Timing

[Synth]

Can someone explain time signatures to me? I'm a guitar player who is having trouble understanding them. I'd also like to learn how to play with an metronome. I need to improve my technique, and an metronome is the way to go. But I have no idea how to practice with one.

[Moseph]

With time signatures, the top number refers to the number of beats in every measure, and the bottom number refers to the length of each beat (with some exceptions, which I'll mention below***). For the bottom numbers, 2 = half note and 4 = quarter note.

For example, if you have the time signature

2

4

(which I will write as 2/4 for convenience), it means that there are 2 beats per measure, and each beat has the length of a quarter note.

3/4 means 3 beats per measure, and each beat has the length of a quarter note.

2/2 means 2 beats per measure, and each beat has the length of a half note.

And so on.

***exceptions: The time signatures 3/8, 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 are different. It looks like all of these indicate an eighth-note beat, but that's not the case. For these, the beat is actually the length of a dotted quarter note. (3/8 = 1 dotted-quarter-note beat per measure, 6/8 = 2 dotted-quarter-note beats per measure, 9/8 = 3 dotted-quarter-note beats per measure, 12/8 = 4 dotted-quarter-note beats per measure).

It's kind of confusing, but it's done this way because there's no number that can be used on the bottom to represent a dotted note. If it doesn't make sense, don't worry too much about it. Just count the beat like it looks like it ought to be counted -- with, say, 6/8 meaning 6 eighth-note beats -- and it should become fairly obvious where the actual beat is.

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For practicing with a metronome, you usually want to start learning the piece with the metronome set at a much lower tempo than whatever the piece calls for. When you can play so that all your beats line up with the metronome's clicks, you increase the metronome's tempo and gradually work up to the desired tempo.

[dannthr]

Additionally, in more complex scores, sometimes the copyist or whoever authored the score, will write in how long a beat should be.

So you could have a 12/8 score and there might be a special indication denoting that a beat should be, say, as long as a quarter note, or longer, etc... They usually indicate this with a messy and illogical math equation having a quarter note = some other note (whatever they want the length of a beat to be).

But you probably won't run into this.

[Moseph]

I forgot to mention -- when you see a C where the time signature should be, it means 4/4. When the C has a vertical line through it, it means 2/2. (These two instances are known as common time and cut time, respectively.)

[Synth]

I tried the metronome thing and I'm still not getting it. I'm not sure if I'm getting it right or not.