Time Signatures
These two numbers tell you so much about the music. The TOP number tells you something important, and the BOTTOM number does too.
The TIME SIGNATURE tells you how to count.
It consists of two numbers, one on top of the other.
The TIME SIGNATURE is placed after the TREBLE CLEF at the beginning of the staff.
Top number tells HOW MANY beats (counts) in each measure.
Bottom number tells WHAT KIND of note gets one beat.
Instead of counting to 16 like we did in counting lesson 1, this TIME SIGNATURE tells us that there are 4 beats in each measure, and a quarter note gets one beat.
Those 16 notes now look like this:
There are now 4 MEASURES, divided by BAR LINES, and ending with a DOUBLE BAR.
Examples of two other TIME SIGNATURES are shown below:
