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Time Signatures... Explained
The most commonly used time signature in music is 4/4, using the above guide to help we
can see that the top number is telling us that each bar is made up of four beats, and the
bottom number is telling us that each “beat” is worth a crotchet (or quarter note). In other
words all notes and/or rests in each bar must add up to four crotchets in total. Here is an
example of a 4/4 bar containing it’s four crotchets...
Next is an example of a more complex bar of 4/4, notice that the notes and rests still add
up to four crotchets in total...
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Because 4/4 is so commonly used it is often simply referred to as ‘Common Time’ and it’s
time signature is shown as a ‘C’ on the stave. Here’s what that looks like...
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Either of the two numbers can change to create different time signatures, the top number
can change to any of a wide range of numbers mostly between 2 and 21. The bottom
number has a smaller selection of numbers it can change to because it has to reflect a
particular note value.
A Guide to The Bottom Number:
2 = Minim (also called a half note)
4 = Crotchet (also called a quarter note)
8 = Quaver (also called an 8th note)
16 = Semiquaver (also called a 16th note)
In theory the bottom number could also be a 32 representing Demisemiquavers (32nd
notes), but 32nds are such a small note value this is very unlikely to ever turn up.
Changing the Top Number
Let’s take a look now at a time signature with a different top number, 3/4.
The famous style of music & dance known as the Waltz is in 3/4 time...
3/4 means that the notes and rests in each bar must add up in total to three crotchets.
This example shows a more complex 3/4
bar...
A musical example of 3/4 time is ‘Norwegian Wood’ by The Beatles. Also next time you
sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to someone do some counting and you will find that song is also in
3/4.
Here’s an example of a 5/4 bar...
5/4 means the contents of each bar must add up to five crotchets.
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This 5/4 bar contains a more complicated rhythm, but again all the notes and rests add up
to five crotchets in total.
For an example of 5/4 time listen to ‘Take
Five’ by Dave Brubeck and ‘Seven Days’
by Sting.
Here are some more examples of time signatures that don’t have a top number of ‘4’...
A good example of 2/4 time is Beethoven’s Symphony no.7 (2nd Movement). In popular
music it can often be difficult to differentiate between 2/4 and 4/4 by ear.
‘Satellite’ by The Dave Matthews
Band and ‘Fell On Black Days’ by
Sound Garden are examples of 6/4.
Check out ‘Solsbury Hill’ by Peter
Gabriel and ‘Money’ by Pink
Floyd to hear examples of 7/4
time.
Here’s an example drum groove written in 7/4...
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The Cautionary Time Signature
Usually a piece of music will keep the same time signature through out it’s whole
composition, but this is not always the case, sometimes the time signature can change
within the same piece, maybe even numerous times. If the time signature changes at the
start of the next line of music a ‘cautionary’ time signature is written at the end of the line
currently being played to give the reader some advance notice. Here’s what that would
look like...
Changing the Bottom Number
Now let’s take a look at some time signatures that have a different bottom number.
This first example shows a bar of 7/8, which means that each bar must add up to seven
quavers (or 8th notes).
Because there is an odd number of quavers in this bar we can’t feel a regular crotchet
pulse throughout, instead we have to feel the quavers to generate a regular sense of time.
This is why the bottom number has to be an ‘8’.
A great example of this time signature is the
song ‘Saint Augustine In Hell’ by Sting (from his
‘Ten Summoner’s Tales’ album). As you listen to
the song and try to establish a regular pulse you
will find that you can’t keep a steady crotchet feel, it just doesn’t work. Instead you will
need to count the quavers, and you will find that each bar is seven quavers long. Don’t just
listen to the drums, hear the bass line, the melody, the lyrics, and the chords.
To further explain this imagine a bar of 4/4 time. A bar of 4/4 adds up to four crotchets
which means there can also be eight quavers or sixteen semiquavers in the bar, but we
don’t label the bar as being 8/8 time or even 16/16 time because we can cut the numbers
down to a regular crotchet pulse.
In most styles of music the crotchets create the main pulse that the listener might dance or
tap their foot to. For this reason where ever possible the time signature’s bottom number
will be ‘4’. In 7/8 time this simply isn’t possible.
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This next example is in 13/16, thirteen
semiquavers per bar.
In 13/16 we have an odd number of semiquavers in the bar, we can’t feel a regular
crotchet pulse or even a regular quaver pulse, but there is a regular semiquaver pulse, so
the bottom number becomes sixteen.
Here’s a groove idea in 13/16...
When playing in an unusual and challenging time signature like 13/16 a lot of players like
to find simple phrases within the time to make feeling the music easier, for obvious
reasons it isn’t practical to frantically try and count all thirteen semiquavers in each bar.
You need to find and feel a different pulse, often it could be a melody or bassline in the
music that helps you feel the time more easily.
An example of an easier pulse or phrase in 13/16 is this one by the great drummer ‘Marco
Minneman’...
He divides the thirteen counts into smaller “blocks” to reveal a much easier pulse.
Here’s how that pulse (written in blue) would feel under our previous 13/16 groove idea...
An example of a song that contains time signatures with ’16’ on the bottom is ‘Keep It
Greasy’ by Frank Zappa. The song starts out in 4/4 but later has sections in 19/16 and
21/16, featuring the amazing drumming of ‘Vinnie Colaiuta’.
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Cut Common Time
At the beginning of this lesson I mentioned that 4/4 time is often referred to as ‘common
time’ and is represented on the stave by a ‘C’. There is another time signature similar to
this called ‘cut common’ and is represented on the stave by a ‘C’ with a vertical line
running through it.
Cut common time gives the music a kind of “half-time” feel, it is a way of conveying to the
player that a minim pulse is to be felt in the music, as opposed to the more typical crotchet
pulse.
Cut common time means 2/2, which means two minims (or half notes) to a bar.
If the contents of the bar have to add up in total to two minims it stands to reason that we
could have four crotchets in the bar, so the question is...
“Why not just write the bar in 4/4?”
Answer... because the cut common time signature is telling us how to feel the pulse in the
music. The music won’t feel right if you’re focused on the faster crotchet pulse, the people
listening want to dance to the slower minim pulse.
A great example of cut common time is Latin-American music. The Clavé is the most
important rhythm in Latin-American music, there are a few different clavés but here is one
of them written in two bars of cut common time...
Written in blue, below the stave, is the cut common (minim) pulse that should be felt while
playing the clavé. Try playing the clavé while tapping your foot to the notes written in blue.
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As an experiment let’s now take a look at that same clavé written in 4/4...
The notes of the clavé remain exactly the same, but the time signature is conveying the
wrong pulse. The blue crotchets under the stave show how the 4/4 time signature is
suggesting you feel the pulse. Try playing the clavé while tapping your foot to this new
crotchet pulse. It’s not right, it’s not how this style of music was intended to be played and
felt. Have a listen to some Salsa music and you’ll naturally find the pulse you’d like to
dance to, and it won’t be the crotchets!
Now to get more complicated, the clavé could of course be written in one bar of 4/4 using
quavers and semiquavers, and this would actually come out feeling the same as when it’s
written in cut common time.
Here’s what that would look like...
Try playing this clavé while tapping your foot
to the notes in blue and you will find that it
sounds exactly the same as when it was
written in two bars of cut common. However,
in this format we have to write the clavé
using dotted quavers and semiquavers. This can make reading the music more difficult,
and bear in mind that some Latin-American music may contain smaller note values, which
in this format could end being a load of little demisemiquavers... tricky to read. So by using
cut common time latin music is much simpler to read and write.
The other reason which we won’t get into now (because that’s a whole other lesson) is that
the clavé is traditionally thought of in two bars because it’s like having two halves to the
rhythm that can be switched around to form other clavés.
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Compound Time.
When we play in 4/4 the quavers and semiquavers are grouped in blocks of two or four,
this is known as ‘simple time’.
‘Compound time’ is when the notes are grouped in sets of three to imply a different pulse
in the music.
Here’s a compound time known as 6/8...
6/8 means that the contents of each bar add up to six quavers (or 8th notes). Notice that
the quavers in this bar are joined in a couple of three note groups. This is very important,
it’s the only thing differentiating this bar from 3/4. Look at this 3/4 bar below...
Just like the 6/8 bar above it, in total it contains six quavers. But you can see that the
quavers in the 3/4 bar are grouped in twos which is ‘simple time’. In 6/8 the quavers are
grouped in threes. Underneath each of the examples the blue notes are indicating the
pulse which is to be felt while playing music in these two time signatures. This difference in
pulse is what separates 6/8 from 3/4.
The other very popular ‘compound time’ is 12/8, which sounds and feels very similar to 6/8
but each bar is twice as long. Deciding whether to write a piece of music in 6/8 or 12/8 can
sometimes be tricky. The decision will often be made due to the sound of something in the
music, it could be a melody, bassline, riff or chord progression that implies whether each
bar should be six or twelve notes long.
Here’s a 12/8 bar...
Just as we compared 6/8 to 3/4, 12/8 could be compared to 6/4. Both 12/8 and 6/4 contain
twelve quavers in each bar, but again it’s how they are grouped that makes 12/8 a
compound time and therefore different to 6/4.
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When playing in 12/8 most musicians feel a steady four note pulse generated by the four
groups of three. Rather than counting all twelve quavers it’s easier and more musical to
count in four and just “feel” the three note cycles rolling by.
The example below shows (in blue) the pulse that I’m referring to...
To complicate matters, we could write this exact same groove with exactly the same feel in
4/4 time by using quaver triplets...
There’s no difference in how the two bars above sound, but if the whole piece of music has
the same three note feel through out, it would make sense to write it in 12/8 time.
Therefore avoiding the need to write loads of little 3’s above every group of quaver triplets,
which is what you would have to do if you wrote the piece in 4/4.
There are also some more unusual compound times that can crop up, for example let’s
look at 9/8.
9/8 could be played as a compound time or a simple time. Three into nine goes perfectly
making three groups of three, so it works well as a compound time. But two doesn’t go into
nine therefore 9/8 also works in simple time (it’s quavers grouped in pairs) because there
is no other time signature already conveying that feel. Hopefully this will be easier to
understand when you see the two examples below...
A couple rare time signatures that also fall into this category are 15/8 and 21/8, they too
can be played in both compound or simple time.
To sum up compound time simply... If you’re ever asked to play in 6/8 or 12/8 time the
music will always have a “triplety” three note feel.
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To finish off this explanation of time signatures here are some one bar drum grooves that
are missing their time signature at the beginning. See if you can figure out what the time
signatures should be.
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