Meet the Time Signature

Meet 4/4 Time

You have already been counting many of your rhythms:

1 – 2 – 3 – 4

Now you’ll learn why these beats are often grouped in fours.

At the beginning of a piece of music, you may see two numbers:

4
4

This is called a time signature.

For now, the most important thing to remember is:

Meet the Measure

Music is divided into small sections called measures.

In 4/4 time, each measure contains four beats:

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 | 1 – 2 – 3 – 4

The vertical lines separating the measures are called bar lines.

What Does 4/4 Mean?

Now we can explain the numbers more fully.

The top 4 tells you that there are four beats in each measure.

The bottom 4 tells you that a quarter note represents one beat.

4 ← four beats in each measure
4 ← quarter note gets one beat

You do not need to memorise lots of different time signatures yet. For now, you’ll work with 4/4, one of the most common time signatures in music.

You’ve met the 4/4 time signature.

You can now recognise 4/4 time, understand how beats are grouped into measures, and check whether a measure contains four beats.