Time signature

The time signature is made up of two figures, one placed over the other

e. g.                 3         2       4         6       2      3

                         4,        4,      8,       8,      2,      8 .   etc  

The top figure tells us how many beats are there in a bar while the lower or bottom figure tells us what kind of note or beat is worth one beat.

The semibreve is considered as the standard note by which the measure of the different kind of time is fixed.

Any of the notes minim, crotchets, quavers or semiquaver may be the beat unit (i.e. may be worth one beat), the bottom figure of the signature is arrived at by dividing the note into a semibreve.

Time signatures are also divided into three groups namely Duple, Triple and Quadruple time signature.

Therefore, we have:

• Simple duple time signature
• Simple triple time signature
• Simple quadruple time signature
• Compound duple time signature
• Compound triple time signature
• Compound quadruple time signature