musOsaurus meter

The general topic of meter can be described as the time signature or meter signature of a song. Some common meters are 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 (or Common time) and 6/8. When written in music a time or meter signature is written at the beginning of the score on the staff like a fraction, but without the line between the two numbers. The top number of the meter signature describes how many beats there are in each measure. The bottom number tells us what kind of note gets one beat. In the case of a 2/4 time signature, there would be two beats per measure and a quarter note would get one beat. In most cases the bottom number will either be a 2, 4, or 8. If it is a two, a half note gets one beat, if it is a 4 a quarter note gets one beat if it is an eight then an eighth note gets one beat.

The relationship presented in the note tree below is always the same. A whole note will always be the same duration as two half notes.

In 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meter signatures a quarter note will get one beat. This changes if the bottom number in the meter signature changes. If the bottom number is a 2, then a half not gets one beat. This in effect cuts all the other values in half creating “Cut Time”. A quarter note would get a half a beat in cut time. If the bottom number is an eight, then an eighth note gets one beat, doubling all the other note durations (a quarter note would get two beats).

There are different words describing different tempo ranges. The four we will discuss are largo, andante, allegro and presto.

These tempo markings range from slow to very fast.
You can look at the table below to see the tempo making and its corresponding definition.

Largo	Slow
Andante	Medium, walking pace
Allegro	Fast
Presto	Very Fast

In 4/4 meter a whole note would get four counts or beats. To count them you would count “one-two-three-four,” clapping once for all four counts. Half notes would get two counts. Counting the same, “one-two-tree-four,” you would clap on counts one and three. Quarter notes get one beat in 4/4 meter. To count and clap them, you would cont the same “one-two-three-four,” clapping once on each count.

Eighth notes become more tricky, but not difficult once you are familiar with the pattern. Each eighth note gets ½ of a beat in 4/4 meter. This means that there are two notes for every beat. We need a name to call the second eighth note in each pair. We say the word “and” if we are counting aloud or write a “+” sign if we are writing the counts out. Four beats of eighth notes would be counted “one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and”. To write it out it would look like this: “1+ 2+ 3+ 4+”. Sixteenth notes divide the beat further into fourths. To count them we need four sounds for each beat. The counting would be written: “1e+a 2e+a 3e+a 4e+a”. To count them we say: “one-ee-and-uh, two-ee-and-uh, three-ee-and-uh, four-ee-and-uh”.