Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

Basic Music Theory

Why One Meter and Not Another?

Why have different meters? When you look at the following examples

you’ll see how the words and the music fall in certain patterns. The

pattern might be shaped by the words, or the music. If there is a 4-beat

pattern, it’ll be in 4/4 time. A 2-beat pattern is in 2/4 time, and a 3-beat

pattern is in 3/4 time.

4/4 Time

This meter is more common than all of the other meters by a long way. If

you’re a beginner, you’ll most likely be working with this time signature

for quite a while before moving on to others.

You can see from the example how the song falls easily into the 4 beat-

per-measure pattern.

Example 13.2 A few measures of Mary Had a Little Lamb in 4/4 time.

Common Time

Because 4/4 time is so common, you’ll often see a letter “C” in the place

of the time signature. The “C” stands for “common,” and looks like this:

Mar - y had a lit - tle la-mb lit - tle la-mb lit - tle la-mb...

Top number tells you there are 4 beats per measure.

Bottom number tells you the quarter note gets one beat.