Common Time
4/4 — four quarter-note beats to the bar, usually written with a C
Related
Common time is simply 4/4: four quarter-note beats to the bar, with accents on the first and third. A C often stands in for 4/4 on the page; it is not the initial of "common" but a semicircle inherited from medieval mensural notation.
It shares that C shape with cut time (2/2), which adds a vertical stroke and changes the beat to the half note. 4/4 and 2/2 can fill a bar with the same notes yet be counted differently — four beats against two. Fast 4/4 may sound like two beats, but the notation still says four.
A common mistake is to read the C as a key or tempo mark. It says only that the bar has four beats; speed is set by the tempo.
Sources
- Common time 的 C 记号来源与 4/4 含义，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Time signature"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.