Time Signature

Time & Groove

Also called meter, metric signature.

A time signature is the counting rules for a song. It looks like a fraction: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8. The top number tells you how many beats go in a bar. The bottom tells you which note value gets a beat. 4/4 means four beats per bar, quarter note gets the beat. That is most of the music you will ever play.

3/4 has three beats to the bar and a waltz sway: "1-2-3, 1-2-3". 6/8 holds six eighth notes grouped in two lots of three, so it feels like one big pulse per half-bar, counted "1-2-3, 4-5-6". Most tunes written in 12/8 are really four groups of three.

Do not get stuck on the bottom number. What matters to a drummer is how many beats you feel per bar and how each beat divides. A 4/4 song can carry quarter, eighth or sixteenth notes over the same four beats and still be 4/4.

Tip: before you touch the drums on a new song, count the bar out loud over the recording. If you can sing "1-2-3-4" and the song fits, you have the signature. If you keep missing the top of the bar, look closer. Plenty of tunes that sound like 4/4 hide a bar of 3/4 in the chorus.