Rhythm and Meter: Simple Time Signatures

I’m assuming that you understand the concepts presented in the music theory lesson on time, where I define beat, meter, rhythm, beat subdivision, etc. This lesson focuses on notating these elements of musical time. But before we get started with actual time signatures, we’ll look at the principles behind time signatures: meter, beat division, and meter classification.

Meter

Beats are grouped into regularly recurring patterns of strong (>) and weak () beats called meter.. These metric groupings are divided into measures by barlines:

Duple meter is the alternation of strong and weak beats, where there are two beats per measure:

Triple meter has three beats per measure, the first beat usually being the strong beat.

Quadruple meter has four beats per measure. The first and third beats are stressed, the first beat usually being stronger than the third:

 

Beat Division

It’s important not to confuse beat division with meter (beat grouping). Beat division is where the beats themselves are divided into two or three parts.  Understanding beat division is crucial to understanding time signatures.

When the beat is divided into two , it is called simple time.

When the beat is divided into three, it is called compound time.

Let’s review what we have covered so far:

• Meter is the grouping of the beats, resulting in duple (groups of two), triple (groups of three), or quadruple (groups of four) meter.

• Beats are divided into two or three parts: division in two parts is simple time; division in three parts  is compound time.

Meter and beat division are the principles behind time signatures. Try to get theses concepts  clear in your mind, as it makes understanding time signatures significantly easier. Unfortunately, aural examples don’t really help here, as I’ll explain in a bit.

Meter Classification

We put beat division and meter together to describe different meter classifications. The most common time signatures belong to one of these classes. Meter classification is nothing more than describing the beat division (simple or compound) followed by the meter (duple, triple, or quadruple). The table below summarizes the different meter classifications.

Time Signatures

To start with an example, a simple duple meter has two beats per measure and the beat is divided into two. But we still don’t know what note value is assigned to the beat, or as we often ask, “What note gets the beat?” Enter the time signature. The time signature has two numbers, one on top (numerator), and one on bottom (denominator). The top number tells us how many beats there are in a measure. The bottom number tells us what note value gets the beat.

Simple Time Signatures

• Simple time signatures are those where the beat is divided into two.
• The top number of simple time signatures is always 2, 3, or 4.
• The bottom number represents the note value that gets the beat, and any note value may be used to represent the beat:

1 = a whole note
2 = a half note
4 = a quarter note
8 = an eighth note
16 = a 16th note
32 = a 32nd note

Simple Duple time signatures have two beats per measure. Following are several examples:

The notes on top in each measure above are beat values; the notes underneath (stems pointing down) are the beat division. For example, 2/4 has two quarter notes to a measure. The quarter note divides into two eighth notes. Notice that note values with flags (e.g., 8th, 16th, notes, etc.) are beamed together for each beat.

When you hear a piece of music, you often can tell that it is a simple duple meter. Listen, for example, to The Stars and Stripes Forever. But without seeing the written music, it is impossible to know which one of the simple duple meters it is. In other words, there is no difference in sound from one simple duple meter to another. Whether the music is 2/4, 2/8, or 2/2, etc. is a matter of what is traditional, or the preference of the composer or arranger. Having said that, 2/4 and 2/2 probably are the most common simple duple meters. And 2/2 usually is called cut time and is abbreviated:

Here are several examples of simple triple time signatures:

Again, there is no difference in sound from one simple triple time signature to another. 3/4, 3/2, and 3/8 are the most common.

Then there are simple quadruple time signatures:

4/4, the most common simple quadruple time signature, often is referred to as common time and abbreviated:

Compound time signatures present an interesting problem as we’ll see in the next lesson.

Rhythm and Meter, Lesson 3

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