Time signatures
A time signature tells you how many beats are in the bar. It is written as two numbers at the beginning of every piece of music.
You can identify the time signature by listening to the music and trying to hear the number of beats in each bar or by looking at the musical notation and adding up the notes in each bar.
The most common time signatures that you should know are:
2 beats per bar – simple time where each beat is split into two quavers
3 beats per bar – simple time where each beat is split into two quavers
4 beats per bar – simple time where each beat is split into two quavers
2 (dotted crotchet) beats per bar – compound time where each beat is split into three quavers
