Lesson 35 / 41 9 min
Time signatures, tuplets and swing
Simple, compound and odd meters, common and cut time, pickups, triplets and other tuplets, swing.
The time signature at the start of a piece tells you how beats are grouped into bars. Together with tuplets and swing, it shapes the feel of everything you play.
Reading a time signature
A time signature is two stacked numbers:
- The top number is how many beats are in each bar.
- The bottom number is which note value gets one beat: 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, 2 = half note.
So 3/4 means "three quarter-note beats per bar" and 6/8 means "six eighth notes per bar".
Simple time
In simple time, each beat divides into two. The most common:
- 4/4 — four quarter-note beats. Often written as C (common time).
- 3/4 — three beats, the waltz.
- 2/4 — two beats, marches and polkas.
- 2/2 — two half-note beats, written as ¢ (cut time or alla breve). It looks like 4/4 but is felt in two, with the pulse on beats 1 and 3.
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With Click on, cut time clicks twice per bar — on the half notes — even though it has as many notes as 4/4.
Compound time
In compound time, each beat divides into three. The beat is a dotted quarter, and eighths are beamed in groups of three:
- 6/8 — two beats per bar: ONE two three FOUR five six.
- 9/8 — three beats per bar.
- 12/8 — four beats per bar. The feel of slow blues and many ballads.
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The tempo mark in compound time shows a dotted quarter (♩. = 60), because that's the beat you tap your foot to.
Odd time signatures
Some music groups beats unevenly. The beaming shows you how to feel each bar:
- 5/4 — five beats, usually felt 3 + 2 or 2 + 3.
- 7/8 — seven eighths, usually 2 + 2 + 3 (one-two one-two one-two-three).
- 5/8 — 3 + 2.
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Changing time signatures
A new time signature can appear in the middle of a piece. It stays in force until the next change:
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Pickup bars
Many melodies start before the first full bar, on a weak beat. That short first bar is a pickup (or anacrusis). It isn't counted as bar 1, and the last bar of the piece is often shortened by the same amount. Count the missing beats silently before you start. Here is the opening of Amazing Grace, which starts on beat 3:
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Tuplets
A tuplet squeezes a different number of notes into a beat than usual. It's marked with a number (sometimes with a bracket) over the group.
Triplets
A triplet fits three notes in the time of two. Eighth-note triplets put three notes in one beat — count 1 trip let 2 trip let:
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Quarter-note triplets put three notes across two beats — they feel like they float over the beat. Sixteenth-note triplets put three notes in half a beat (often grouped as six per beat, a sextuplet):
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Duplets, quintuplets and more
- A duplet fits two notes in the time of three — used in compound time to get a "straight" feel.
- A quintuplet (5), sextuplet (6) or septuplet (7) fits that many notes in a beat that would normally hold four.
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Don't count these — feel the start of each beat and spread the notes evenly until the next one.
Swing and shuffle
Blues, jazz and lots of rock are written in plain eighth notes but played with swing: each pair of eighths becomes long–short, like the first and last notes of a triplet. Scores mark it at the top with Swing, Shuffle, or a small equation showing two eighths equal to a quarter–eighth triplet. Straight (or straight 8ths) cancels it.
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Compare with the same notes played straight:
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Practice
Turn on Click and play each example while counting aloud. For tuplets, first clap the beat, then fit the notes between the claps.