Fundamentals
9 Simple Meter and Time Signatures
Chelsey Hamm; Kris Shaffer; and Mark Gotham
Key Takeaways
- A beat is a pulse in music that regularly recurs.
- Simple Meters are meters in which the beat divides into two, and then further subdivides into four.
- Duple Meters have groupings of two beats, Triple Meters have groupings of three beats, and Quadruple Meters have groupings of four beats.
- There are different conducting patterns for Duple, Triple, and Quadruple meters.
- A measure is equivalent to one group of beats (Duple, Triple, or Quadruple). Measures are separated by bar lines.
- Time signatures in simple meters express two things: how many beats are contained in each measure (the top number), and the beat unit (the bottom number), which refers to the note value that is the beat.
- A beam connects notes by beat. Beaming changes in different time signatures.
- Notes below the middle line on a staff are down-stemmed, while notes above the middle line on a staff are up-stemmed. Flag direction works similarly.
In Rhythmic and Rest Values we discussed the different rhythmic values of notes and rests. Musicians organize rhythmic values into various meters, which are—broadly speaking—formed as the result of recurrent patterns of accents in musical performances.
Terminology
Listen to the following performance by the contemporary musical group Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ). They are performing a cover of the song “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls (originally released in 1996), as heard in
:
Beginning at 0:11, it is easy to tap or clap along to this recording. What you are tapping along to is called a beat—a pulse in music that regularly recurs.
Simple Meters are meters in which the beat divides into two, and then further subdivides into four. is in a simple meter. You can feel this yourself, by tapping your beat twice as fast; you might also think of this as dividing your beat into two smaller beats.
Different numbers of beats group into different meters. Duple Meters contain beats which are grouped into twos, while Triple Meters contain beats which are grouped into threes, and Quadruple Meters contain beats which are grouped into fours.
Listening to Simple Meters
Let’s listen to examples of Simple Duple, Simple Triple, and Simple Quadruple meters. A Simple Duple meter contains two beats, each of which divides into two (and further subdivides into four). “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (1896), written by John Philip Sousa, is in a Simple Duple meter.
Listen to
, and tap along, feeling how the beats group into sets of two:
A Simple Triple meter contains three beats, each of which divides into two (and further subdivides into four). The third movement of Symphony no. 90 (1788), written by Franz Joseph Haydn, is in a Simple Triple meter. Listen to , and tap along, feeling how the beats group into sets of three:
Finally, a Simple Quadruple meter contains four beats, each of which divides into two (and further subdivides into four). The song “Cake” (2017),