Meter & Time Signature
Just as a measuring tape provides indications of where specific distances such as inches, centimetres, or millimetres occur, meter provides information about the pulse of music, specifically on where emphasis is over a specified time. On the image of the ruler below you can see that although all the vertical lines are spaced evenly apart, the numbers appear below the longest vertical lines. The distance between the numbers are called centimetres. You can also see that another vertical line, half the length of the numbered line, divides each centimetre in half, and then shorter lines dividing each half into 4 smaller divisions. Each line, regardless of length represents one millimetre. The millimetre can still be broken down into much smaller divisions however for now it is enough to use millemetres as the smallest measurement since we will not need smaller divisions for the lesson.
As you can see however, the creator of this ruler decided that they would indicate the beginning of the centimetre with a longer line and to number them so that it would be easier for someone to determine the length of something. A ruler that spans the length of 100 centimetres (hence the name ‘centi’ which means 100) is one meter and it takes 1000 millimetres (milli means 1000) to make one meter. So how does this relate to music? Well the length itself doesn’t matter much as we would not measure the length of a song as ‘distance’ however when trying to define meter in music, it is the pattern of where the emphasis is placed that meter actually describes. In other words, if the length of the vertical lines were to represent the amplitude or volume of a sound occurring at each line, the longest lines would have the loudest emphasis while the slightly shorter line would have half the volume of the longer line, and the shortest lines would have ¼ of the volume of the longest lines. If you were to clap along, you would quickly notice that the repetition of these notes at the indicated volumes would begin to sound very rhythmic. The louder notes would repeat at a specific interval or frequency therefore making it easier to predict or assume what to expect. This is what meter is therefore describing. It isn’t necessarily telling you what rhythm to play yet however it does provide an underlying sense of which beats have a stronger or weaker emphasis. More on rhythm in a minute.
A wave file of a song would work the same way as it provides you a visual representation of the volume at different parts of a song. The louder the volume, the bigger the wave will be. From the image below you can easily see which parts of a the song are quieter and which are louder.
However, for this lesson we are not referring to a whole song but rather only a small snippet that will repeat over a longer period. A 12 centimetre depiction (or a whole meter for that matter) is not necessary to describe meter as it is understood that the pattern will repeat over and over therefore we only need to know information about that part that will repeat. After all, it isn’t being used to measure a distance but rather to explain what is expected rhythmically over time. All that is necessary therefore is to understand where the main emphasis is expected with regards to the beat or pulse of the song and to confidently assume that it will continue until otherwise indicated. The notation (how it is noted) is accomplished through the Time Signature.
Time Signature usually appears at the beginning of a piece of music, as indicated by the 4 over 4 in the image below. It may also at times appear at other points within a song as that would indicate that the time signature changes at some point however it will work exactly the same way as we are about to describe.
As is the case for mathematics, a fraction such as 4/4 is equal to 1. In Music, the 4/4 means that 1 measure has 4 pulses, 4 subdivisions, or 4 beats. 4/4 therefore represents 4 equal parts … or 4 occurrences of ¼ … 4 pieces of 1 pie… therefore in this example 4 beats make 1 measure or ‘section’ as shown below.
As shown in the image, the beats are numbered 1 to 4 and the pattern simply repeats and the beat count starts over. Since the time signature indicates that there will be 4 beats per measure before the pattern repeats, the numbers that are assigned to each beat help to visually see when the pattern will repeat. Sheet music however will not indicate the beat count as shown above as it would be too much information to read that is not necessary to repeat. There are also plenty of other attributes of a song that are more important to notate than to simply repeat information that can be indicated by simply using a Time Signature. You can theoretically count the beats in your head while playing however the drawback is that the act of counting throughout the whole song might take away from the experience of the music itself, or perhaps even take your attention away from noticing other notes or instructions. Meter and Time Signature together resolve this as the meter provides the underlying sense of which beats will have a stronger emphasis therefore the ‘count’ is felt rather than counted. In the example above, more emphasis is placed on each beat (compared to the subdivisions between the beats) and even more emphasis is place on the first beat so that the beginning of the repetition of the pattern is more apparent. If we use bolding as a way of explaining emphasis or volume, it would look something like this:
| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |
Notice that beat 1 is darker/bolder than beats 2, 3, and 4. This means that if you were to clap or even simply say the numbers for these 4 measures, you would put more emphasis beat 1 and would clap beats 2, 3, and 4 at an equal volume to one another. Doing so would allow you to easily feel the beginning of the measure without knowing the actual beat number. Listening to the drummer would easily allow you to know the meter since a drummer will accent beats with different parts of the drum set. For example, imagine that the drummer is playing a bass drum on every 1st beat, the snare on every 3rd beat and a closed high-hat on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4. The bass drum has the strongest emphasis, the snare’s volume is slightly lower and the high-hat is the lowest in volume and also the thinnest sounding. As the drummer plays, you can automatically feel where the emphasis is placed without the necessity of counting. When a drummer counts a band in before they begin to play, the drummer is actually counting in the meter at the tempo they will all be playing at so that everyone can understand and synchronize themselves to the intended meter and tempo.
As we mentioned a littler earlier, 4/4 means 4 pieces of 1 pie. If a pie is divided into 4, then each piece is ¼ of the pie. 4 quarters therefore make a whole pie, just as 4 quarters make 1 dollar. Since there are 4 beats per measure, then one measure consists of 4 quarter beats. Whether a note is heard or not however, the beat, count, or pulse of the song continues even through the silence.
So far we’ve seen a time signature of 4/4 however many other variations exist as a measure, just as a pie, can be divided into other subdivisions. For example, if 3 people were to share a pie, the pie would need to be divided into 3 instead of 4 so that each party would have an equally sized piece. This means that the pie would be divided into thirds (1/3) as 3 times 1/3 is equivalent to 1 (3/3). The difference however is that the time signature would not be 3/3 but rather 3/4 because the bottom number has no bearing on the size of the piece but rather refers to the note that is to be used. 3/4 therefore means that the measure is being divided into 3 equal beats and each beat will look similar to a quarter note which resembles a black dot with a stem (we’ll see more on notes in another lesson).
The meter on a 3/4 time signature would be :
| 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 |
The emphasis would still be on the first beat as this is where you want the repetition or pattern to begin. If you were to keep the emphasis of 4/4 while the other musicians would follow 3/4 you would notice that the emphasis you put on your first beat would not always match the other musicians since your meter would be as follows:
| 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 |
Notice that if you put the emphasis on every fourth note, you would sometimes emphasize beat 1, then beat 2, then beat 3 and then skip a whole measure. While this could be an interesting exercise if done on purpose, it would be incorrect if the meter was misunderstood as it would be difficult to feel the meter in a natural way. This could only be accomplished by actually counting however this would be a completely ‘technical’ approach to music rather than basing it on ‘feeling’ which is extremely important if we expect our audience to appreciate or react to our music.
Other time signatures include 2/2, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, and 10/8 however many more exist as well. The difference with the ones that have an 8 on the bottom of the time signature is that rather than feeling the pulse on every quarter note, the pulse is now felt on every eighth note. A time signature such as 6/8 for example, would be similar to a 3/4 meter to a certain degree as it is basically double the quantity of beats that you would have in 3/4. In 7/8 and 10/8 however it would definitely make more sense to use an eighth note subdivision of beats as it would be difficult to display this using quarter notes. If you were to use quarter notes, one measure would have 3/4 and the next would have 4/4 or vice versa however it would affect your meter as the emphasis or accent would not occur at every 7 notes but sometimes at 3 and sometimes at 4. If the intention is to feel a stronger 1 beat after ever 7thbeat, the 7/8 time signature would be the way to go.
Don’t worry too much about the bottom note of the time signature as this will become clearer in the next lessons. It’s important to remember that the goal of music theory is to explain what we are hearing and to transcribe or notate what we are hearing so that another musician can understand it and reproduce it. Many musicians do not have this knowledge and while this doesn’t make them bad musicians in any way, the ones who do know music theory are left with the task of notating it for everyone else. For this reason (for example) the bottom note of the time signature can be chosen strictly and specifically because it makes the music much easier to be read. Unless necessary, there wouldn’t be a reason to use a time signature that forces a musician to count when they can feel it instead.
