So 6/8 feels more like two, while 3/4 feels more like three. Depending on the structure of the bassline or song, it may make sense to group it one way instead of the other. 3/4 time would be grouped into 3 groups of 2 eighth notes. 6/8 is grouped into 2 groups of 3 eighth notes. One reason you might pick one time signature versus the other is how the music is organized. Now you will wonder why can’t you just reduce 6/8 to 3/4? After all, they add up to the same amount. This is also a very often-used time signature. 6/8 Time Signature Example:Ī time signature of 6/8 means count 6 eighth notes to each bar. Think of all the illogical ways similarly spelled English words are pronounced.

You’ll just have to accept the fact that music has some weird conventions just as any language. How can 3 quarter notes add up to a whole measure? You have to remember that all of our rhythmic terminology is based on 4/4 time since it is the most common. This is where time signatures start to seem illogical and students often get confused. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3…Īgain, the rhythms in each bar can be anything as long as they add to 3 quarter notes. This is an often-used time signature giving you a waltz feel. 3/4 Time Signature Example:Ī time signature of 3/4 means count 3 quarter notes to each bar. You can never have more than or less than the sum total of the number of beats in the time signature. (See diagram.) Summed together they add to 4 quarter notes total. For instance, a bar could contain 1 half note, 1 quarter note rest and 2 eighth notes. Any combination of rhythms can be used as long as they add up to 4 quarter notes. That means all the notes in each bar must add up to 4 quarter notes. So the pulse, or beat, is counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. 4/4 Time Signature Example:Ī time signature of 4/4 means count 4 (top number) quarter notes (bottom number) to each bar. Let me give you some examples so you better understand the concept. The most common bottom numbers are 4, 8 and 16. You could continue on with 32, 64, but you will hopefully never encounter them! After a while it gets a bit unwieldy. So the only numbers you will see as the bottom number (the denominator) will correspond to note values: That is, whether to count the beats as quarter notes, eighth notes, or sixteenth notes. The bottom number tells you what kind of note to count. Most often the number of beats will fall between 2 and 12. The top number of the time signature tells you how many beats to count. Time signatures consist of two numbers written like a fraction. The time signature is written at the beginning of the staff after the clef and key signature. Now that you have an idea of basic rhythmic values and notation used in music, you need to learn a little about time signatures.Ī time signature tells you how the music is to be counted.

Whole rest sign