tailieunhanh - Music Theory FundamentalsSection 1.5

A beat is a repeating musical pulse. Listeners sense the beat when they tap their feet or clap their hands in time with the music. Musicians group beats into units called measures or bars. Every measure ends with a barline. A special final barline indicates the end of the movement or piece. | 16 High-Yield Music Theory Vol. 1 Music Theory Fundamentals Section Time Signatures in Simple Meter Beat Measure Bar Barline Final barline A beat is a repeating musical pulse. Listeners sense the beat when they tap their feet or clap their hands in time with the music. Musicians group beats into units called measures or bars. Every measure ends with a barline. A special final barline indicates the end of the movement or piece. measure or bar measure or bar measure or bar IT o z--z z barline Tv- final barline Time signature Beat unit Simple time signature A time signature or meter signature indicates how many beats there are in one measure and what rhythmic value gets one beat this value is called the beat unit . For time signatures in simple meter the top number is the number of beats in each measure and the bottom number is the beat unit. Time signatures are not fractions so there is no line between the numbers. I 2 3 4 1234 1234 4 J a a J J J s j-z j Ts--------- 4 4 beats in each measure 4 q gets one beat Duple Triple Meters that is time signatures with two beats per measure are duple Quadruple those with three beats are triple and those with four beats are quadruple. Duple meter 2 -a z 2 2 beats 4 q gets beat Triple meter 3 2 zz z 3 3 beats 4 q gets beat Quadruple meter A 12 3 4 zz 4 4 beats 4 q gets beat zz Beat division and subdivision Each beat in simple meter divides into two equal beat divisions or four equal beat subdivisions. Below one quarter note beat equals two eighth notes or four sixteenth notes see Rhythmic Values. Beat units Beat divisions Beat subdivisions Chapter 1 Music Notation 17 Other beat units The bottom number in a simple time signature indicates the beat unit two means half note four means quarter eight means eighth and so on. The Cut time Alla breve first time signature below is also called cut time or alla breve. The second time signature is common in Baroque music sometimes the eighth notes are written with