Time Signature
How many beats to a bar, and which note gets the beat — written after the clef
Related
A time signature stands after the clef and key signature and uses two numbers to say how each bar is counted: the top number is how many beats to the bar, the bottom is which note value gets one beat. 4/4 means four quarter-note beats per bar; 3/4 is the waltz's usual frame.
The crucial case is compound metre: 6/8 is not "six taps of an eighth note" but two big beats of a dotted quarter, each split into three. Its difference from 3/4 is not the total number of notes but how the accents group — one feels like two beats, the other like three.
The usual mistake is to read a time signature as tempo. It fixes the bar's structure only; speed comes from the tempo marking, and the same 4/4 can go from very slow to very fast.
Read deeper → Meter · Simple, Compound and Irregular Metre
Sources
- 拍号上下数字的含义与单拍子/复拍子的分组为通行乐理（参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Metre"）；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.