Reading Music - Time Signatures.
Musical notes of differing lengths and how they are written down - compliments of the easy duet music people.
When reading music the figure on the top shows how many of the bottom figure there are in each bar of music.
The figure on the bottom represents the type of note length with
reference to the Whole-note.
Therefore a 2 represents 1/2 notes, a 4 represents 1/4 notes, an
8 represents 1/8 notes, etc.
So, a time signature of
= 3
quarter-notes (or crotchets) in each bar. This is Waltz time and a good
example can be seen when purchasing our music duet
"Circle Waltz" for whatever your solo musical instrument may be together
with piano.
A time signature of
= 6 eighth-notes (or quavers) in each bar.
This time signature can be seen when reading music of our
duet "It's Just Too Hard".
A time signature of 
= 4 half-notes (or
minims) in each bar, etc. This type of time is most commonly used in church
music and hymns.
Time signatures generally fall into 2 categories according to how one wishes to be able to divide up the note that equals a beat of music, in order to get a certain type of rhythm.
Simple times are used if you want to divide your beats into halves, e.g. 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and-
Compound times are used to divide your beats into thirds, e.g. 1-and-a-2-and-a-3-and-a-4-and-a-
If you are learning to read music, further study material should be sought for more detailed explanations of these types of time signatures. We have a published article here.
