9/8 Time
With 9 beats and the eighth note receiving “one beat”, we could count this time
signature as one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine, but that would quickly get
unwieldy and confusing.
Similarly to 6/8 time, the solution is to break down this compound time signature into
three groups of three eighth notes. This allows you to employ the easy one-two-
three-one-two-three-one-two-three counting method, with the option to count one-
two-three-two-two-three-three-two-three in order to keep track of the bars:

Try counting or clapping along with this track:

Comb Your Hair And Curl It - A Traditional Irish Slip Jig

12/8 Time
This consists of twelve beats, separated into four groups of three eighth notes each.
You can therefore count it as one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-
eleven-twelve.
Although we doubt you’d want to, considering the count of one-two-three-two-two-
three-three-two-three-four-two-three works just as well, and is a bit easier to
wrangle!

Comb Your Hair And Curl It - A Traditional Irish Slip Jig

You can think of this as 4/4 time with a triplet feel, owing to the four “strong” beats,
each of which are followed by two weak beats, with a subdivision of one-two-three,
just like in 3/4 time.
This time signature is common in Southern gospel-influenced music, such as Aretha
Franklin’s “Surely God Is Able”:

Aretha Franklin - Surely God Is Able

Complex Time Signatures

So what do all of the above time signatures, whether simple or compound, have in
common?
They are comprised of one or more identical groups of a certain note value. 4/4
has one group of four quarter notes. 9/8 has three groups of three eighth notes. 12/8
has four groups of three quarter notes.
So, what happens when you have a time signature with uneven beat groupings, such
as 5/4, 7/4, or 5/8? These are called complex time signatures, and require a little
bit more thought when being counted.
You may, when songwriting, even accidentally write a riff that is in a complex time
signature and not realize it’s odd meter until you count it through! Eve Alpert of
Philadelphia indie rock band Palm shares a fresh take on songwriting and conveying
emotions in odd meter.
We won’t go very deep into these complex time signatures as we will be focussing
on simple and compound time in the time signature exercises below, but just to give
you an idea…

7/4 Time
Try clapping along with Pink Floyd’s “Money”, using the melody of the bassline to
count beats:

You’ll notice that you clap seven times over the course of one iteration of the
bassline – the song is in 7/4 time!
This makes counting this time signature in groups quite tricky, as the stress pattern
isn’t so simple. Depending on the song, it may make sense to count 7/4 as 4/4 + 3/4,
or as 2/4 + 2/4 + 3/4.

5/4 Time
Now, try counting along with Radiohead’s “15 Step”, beginning on the kick-drum like
beat:
Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Radiohead - 15 Step - by Kota Totori

This time, you’re counting to five between the heavily-accented beat. In this instance,
there’s only one beat every bar that’s heavily accented, and it’s that first one.
Therefore, this song can be counted as one-two-three-four-five.
For a more in-depth look at this unique time signature and its alternate beat patterns,
check out Let’sTalkAboutMathRock’s illustrative guide.
Hearing Time Signatures
Now that you’re familiar with the most common instances of simple and compound
time signatures, let’s try determining the time signatures of some popular songs. If
you want more description of the character of each time signature, check out Music
Radar’s guide.
Here’s are some tips to help you along:

1. The first beat in every bar is usually accented

2. The first beat in every bar division is usually accented

Remember: clapping along and counting are your best friends!

Pay attention to where the emphasis falls, count the beats, and you’ll be fine.
The answers are below each song, but listen carefully to the song and make your
best guess before checking them!

Beat one of every bar is heavily stressed in this song, with beat four also getting
some emphasis, though not nearly as much. Count one-two-three-four-five-six, with
one falling on the heavily emphasized first note of every bar, and note how this gives
the song a different feel than the waltz-like 3/4 time signature.

The Butterfly - Irish Slip Jig | Flo Ryan

Getting in Time
Sometimes, you may come across a piece of music in a truly indiscernible time
signature, though it does happen:

The Terminator Soundtrack - Main Theme

If you’re curious, the Terminator theme is in 13/16 time. The beat comes in stronger
around [2:13], for those of you who care to count along (good luck!).
This kind of intensely complex time signature, however, is far from a common
occurrence. To reiterate the good news: most popular songs you come across and
want to play on your instrument will be in simple time signatures.
That doesn’t mean, however, that 4/4 time will necessarily have a strict four-note
pattern that is easily recognizable as 4/4! Plenty of music adds fascinating note
patterns and flourishes to add interest to a simple time signature

More good news: learning to discern time signatures is fun! You get to listen to and
engage with your favourite music, finding patterns and improving your sense
of rhythm all at once.
What are you waiting for?

Understanding time signatures has benefits that stretch beyond theory and
into your performance – training your ear to recognize time signatures will
help you to play by ear, achieve a certain “feel” with your songwriting, perform
expressively, and more.

Title Link Quadruple, Timbre Texture

Triple or What instruments (I couldn’t fill this in
Duple? are in use) because I don’t
understand the
meaning of each
texture from the
research I did.)

Schubert, play Schubert: 5. Sinfonie ∙ duple -cello

from 7:30 hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ -flute
Andrés Orozco- -violin
Estrada -viola

Putumayo ✨Putumayo Presents: quadruple -guitar

Café Cubano (The -maracas
Very Best of Cuban -voices
Music)[Remastered HD
Full Album]✨

India Carney- Human - India Carney quadruple -piano

Human -voice

Cold play- Yellow Coldplay - Yellow duple -voice

(Official Video) -guitar
-drums

Rod Fernanda Takai - I quadruple -voice

Steward/Fernand Don't Want To Talk -guitar
a Takai About It (Ao Vivo) -drums

Lianne La Havas Lianne La Havas - No triple -voice

room for doubt - Live -guitar
Session by " Bruxelles
Ma Belle " 1/2

Jamie Culum Jamie Cullum - duple -double bass

Mankind (Live From -voice
 Craxton Studios /
2019)

Corey Henry Cory Henry Performing quadruple -piano

"Billie Jean" on BBC -drums
Proms -autotune/voices

Dave Brubeck Dave Brubeck - Take triple -clarinet

Five -drums
-piano