What’s The Difference Between Time Signatures?

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Time signatures come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. When they show up on your sheet music, it’s important to understand what they’re trying to say to you. Thanks to the power of math, you can trick yourself into thinking that many time signatures mean the same thing. But this is not always true. Many differences come down to subtle distinctions. For example, the difference between 4/4 and 3/4 is not very subtle. However, the difference between 4/4 and 2/4 is.

In this article, we’re going to go over some of the common time signatures and talk about their differences and why you might use them.

4/4 vs 2/4

Let’s start with what these time signatures have in common. They both use quarter notes as their beats. You can also make a measure of 4/4 fit in the same amount of space as two measures of 2/4.

So why choose one over the other?

The answer comes down to where you want the beats in your songs emphasized. When you are counting your songs, you naturally emphasize the first beat in the measure. If you walk down the road and start counting your steps, you’ll naturally emphasize step one. Counting your steps in groups of two versus groups of four will change the way you emphasize your steps.

Composers and artists may choose to pick 2/4 over 4/4 if they want every other beat emphasized.

3/4 vs 6/4

Notes in groups of threes are very interesting because of how the back beat is emphasized. Imagine a drummer playing a drum beat. In 4/4, the bass drum will likely play on beats one a three while the snare drum (which emphasizes the back beat) will play on beats two and four. You can also do this in your living room by stomping on the ground one beats one and three while clapping on beats two and four.

In 3/4, there isn’t really a way to emphasize the beats in a symmetrical way. So where do the down beats and back beats go?

The 3/4 time signature is closely related to the waltz. The emphasize for the down beat happens on beat one while the back beat is emphasized on beat three (and sometimes beat two as well).

In 6/4, the symmetry returns. Instead of repeating our uneven time signature pattern, 6/4 acts more like an extended 4/4 pattern. The down beats happen on beats one, three, and five with the back beats happening on beats two, four, and six.

6/4 vs 6/8

The 6/8 pattern also creates a symmetrical beat but in a different way than it’s 6/4 predecessor. Whenever there is an eight in the lower have of our time signature, this means that we are going to see the eighth notes show up in groups of three instead of groups of two. This is why you most often see eighth note time signatures like 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8.

So how do the down beats and back beats work?

Well, in 6/8 our down beat would still fall on one but the back beat would not happen until beat four. The kick drum lands on the first beat while the snare waits until beat four to come in.

6/8 vs 4/4 Shuffle

A shuffle uses triplet eighth notes in its pattern. Often it chooses to start with a quarter note triplet follow by an eighth note triplet. This creates and elongated first beat with a short second hit that has an uneven feel to it. (Sort of like having a tire that’s not perfectly round.)

So why would you choose a shuffle in four versus 6/8?

Well, their are two very good reasons. One, the counting method for a shuffle is much simpler. Since the shuffle would often skip beats two and five in a 6/8 time signature, we would be forced to count by skipping beats/numbers. For most people, this is very awkward.

The second reason is the way it’s written on the page. Often times a shuffle will have a symbol at the beginning stating that two eighth notes actually represent a quarter note triplet followed by an eighth note triplet. On paper this is much easier to read since it looks like a normal set of eight notes even though we treat it differently because we know it’s a shuffle.

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