Re: I really don’t understand time signature
explanation from a musician who does this sort of stuff everyday, hopefully it helps
yup, I guess the slang term for it is bars, and the more proper term is measures.
Notes have lengths, from long to sort, they are:
a whole note, a half note, a quarter, an eight, a sixteenth, a thirty second, a 64th, a 128th, and even a 256th
If you notice, all of them are exact half divisions of each other.
So, a whole note is divided in two half notes
A half note is divided into two quarter notes.
A quarter is divided in two 8th notes.
And so on.
Of course, you can divide a whole note into 4 quarter notes, or one half note followed by two quarter notes and so on. Cutting a pie or a pizza into slices that have exactly the same shape, length and quantity is the yummy visual example given by everyone.
These notes are represented in numbers that correspond to them in the case of time signatures, they are multiplied by two:
1 is a whole note
1 times 2 = 2 is a half note
2 times 2 = 4 is a quarter note
2 times 4 = 8 is an 8th note
2 times 8 = 16 is a 16th note
and so on.
So now, how to read time signatures?
You have two numbers, as stated above. The first one tell you how many of these notes conform a musical measure or bar. The second one tells you the type of note you will use.
So, in the 4/4 example (also called common time) you will use 4 quarter notes to build a complete musical measure.
In 3/4 time you will use just three of them. Of course you can fill the bar in whichever way you like, for example put a half note followed by two quarter notes to fill up a 4/4 bar, or just one single whole note.
Other time signatures exist, like 6/8 which I guess by now, you know it means you need a total of 6 8th notes to make up a musical measure.
However we are getting a bit ahead, because these are known as compound time signatures and their rhythmic feel and pulse is different from 4/4 or 3/4. however, if you say you are getting into non western music you will have to come to grips to this, and also with other things that dictate the rhythmic and time feel of a musical piece which are not necessarily time signatures.
of course there are ways to extend the durations of notes and there are also a few notes that are longer than the whole note, but these are rare nowadays and really used in Mensural Music which is from centuries ago. In fact, its really hard to come across a 128th note as well.
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