Learn to Read Music – Time Signatures and Counting
Look at any piece of music and you’ll most likely see a fraction at the beginning of the piece. This is called the time signature. Some of the more common time signatures are 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4. These three time signatures have 4 as the bottom number, which means that the quarter note gets one beat. 2/4 has 2 beats per measure, 3/4 has 3 beats per measure, and 4/4 has 4 beats per measure.
Some time signatures have the number 8 on the bottom. In these meters, the eighth note gets one beat. In 6/8 time, there are 6 eighth notes per measure. If the tempo (or speed) of the tune is slow, we count 6 beats per measure.
If the tempo is fast, we can reduce our counting to 2. Marches that are notated in 6/8 are counted in 2. This makes it a lot easier for us musicians to count, and it also makes life a lot easier on the conductor. We can think of this as 3 eighth notes (or one dotted quarter note) per beat.
The next lesson will be the final one on time signatures for begginers who want to learn to read music. From there we’ll move on to other music theory topics, music education and learning to read music.
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