Music Fundamentals A Balanced Approach

Time Signature, Bar Line, Double Bar Line

The time signatureindicates the recurrent grouping of accented and unaccented beats. The time signature is
found at the beginning of a piece of music just after the clef sign (notat the beginning of every staff of music).
Vertical lines called bar linesare placed at the end of each grouping of beats and separate the groups into
measures. Adouble bar is placed at the end of a section of music (notat the end of every staff). The end of
apiece is indicated by a final double bar.

The uppernumber of the time signature indicates the number of beats or counts in each measure. In this module,
the upper number will be 2, 3, or 4.
The lowernumber of the time signature indicates the type of note that receives one beat (sometimes called
the pulse note), and subsequently determines the number of beats that each note receives. When the lower
number of the time signature is 4, as in the example above, the quarter note is the pulse note and receives one
count. We will be using 4 as the lower number of the time signature in this module. The lower number will
change in subsequent modules.

Exercise 6—Class Exercise

Clap and say the counts for the following rhythmic patterns:

Pattern 1 (Clap on beat 1 and hold for four beats.) Pattern 2 (Clap on beats 1 and 3.)

Pattern 3 (Clap on every beat.) Pattern 4 (Clap on every note.)

MODULE 2

48

Clef Bar line

Time Signature Double Bar line

Measure

# of beats: 4

Count: 1 (+ 2 + 3 + 4 +)

Say: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

#

# of beats: 2 2

Count: 1 (+ 2 +) 3 (+ 4 +)

# of beats:

Count: 1 (+) 2 (+) 3 (+) 4 (+)

qqqq

#

1111 # of beats:

Count: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

http://www.ebook3000.com