- Hi and welcome to this
little quiz on time signatures.
A lot of people are very
happy with time signatures so
it might be quite an easy
thing for some people to do.
For other people it might
be a handy little revision
on the subject, for other
people who've got things about
time signatures that freak
them out, here's an opportunity
to see if we can sort
some of your woes out.
So a little lighthearted quiz
which you can play along with
and score yourself out of ten if you wish
or if you just want to enjoy
the video, absolutely fine.
Okay so here's question number one,
what does the upper number
mean in this time signature?
So there's the time signature,
time signatures have
two numbers don't they, an
upper number and a lower number.
So here's the first question,
what does the upper number mean in 3/4?
So have a little think about
that, scribble down the answer
if you want to and we'll
move on to question two.
All the answers will
be revealed at the end.
Okay so that's the first one.
Now the second question is
what does the lower number
mean in this time signature, 2/2.
So again two numbers, what
does the lower number mean
in this time signature?
So I'm not asking what do
lower numbers in general mean,
I'm asking specifically,
what does that two mean
as the lower number in the
time signature that's 2/2.
Okay so that's the second question.
Here comes question three,
what is wrong with this time signature?
What is wrong with this time signature?
Okay, on we go then, to question four.
And in question four I'm asking you,
what does this sign mean?
If you have that sign at the
beginning of a piece of music,
what does it mean?
Okay, that's question four.
Here comes question five.
If it's not quite that
sign but it's this sign,
what does that mean?
So question five, what
does that sign mean?
Okie dokie, let us now
move on to question six.
I'm going to write four time
signatures on the board,
one of them is what we call
a compound time signature.
So which one of these is
a compound time signature?
So here's the first one.
So do you think that's a
compound time signature,
3/4.
Here's the next one, 9/8,
do you think that's a
compound time signature?
Here's the next one, 2/2,
do you think that's a
compound time signature?
And here's the last one, 4/8.
Do you think that is a
compound time signature?
So one of those is a
compound time signature.
Is it A, is it B, is it C, or is it D?
One in four chance
there, or phone a friend,
ask the audience,
see if you can come up with
an answer to that question.
Okay onward and upwards
we're now on question seven.
Have a look at this time signature, 5/4.
Here's the question, is this
a simple time signature,
is it a compound time signature,
or is it an irregular time signature?
Is it a simple time signature,
a compound time signature,
or an irregular time signature?
So that is question seven.
Okay now in question eight I'm
going to write a bar of music
and ask you to tell me what
the correct time signature is
for this bar.
So here comes the bar.
What is the time signature that
I should write for that bar?
That is question eight.
Okay, let's move on to question nine.
Same question again with a
different arrangement of notes.
What is the correct time
signature for this bar?
Bear with me while I just write this out.
So there we have it,
what is the correct time
signature for this bar?
Okay?
And as the tension mounts we
move on to our last question,
question ten, what is the full meaning
of this time signature?
The full meaning of this
time signature, 3/16.
Okay well when you're satisfied
that you've got an answer
to each of these ten questions
I'm going to give you the
answers, see how you get on,
give yourself a mark out of ten
if you want to play the quiz.
Okay, recap then, question
one, what does the upper number
mean in the time signature 3/4?
Well the upper number means
that there are three beats
in each bar, three beats in each bar.
Question two, what does
the lower number mean in
2/2 as a time signature.
Well, the lower number is
telling us that the beats are
minim beats, okay so the
upper number is telling us
basically how many of
something there are in a bar.
And the lower number is telling us
what those somethings are.
Okay question three, I asked
you to tell me what was wrong
with the time signature and I gave you 6/4
and I wrote it like this.
Six over four, well of course
the thing that's wrong with
this is this line here.
Nothing wrong with the numbers,
so if you thought that that
was some kind of weird or
illegal time signature or
something that's not the answer.
The answer is that you
shouldn't have that line in the
middle because that looks
like a fraction, six quarters.
So when we write a time
signature we don't write a line
between the upper and the lower numbers.
It's a common mistake,
lots of people do it.
So there we are, that's
what was wrong with that.
Question four, what does C mean?
C stands for common time
and it means that the
time signature is 4/4, four over four.
It's sort of the most
common time that there is.
So to save yourself writing 4/4, 4/4,
4/4, at the start of
every instrument of the
orchestra on a score,
you can just go C, C, C.
Common time, 4/4.
What about question five
that was the same sign the C
with this sort of vertical
line down the middle of it.
And that's what we call cut common time.
Think of it this way, the line
sort of cuts the C in half
so if C stands for 4/4,
when you cut it in half,
cut those two numbers in half you get 2/2.
So it's what we call cut common time.
And it means 2/2.
Question six was which of these
is a compound time signature
and I gave you four
options, the answer is B,
9/8 is a compound time signature.
3/4 is a simple time, that was option A.
2/2 is a simple time, that was option C.
4/8 was option D, that might
have caused a few people
to have a wobble but
that's still a simple time.
So 3/4, 2/2 and 4/8 are simple times.
The 9/8 is the compound time signature.
And if you're not sure about
this business of simple
and compound time, have a look
at the Music Matters website
where you can find full
explanations of all of that
in our theory series.
Okay, question seven, is
5/4 a simple time signature,
a compound time signature or
an irregular time signature?
The answer is it's an
irregular time signature,
five beats in a bar is irregular.
So if it's simple time you
always have two three or four
as the upper number.
If it's compound time you
always have six, nine or twelve
as the upper number, if
you have anything else,
it's going to be some
kind of irregular so 5/4,
quite a common irregular time signature.
Okay question eight was what
was the correct time signature
for this bar, let's have
it up on the board again.
It looks like this and I wonder
what you came up with for this.
I'll give you the right
answer first, it is 6/8.
Now I think some people
might have written 3/4
and you might be wanting
to argue with me now
because you might think
well 6/8 means there are
six quavers in a bar, 3/4 means there are
three crotches in a bar or let
me just put that in American
language, 3/4 would be
three quarter notes,
6/8 would be six eighth notes,
so isn't it the same thing?
Well yes it is mathematically,
musically it's not the same
thing because this is kind
of one group of notes,
this is one group of notes and
so that group throws up that,
this group throws up this so
it's got kind of two dotted
crotchet beats in a bar
or two dotted quarter notes in a bar.
Had that been in 3/4,
it would look like this,
you would have these
quavers organised over here.
And then you can see that
you've got the first crotchet
beat there, the second
crotchet beat there,
the third crotchet beat there
or the quarter note beats.
So the rhythm isn't different
but the way it's beamed,
grouped together is different
and the way it feels musically
is different because this feels.
(clapping rhythm)
In six eight but in three four it feels.
(clapping rhythm)
So even though the rhythms
the same, the stresses,
the beats, come in different
places so it has a very
different kind of musical feel.
So it wasn't just about the maths,
it was partly about the maths but it was
also about how are the notes
organised, how are they grouped
or beamed together and
how does that tell us
what the time signature is.
Nine was what was the correct
time signature for this bar
and this is another little teaser.
So we had a lot of quavers
didn't we or eighth notes.
So let's put these back again.
And I wonder what you came
up with for this one because
mathematically there are
various possibilities.
I suspect what a lot of people
have done here is to say
well they're all quavers or
they're all eighth notes so
let's start by counting them.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
And then they would have
said right that's easy,
there are 12 of those in the bar.
Mathematically entirely correct.
Musically not correct because
12/8 should look like this.
It's a compound time, what we
call a compound quadruple time
and so when you are in a compound time
you organise the basic
things that you're counting
into groups of three
so it throws up one,
two, three, four beats.
So 12/8 is what we call a
compound quadruple time.
The rhythm is exactly the same,
but it looks different doesn't it?
Because of the way things are
beamed together to reflect
the beat so even though
12/8 is a mathematical
possibility it's not
a musical possibility.
Now then if you're a bit stuck
with this, the thing to do
is to double or half the numbers.
So I could double up and go
24/16 but that seems like
some big numbers, could
I half those numbers.
Could I do 6/4, must be a
mathematical possibility
because if there are twelve of these
it also means there are six of these.
Does that look like 6/4?
Not really, 6/4 would look like this.
It's a compound duple time
and it would have two beats
that look like that, so
that doesn't look like that.
So it's not 6/4.
Well, what happens if we
half the numbers again?
3/2 and that is the correct answer.
Why is it the correct answer?
Three minim beats in a bar,
look at each of these groups.
One minim, two minims, three minims.
So it's throwing up three
minim beats in a bar.
Or three half note beats in a bar.
So it's not just the maths,
it's also how the notes beam
together and this beaming
thing causes a lot of grief
and lots of people wonder why
on earth they have to bother
about it but you can begin
to see why it's important
because it will feel different
in those three different
time signatures even though
fundamentally the rhythm
is the same, but 3/2
is the correct answer.
Okay and the last question question ten,
what was the full meaning
of this time signature 3/16?
Well, three is telling us there are three
of something in a bar, sixteen
is telling us that those
somethings are semiquavers
or sixteenth notes
so three semiquavers in a
bar or three sixteenth notes
in a bar so that's
going to look like that.
Not the most common time
signature in the world but,
these things do sometimes come up.
So I wonder how you got on
with our time signature quiz.
It's a good opportunity
isn't it to think yeah great
actually I've got time
signatures I know what I'm doing
with those or to say I'm not
very happy about this at all.
Or say I've got some of this
but I'm not quite sure about
all this compound stuff
or irregular stuff.
So if you do want to know more about it,
have a look on our website Music Matters
and you'll find in the
theory courses we've got
lots of stuff about time
signatures which would really
clarify this for you, very
essential stuff to be clear
about if you're a musician,
a practical musician as a
performer or a composer but
I hope you did okay with
the time signature quiz.
