Time Signatures 

Once we have our tempo, we use two numbers placed at the beginning of the staff to determine how we group those beats into measures of music. These numbers are called Time Signatures. 

The lower number indicates which type of note is counted as 1 beat. The only numbers that can be on the bottom of a time signature are 1 (whole notes), 2 (half notes), 4 (quarter notes), 8 (eighth notes), and 16 (sixteenth notes).  

Time Signatures: The Upper Number 

In the following example, we have a time signature of 4/4. This means that we have four beats per measure. This means we will group the beats of our Tempo in to groups of four, and count “1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,” for each beat. This is the most common time signature in music, and is often referred to as “common time”  

In the next example, we have a time signature of 3/4. This means that we have three beats per measure. This means we will group the beats of our Tempo into groups of four, and count “1,2,3,,1,2,3,” for each measure. 

 Time Signatures: The Lower Number 

Here, we have three different time signatures, 4/4, 4/2 and 4/8. Note how the top number of all three time signatures are the same. This means that we will still count four beats per measure for each time signature, but the value of the note counted as the beat will change. 

In 4/4 time, we count the quarter note for each beat of the tempo.  In 4/2 time, we count the half note as the beat. In 4/8 time, we count the eighth note as the beat.

It is also important to remember that time signatures are independent of tempo markings. Tempo only notes how fast the beats are going, where the time signature helps us group those beats into measures and represent the beats on paper using one of our note values