LAID TO REST TIME SIGNATURE HOW TO

The bottom number is slightly more tricky to understand. If it is a “3” then the pulse will be counted in groups of 3 and each bar will add up to 3. If it is a “2” then you should count the pulse in groups of 2 and each bar should add up to 2. What type of beats they are ( bottom number).How many beats are in a bar ( top number).What do Time Signatures show?Īs we have discussed, a time signature is made up of 2 numbers (one on top of the other) found at the beginning of the stave. The first beat of every measure/bar is accented (played slightly louder) and this helps to give the characteristic feel of a particular grouping.

LAID TO REST TIME SIGNATURE HOW TO

However, if I was teaching you how to waltz (an unlikely scenario given my lack of ability on the dance floor(!!)) then I would want to count “1-2-3” and then return to “1” because this is the grouping that fits with the dance steps:Īs a result, the top number of the time signature for a waltz would be a “3” (3 beats in every measure) and the bottom number would probably be a 4 again (quarter notes). So, the time signature would have a number “4” at the top (4 beats in every measure) and a number “4” at the bottom (these beats would be quarter notes (crotchets)). As a result, a march-like piece will have 4 beats in every measure and these beats will most likely be quarter notes (crotchets). In music, these “groupings” are called measures or bars. Something in me makes me want to arrange my counting into groups of 4. This is because it “feels” like the right and natural thing to do. My natural instinct would be to then start at “1” again rather than going on to “5-6-7-8…”. If I was teaching you how to march then I would probably stand in front of you and shout “1-2-3-4” at a suitable speed for you to walk in time to. The feel of a Viennese Waltz and a march differ for a wide variety of reasons, but a key foundation is the different groupings of the pulse. The groove (or the “feel”) of a piece of music stems largely from how the beats are grouped together. Sometimes we’ll go to 6 and, if we’re really pushed, we may even count as high as 12!! But, we tend to like 3 or 4!! We would soon lose count! Similar to the way we don’t like to go beyond “G” in the alphabet, we musicians don’t really like to count beyond “4”.However, there would be 2 main problems with this approach…. When counting the beat of a piece of music we could start at the number “1” and keep going to whatever number we got to by the end of the piece. Theoretically, music does not need a time signature.

Laid to rest time signature