Mrs. WarrenMcDonough Elementary School

Meter is the pattern of strong and weak beats in music.

Duple meter – When a piece of music is in duple meter the beats are grouped in two and have a repetitive strong-weak pattern.

1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 Strong – weak Strong - weak Strong – weak Strong -

weak

Triple meter – When a piece of music is in triple meter the beats are grouped in threes and have a repetitive Strong-weak-weak pattern.

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3Strong – weak - weak. Strong – weak - weak. Strong – weak

- weak.

Quadruple Meter – When a piece of music is in quadruple meter the beats are grouped in four and have a very strong-weak – strong – weak pattern.

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4Very VeryStrong – weak - strong - weak Strong - weak - strong - weak

If you relate it to accented and unaccented syllables in words it may be easier to understand.

Duple Meter:

1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2

A- pple A - pple A- pple A- pple

Triple Meter:

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 Straw-ber-ry Straw-ber-ry Straw-ber-ry

Quadruple Meter:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2

3 4

Wa-ter-mel-on Wa –ter-mel-on Wa-ter-mel-on

Watch the video to hear the difference between duple, triple, and quadruple

meter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB63_-zitwM

The time signature is near the beginning of a written piece of music or when the meter changes within the music.

Time Signature

The purpose of the time signature is to tell us two things.

4 -

The top number tells us how many beats there are per measure. (The meter)4 - The bottom number tells us which type of note gets one beat.

The staff is divided by bar lines into measures.

The top number of the time signature tells you how many beats are in each measure. The top number can be any number of beats you want.

44

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

It is important to remember that the top number tells how many beats there are in a measure. Not how many notes.

The bottom number tells you which type of note gets one beat. It is like the denominator of a fraction.

If the bottom number is a 4 than it is 1/4 which means a quarter note gets one beat.

If the bottom number is an 8 than it is 1/8 which means an eighth note gets one beat.

Examples:

The bottom number has to equal a note value.

The most common time signature is . In time a quarter note equals one beat and you have 4 beats in a measure.

44

44

1 2 3 4

You can have any rhythm as long as the rhythms add up to 4 beats which in this case are quarter notes.

Examples:

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

1 + 2 3 4

1 2 + 3 4

There are many other time signatures. Here are just a few more examples.

2 -4 -

2 beats per measureQuarter note gets one beat 1 2

3 -8 -

3 beats per measureEighth note gets one beat 1 2

32 -2 -

2 beats per measureHalf note gets one beat 1 2