(continued)

Musica

What is a time signature you ask? Well, it is a little space on the left side of the music where, on each line two numbers are written. Here are some examples of common time signatures.

Now, you're probably wondering what the two numbers mean, right? Sure you are. Well, the number on top tells the musician how many beats there are in the measure, and the number on the bottom tells the musician which length note or rest gets the beat. This may be a little confusing for you right now, but bear with me, okay?

Okay, in order to read the time signature, we'll need to learn about notes. We won't learn about the details of the intonation of notes, but more of the length of each. Some notes are long, others are very short. In order for the musician to know how long to play a note, he or she must be shown on the music sheet. Right now, you'll only need to learn four basic note lengths. The whole note. The half note. The quarter note and the eighth note. Here is how they look.

They look pretty, don't they? In a 4/4 time signature, the whole note gets four beats, or takes up a whole measure. You see how it works? The 4/4 time signature tells the musician that there is four beats in a measure. The half note gets two beats. So how many half notes are there in a measure? Right! There are two half notes in a measure. The quarter note gets one beat. Thus, there are four quarter notes in a measure with a 4/4 time signature. Similarily an eighth note gets half a beat and there are eight eighth notes in a measure. So:

+ =

+ =

+ = It is noteworthy to remember that the above is only correct in terms of length. Two quarter notes will sound different than a half note because there will be a slight release in between the quarter notes. Can you tell me how many eighth notes there are in a half note? The correct answer is: 4.