Understanding Musical Time Signatures

Video Transcript

"Time signature, we know that the top number refers to how many beats there are in a measure. And you are counting along with the music; one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. The bottom number is a little more difficult to understand. It refers to what kind of note gets one of those counts. Each number; one, two, three, four. What we're doing is we are putting a note in to represent each number. And in the example you are seeing, we have written quarter notes. A quarter note is a dot with one line or a stem, sticking up or down. In this case up. And that represents a quarter note. A quarter represents a fourth. And four quarters makes a whole. So if you have a measure, it takes four quarter notes to make a measure. Now we know that there are four beats in the measure, because we counted along with our song. One, two, three, four. So for each beat, what we are doing is we are writing a quarter note to represent each beat. Which is a quarter of the measure. It?s a little confusing, just keep in mind that the top number tells how many beats are in each measure. The bottom note tell what type of note you should write to represent each beat. In this case, four beats in the measure, and each beat is written as a quarter note. It really makes perfect sense. You have 4 - 4 time, four beats, four quarter notes. A measure is four quarter notes in this case. Quarter notes in 4 - 4 time sound like this. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. What we are doing is we're just playing a note for each count. One, two, three, four. And since our time signature is 4 -4. Four on top, four beats. Four on bottom, four quarter notes. Here they are. One, two, three, four. That's one measure of 4 -4 time equally counted. One, two, three, four. Notice its not one, two, pause, three, four. That wouldn't be correct. It has to be even. One, two, three, four. Now they are quarter notes."