Drums: Read Time Signature

Video Transcript

"The first thing you need to know about is the time signature. So when you look at a piece of music, you have the double barre line which indicates the beginning, and the time signature. This here is written four four, that means that there are four beats per measure, the quarter note gets one beat, but there will also be two four, two four, if the two is on the top and four on the bottom, that would mean there is two beats per measure, and the quarter note still gets a beat. Now if this were four eight, it would mean four beats per measure, but the eighth note gets a beat. But right now we're just going to stick to four four time, common time, that's the most simple way to learn everything and it'll get you rolling on how to read rhythms. Going to talk about these quarter notes here, oh, let me explain to you the measures. In four four time there are four beats per measure, and the measure line is indicated right there, just one line going through the staff. This is the staff too, these lines, there's five lines, four spaces. So you count one, two, three, four, that's the first measure, one, two, three, four, the second measure, and so on."