I. Fundamentals
Simple Meter and Time Signatures
Mark Gotham; Chelsey Hamm; and Kris Shaffer
Key Takeaways
- A beat is a pulse in music that regularly recurs.
- Simple meters are meters in which the beat divides into two, and then further subdivides into four.
- Duple meters have groupings of two beats, triple meters have groupings of three beats, and quadruple meters have groupings of four beats.
- There are different conducting patterns for duple, triple, and quadruple meters.
- A measure is equivalent to one group of beats (duple, triple, or quadruple). Measures are separated by bar lines.
- Time signatures in simple meters express two things: how many beats are contained in each measure (the top number), and the beat unit (the bottom number), which refers to the note value that is the beat.
- A beam visually connects notes together, grouping them by beat. Beaming changes in different time signatures.
- Notes below the middle line on a staff are up-stemmed, while notes above the middle line on a staff are down-stemmed. Flag direction works similarly.
In Rhythmic and Rest Values, we discussed the different rhythmic values of notes and rests. Musicians organize rhythmic values into various meters, which are—broadly speaking—formed as the result of recurrent patterns of accents in musical performances.
Terminology
Listen to the following performance by the contemporary musical group Postmodern Jukebox ( beat—a pulse in music that regularly recurs.
). They are performing a cover of the song “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls (originally released in 1996). Beginning at 0:11, it is easy to tap or clap along to this recording. What you are tapping along to is called a
simple meter: a meter in which the beat divides into two, and then further subdivides into four. You can feel this yourself by tapping your beat twice as fast; you might also think of this as dividing your beat into two smaller beats.
is in aDifferent numbers of beats group into different meters. Duple meters contain beats that are grouped into twos, while Triple meters contain beats that are grouped into threes, and Quadruple meters contain beats that are grouped into fours.
Listening to Simple Meters
Let’s listen to examples of simple duple, simple triple, and simple quadruple meters. A simple duple meter contains two beats, each of which divides into two (and further subdivides into four). “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (1896), written by John Philip Sousa, is in a simple duple meter.
Listen to
, and tap along, feeling how the beats group into sets of two:
A simple triple meter contains three beats, each of which divides into two (and further subdivides into four). Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Minuet in F major,” K.2 (1774) is in a simple triple meter. Listen to , and tap along, feeling how the beats group into sets of three:
Finally, a simple quadruple meter contains four beats, each of which divides into two (and further subdivides into four). The song “Cake” (2017) by Flo Rida is in a simple quadruple meter. Listen to starting at 0:45 and tap along, feeling how the beats group into sets of four:
As you can hear and feel (by tapping along), musical compositions in a wide variety of styles are governed by meter. You might practice identifying the meters of some of your favorite songs or musical compositions as simple duple, simple triple, or simple quadruple; listening carefully and tapping along is the best way to do this. Note that simple quadruple meters feel similar to simple duple meters, since four beats can be divided into two groups of two beats. It may not always be immediately apparent if a work is in a simple duple or simple quadruple meter by listening alone.
Conducting Patterns
If you have ever sung in a choir or played an instrument in a band or orchestra, then you have likely had experience with a conductor. Conductors have many jobs. One of these jobs is to provide conducting patterns for the musicians in their choir, band, or orchestra. Conducting patterns serve two main purposes: first, they establish a tempo, and second, they establish a meter.
The three most common conducting patterns outline duple, triple, and quadruple meters. Duple meters are conducted with a downward/outward motion (step 1), followed by an upward motion (step 2), as seen in
. Triple meters are conducted with a downward motion (step 1), an outward motion (step 2), and an upward motion (step 3), as seen in . Quadruple meters are conducted with a downward motion (step 1), an inward motion (step 2), an outward motion (step 3), and an upward motion (step 4), as seen in :
Beat 1 of each of these measures is considered a downbeat . A downbeat is conducted with a downward motion, and you may hear and feel that it has more “weight” or “heaviness” then the other beats. An upbeat is the last beat of any measure. Upbeats are conducted with an upward motion, and you may feel and hear that they are anticipatory in nature.
Time Signatures
In Western musical notation, beat groupings (duple, triple, quadruple, etc.) are shown using bar lines, which separate music into measures (also called bars), as shown in
. Each measure is equivalent to one beat grouping.In simple meters, time signatures (also called meter signatures) express two things: 1) how many beats are contained in each measure, and 2) the beat unit (which note value gets the beat). Time signatures are expressed by two numbers, one above the other, placed after the clef ( ).
A time signature is not a fraction, though it may look like one; note that there is no line between the two numbers. In simple meters, the top number of a time signature represents the number of beats in each measure, while the bottom number represents the beat unit.
In simple meters, the top number is always 2, 3, or 4, corresponding to duple, triple, or quadruple beat patterns. The bottom number is usually one of the following:
- 2, which means the half note gets the beat.
- 4, which means the quarter note gets the beat.
- 8, which means the eighth note gets the beat.
You may also see the bottom number 16 (the sixteenth note gets the beat) or 1 (the whole note gets the beat) in simple meter time signatures.
There are two additional simple meter time signatures, which are 𝄴 (common time) and 𝄵 (cut time). Common time is the equivalent of [latex]\mathbf{^4_4}[/latex] (simple quadruple—four beats per measure), while cut time is the equivalent of [latex]\mathbf{^2_2}[/latex] (simple duple—two beats per measure).
Counting in Simple Meter
Counting rhythms aloud is important for musical performance; as a singer or instrumentalist, you must be able to perform rhythms that are written in Western musical notation. Conducting while counting rhythms is highly recommended and will help you to keep a steady tempo. Please note that your instructor may employ a different counting system. Open Music Theory privileges American traditional counting, but this is not the only method.
shows a rhythm in a [latex]\mathbf{^4_4}[/latex] time signature, which is a simple quadruple meter. This time signature means that there are four beats per measure (the top 4) and that the quarter note gets the beat (the bottom 4).
- In each measure, each quarter note gets a count, expressed with Arabic numerals—”1, 2, 3, 4.”
- When notes last longer than one beat (such as a half or whole note in this example), the count is held over multiple beats. Beats that are not counted out loud are written in parentheses.
- When the beat in a simple meter is divided into two, the divisions are counted aloud with the syllable “and,” which is usually notated with the plus sign (+). So, if the quarter note gets the beat, the second eighth note in each beat would be counted as “and.”
- Further subdivisions at the sixteenth-note level are counted as “e” (pronounced as a long vowel, as in the word “see”) and “a” (pronounced “uh”). At the thirty-second-note level, further subdivisions add the syllable “ta” in between each of the previous syllables.
Simple duple meters have only two beats and simple triple meters have only three, but the subdivisions are counted the same way (
).
Like with notes that last for two or more beats, beats that are not articulated because of rests, ties, and dots are also not counted out loud. These beats are usually written in parentheses, as shown in
:
When an example begins with a pickup note (anacrusis), your count will not begin on “1,” as shown in . An anacrusis is counted as the last note(s) of an imaginary measure. When a work begins with an anacrusis, the last measure is usually shortened by the length of the anacrusis. This is demonstrated in : the anacrusis is one quarter note in length, so the last measure is only three beats long (i.e., it is missing one quarter note).
Counting with Beat Units of 2, 8, and 16
In simple meters with other beat units (shown in the bottom number of the time signature), the same counting patterns are used for the beats and subdivisions, but they correspond to different note values.
shows a rhythm with a [latex]\mathbf{^4_4}[/latex] time signature, followed by the same rhythms with different beat units. Each of these rhythms sounds the same and is counted the same. They are also all considered simple quadruple meters. The difference in each example is the bottom number of the time signature—which note gets the beat unit (quarter, half, eighth, or sixteenth).
Beaming, Stems, Flags, and Multi-Measure Rests
Beams connect notes together by beat. As shows, this means that beaming changes depending on the time signature. In the first measure, sixteenth notes are grouped into sets of four, because four sixteenth notes in a [latex]\mathbf{^4_4}[/latex] time signature are equivalent to one beat. In the second measure, however, sixteenth notes are grouped into sets of two, because one beat in a [latex]\mathbf{^4_8}[/latex] time signature is only equivalent to two sixteenth notes.
Note that in vocal music, beaming is sometimes only used to connect notes sung on the same syllable. If you are accustomed to music without beaming, you may need to pay special attention to beaming conventions until you have mastered them. In the top staff of
, the eighth notes are not grouped with beams, making it difficult to see where beats 2 and 3 in the triple meter begin. The bottom staff shows that if we re-notate the rhythm so that the notes that fall within the same beat are grouped together with a beam, it makes the music much easier to read. Note that these two rhythms sound the same, even though they are beamed differently. The ability to group events according to a hierarchy is an important part of human perception, which is why beaming helps us visually parse notated musical rhythms—the metrical structure provides a hierarchy that we show using notational tools like beaming.shows several different note values beamed together to show the beat unit. The first line does not require beams because quarter notes are never beamed, but all subsequent lines do need beams to clarify beats.
The second measure of
shows that when notes are grouped together with beams, the stem direction is determined by the note farthest from the middle line. On beat 1 of measure 2, this note is E5, which is above the middle line, so down-stems are used. Beat 2 uses up-stems because the note farthest from the middle line is the E4 below it.Flagging is determined by stem direction (
). Notes above the middle line receive a down-stem (on the left) and an inward-facing flag (facing right). Notes below the middle line receive an up-stem (on the right) and an outward-facing flag (facing left). Notes on the middle line can be flagged in either direction, usually depending on the contour of the musical line.Partial beams can be used for mixed rhythmic groupings, as shown in
. Sometimes these beaming conventions look strange to students who have had less experience with reading beamed music. If this is the case, you will want to pay special attention to how the notes in are beamed.
Rests that last for multiple full measures are sometimes notated as seen in
. This example indicates that the musician is to rest for a duration of four full measures.A Note on Ties
We have already encountered ties that can be used to extend a note over a measure line. But ties can also be used like beams to clarify the metrical structure within a measure. In the first measure of
, beat 2 begins in the middle of the eighth note, making it difficult to see the metrical structure. Breaking the eighth note into two sixteenth notes connected by a tie, as shown in the second measure, clearly shows the beginning of beat 2.- Simple Meter Tutorial (musictheory.net)
- Video Tutorial on Simple Meter, Beats, and Beaming (YouTube)
- Conducting Patterns (YouTube)
- Simple Meter Time Signatures (liveabout.com)
- Simple Meter Counting (YouTube)
- Beaming Rules (Music Notes Now)
- Beaming Examples (Dr. Sebastian Anthony Birch)
- Time Signatures and Rhythms (.pdf)
- Terminology, Bar Lines, Fill-in-rhythms, Rebeaming (.pdf)
- Meters, Time Signatures, Rebeaming (website)
- Bar Lines, Time Signatures, Counting (.pdf)
- Time Signatures, Rebeaming, p. 4 (.pdf)
- Fill-in-rhythms (.pdf)
- Time Signatures (.pdf, .pdf)
- Bar Lines (.pdf, .pdf, .pdf)
Media Attributions
- Measures and Bar Lines © Nathaniel Mitchell is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Time Signature © Chelsey Hamm is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Pickup Notes © Megan Lavengood is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Notes Without Beams © Mark Gotham is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Beaming-beat-unit © Megan Lavengood is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Stemming © Chelsey Hamm is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Flag Direction © Chelsey Hamm is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Multi-Measure Rest © Chelsey Hamm is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
- Ties-clarify-beat © Mark Gotham is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
A pulse in music to which one can tap or clap along. A grouped hierarchy of beats forms a meter.
A meter that divides the beat into two parts.
A meter with two beats per measure.
A meter with three beats per measure.
A meter with four beats per measure.
Created by bar lines, a measure (or bar) is equivalent to one beat grouping.
Vertical lines that create measures.
An indication of meter in Western music notation, often made up of two numbers stacked vertically.
Which note value gets the beat (e.g., the quarter note in 4/4 or the dotted quarter note in 6/8).
The horizontal lines that connect certain groups of notes together.
A curved line placed at the end of a stem. Each flag added to a stemmed note represents the reduction of the note value by half. For example, the symbol for an eighth note is like a quarter note plus a flag; the eighth note is one-half the value of the quarter note.
A musical sound that has both a pitch and a rhythmic component; the symbol may include a stem, beam, and/or flag.
A measured silence in a piece of music.
A recurring pattern of accents that occur over time. Meters are indicated in music notation with a time signature.
A meter with two beats, each of which divides into two. The top number of a simple duple meter will always be "2". 2/4 and 2/2 (cut time, 𝄵) are the most common simple duple meters.
A meter with three beats, each of which divides into two. The top number of a simple triple meter will always be "3". 3/4 is the most common compound triple meter.
A meter with four beats, each of which divides into two. The top number of a simple quadruple meter will always be "4". 4/4 (common time, 𝄴) is the most common compound quadruple meter.
The director of an ensemble.
Beat 1 of a measure, which is conducted with a downward motion.
The last beat of a measure which is conducted with an upward motion.
The numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
Notes on an upbeat that lead into the first downbeat of a phrase.