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Time signature is found at the beginning of the
piece next to the key signature. It looks like a fraction without a
dividing bar such as  or  .
The number on the bottom tells what type of note (half, quarter,
eighth, etc…) gets a single beat, or count. The upper number
tells how many of those notes are in a measure.
 For example, a time signature of
means there are three quarter notes per measure. It also means that
there are three beats in a measure and a quarter note gets one
beat.
Different music symbols represent the length of
time that a note should last. When a note is held for one measure
with a time signature of , it is called a whole
note and is shown like this:  . If the
measure is split into two equal parts, a note that lasts for half
of the measure is called a half note and is represented like this:
 . Finally, a measure divided into four equal
parts is made up of quarter notes shown like this: and so on to the power of two.
|
Name
|
Note
Symbol
|
Fraction of
measure
|
# notes that
fit in a measure
|
|
Whole
|
 |
1/1 |
1 =
20 |
|
Half
|
 |
1/2 |
2 =
21 |
|
Quarter
|
 |
1/4 |
4 =
22 |
|
Eighth
|
 |
1/8 |
8 =
23 |
|
Sixteenth
|
 |
1/16 |
16 =
24 |
A dot after any note increases the note's length
by half. For example,
. =
+ = dotted half
note
= ½ + ( ½ of ½ )
= ½ + ¼ = 3/4 ( takes up ¾ of the
measure )
=
+ = dotted quarter
note
= ¼ + ( ½ of ¼ ) = ¼ + 1/8 = 3/8 ( takes up
3/8 of the measure )
What happens if you put a dot after the note?
It becomes 1 ½ times itself.
"Rest" is an interval of silence having a specified length.
Here is a rest table. It tells you the counts of varied
rests.
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