A time signature of 2-4 means there are 2 quarter beats in each measure. A time signature of 2-2 means there are 2 half beats in each measure. A time signature of 6-8 means there are 6 eighth notes in each measure….What is a time signature?

Yes, they are the same in terms of length of the measure. However in 2/2 time the tempo is the half note, and 4/4 the tempo is the quarter.

If you are hearing 4 strong beats in a measure, you likely have a 4/4 time signature as that’s the most common in pop, rock, and other popular music. Remember, the bottom “4” tells you the quarter note gets the beat, and the top “4” tells you that you have 4 beats in each measure.

half note

quadruple

A Whole Note equals 4 beats; a Whole Rest equals 4 beats of silence; A Half Note equals 2 beats; a Half Rest equals 2 beats of silence; A Quarter Note equals 1 beat; a Quarter Rest equals 1 beat of silence; An Eighth Note equals 1/2 a beat; an Eighth Rest equals 1/2 a beat of silence.

two beats

Common time: 4/4 meter The most common meter in music is 4/4. It’s so common that its other name is common time and the two numbers in the time signature are often replaced by the letter C. So, to count 4/4 meter, each time you tap the beat, you’re tapping the equivalent of one quarter note.

The eighth note gets half a beat in four four time and other signatures with a lower number of 4. It gets one beat if the lower number is 8, such as in six eight time.

4/4 has four quarter note beats. We start off by writing an eighth rest to complete the first quarter note beat. We then write a quarter rest.

At slower tempos, 6/4 is counted with the quarter note equal to one beat, and six beats per measure. At faster tempos we can perform music in 6/4 with two beats in a measure and with the dotted half note equal to one beat.

quarter note

three beats

3/4 is either 3-in-a-bar or one-in-a-bar. So a whole note would get either 4 or 1 1/3 counts. Except that it will never happen, because you can’t HAVE whole notes in 3/4, there isn’t room for one in a measure.

Dotted Half Note in 3/4 Time Each note lasts for one beat.

The number four is used because four crotchet beats are equal to one semibreve. If the bottom number in the time signature was a two then it would represent minim beats because two minim beats are equal to one semibreve.

whole note

A sixteenth note gets one-fourth of a beat, which means four sixteenth notes will make up one beat. They have a filled-in note head, a stem, and two flags.

In music, a thirty-second note (American) or demisemiquaver (British) is a note played for 1⁄32 of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). It lasts half as long as a sixteenth note (or semiquaver) and twice as long as a sixty-fourth (or hemidemisemiquaver).

Sixteenth note (Semiquaver) The Sixteenth note is worth ¼ of a Quarter note. It may be beamed together in the same way as the eighth note. It changes from the eighth note by having an additional flag.

Half Note. A Half note is held for 2 counts, which means it lasts for twice as long as a quarter note. A Half note has a stem and a white note head (remember the quarter note has a black note head).

A 16th note is very short, in terms of its time value. Sixteenth notes (semiquavers) are notated with an oval, filled-in note head. They have a straight stem and two flags. (They look almost like eighth notes, except that eighth notes have one flag).

Since the dotted eighth holds for three-quarters of a beat and the sixteenth holds for one-quarter of a beat, they frequently beam together to form a group that adds up to one beat.

Sixteenth Notes are grouped by beat. For example, in a meter where the quarter note gets a beat, a maximum of four sixteenth notes should be grouped together. If a dotted quarter note gets a beat, a maximum of six sixteenth notes can be grouped together.

The smallest value we have seen up to this point is that of the quarter note (crotchet), which lasts for a whole beat. Note how eighth notes and sixteenth notes are beamed together: There are figures for even shorter values than that of the sixteenth note.