TIME SIGNATURE 4/4

The symbol for the time signature it’s two numbers four like this:

and also some people use the letter C like this:

The C represents the COMMON TIME, because 4/4 is the one most people use. The 4/4 is the main one.

There are many times signatures. You already know the 4/4, it is the most popular one, but there are more. In this level you’ll learn to understand how they work. First lets understand the numbers.

the top number of a time signature tells us the number of beats in a measure, the bottom number tells us the note value, or the length of each beat. Let’s make this clear.

The top number tells us HOW MANY BEATS or HOW MANY COUNTS, so in the 4/4 time signature you must have 4 beats ALWAYS.

The bottom tells us what kind of note you must have in the measure. In this case the note is 1/4 or QUARTER NOTES. So you can have 4 quarter notes, or 2 half notes, or 1 whole note, or 8 eighth notes or any combination of notes or/and rests like:

one dotted quarter note + 1 eighth note + 1 quarter note + 2 eighth note.

one quarter note + 1 quarter rest + 1 quarter note + 1 quarter rest.

Here you can see some samples. Analyze each one of them.

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Each of them on each measure you can count 4 beats, with notes and rests, everything counts, make sure you REALLY understand this.