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hello there I'm Victoria Williams and in this video I'm going to explain to you how time signatures work now a lot of people think they understand time signatures because they know what 4/4 means and 3/4 means but when they have to tell the difference between let's say three two and six four they find themselves in a bit of a muddle so hopefully this video will explain everything that you need to know in order to distinguish the differences between all the time signatures that there are let's go you most likely already know that the time signature for four for example tells you that there are four crotchet beats per bar you probably know that it's the top number four that tells you how many beats there are in the bar and it's the bottom number which tells you what kind of notes were counting and four represents the crotchet beat in the same way the time signature to four tells you that there are two crotchets per bar and 3/4 tells you that there are three crotchets per bar the lower number of the time signature will normally be two four or eight if the lower number is two that means you need to count minimums if the lower number is four your count crotchets and if the lower number is eight you'll need to count quavers what you might not realize though is that the top number of the time signature doesn't only tell you how many beats per bar there are it also tells you how each of the main beats of the bar should be divided up into smaller units so if the top number is two three or four this means that the main beat has to be divided into two equal notes in the diagram here the large blue circle shows you how many beats per bar there are and the smaller circles show you how each beat is divided up and when the main beat is divided into two like this we say that it is a sim called time signature in a simple time signature the top number is the number of beats on the other hand if the top number is six nine or twelve this means that the main beat has to be divided into three equal notes not two here the diagram shows you how each main beat is subdivided into three smaller equal sub beats this is called a compound time signature when the main beat is divided into three when the main beat is divided into three the top number of the time signature actually tells you how many sub beats there are and not how many main beats so far all of the time signatures we've looked at have had two three or four main beats other divided up into two or into three smaller sub beats these time signatures are called regular time signatures if there is a different number of main beats let's say five seven eleven beats in the bar then this is called irregular let's have a look now at some examples here are three time signatures each with a top number three remember that the top number three tells us that there will be three main beats per bar and that the main beat will be subdivided into two equal smaller notes the difference is that in three eight we have three Cueva beats per bar and each quaver is subdivided into two semi quavers in three four there are three crotchets per bar and each crotchet is subdivided into two quavers and finally 3/2 tells us that there are three minam's per bar and so each minim is subdivided into two crotchets now let's have a look at some time signatures with the top number six don't forget that when the top number of the time signature is six nine or twelve we're looking at compound time this means that the main beat is divided into three instead of two and the top number of the time signature tells you the total number of sub beats so what does 6/8 tell us it tells us that there are a total of six quavers in the bar that quavers are the sub beat not the main beat that three quavers will make up one main beat and therefore one main beat must be a dotted crotchet six eight represents two dotted crotchets per bar which are each subdivided into three quavers and so how about six four what does that tell us well it tells us that there are six crotchets in the bar crotchets are the sub beat and three of them will make up a main beat you can work that out that a main beat then is a dotted minim there are two dotted minam's per bar and each one is subdivided into three crotchets the way that the main beat is divided up is one of the most important things that you need to understand about time signatures so here are the rules again when the top number is two three or four it's simple time the main beat divides into two and the top number is equal to the main beats but if the top number is six nine or twelve its compound time the main beat is divided up into three the top number of the time signature tells you the number of sub beats what all this means is that although there are six different possible top numbers in regular time in fact there are only three kinds of main beat if the top number is two or six then there are two main beats per bar and it's duple time if the top number is three or nine there are three main beats per bar and it's triple time and finally if the top number is four or twelve there are four main beats in the bar and it's quadruple time there are lots of time signatures that seem to overlap they have the same overall number of notes per bar for example take three to six four and twelve eight if you count up the number of quavers in each bar there are twelve in all of them so how can you tell the difference between these three time signatures well the answer lies in the way that notes are grouped together you need to look at beaming which means the way that quavers semi quavers and smaller notes are grouped together you need to look at the particular choice of no tool rest value and also at ties for clues let me show you an example so here if you can't up the quavers in this bar you'd find that there are an equivalent of twelve quavers what we need to do is try and figure out how many main beats there are in the bar and we're going to do this by looking first of all at the beams look at how the beaming has been broken between the quavers the Redbox shows you the break so we've got two quavers beam together than a break then four quavers beam together the note in the green box is going to be the first note of a new main beat of the bar this means we can eliminate the time signature three-two from our inquiries because there is no way to divide this bar into three main beats and have that note as the first note of a main beat so the green box shows us the start of a new main beat so this means at the moment we've got six quavers before that and then six quavers from that what we need to figure out next is is it six four or twelve eight is it duple time or is it quadruple time let's test out quadruple time is it possible to divide this bar into four equal segments remember that in 12-8 the four equal segments will be a dotted crotchet swath each so no it's not easy at all to divide this bar up the first note is a minim we can't really split a minim into a dotted crotchet in the second half of the bar we've got four quavers beamed together but we only would need three quavers to make a dotted crotchet beat it doesn't divide up neatly since we can't actually divide this bar up into four beats it can't be called Drupal time so it's not twelve eight and we already saw it wasn't three two which means that this is a six four bar and this is what the notes would look like if it had been in twelve eight look at the difference in how the notes are grouped together the first note is worth four quavers in six for a minim works fine however in twelve eight the main beat is a dotted crotchet so we need to use a dotted crotchet beat first and then tie that to what's left over which is a quaver to make up the full value of the note we want in the same way we can easily divide up the twelve eight bar into the four dotted crotchet beats by drawing blocks around the notes like this remember that when there is a tie the second of the tied notes will be the start of a new main beat or a new block and that if there is a break in the beam this will show you where a new main beat is going to start as well so we now know that in simple time the main beat is always divided into two but sometimes we might want to divide the main beat up into three from time to time and we can do this with a triplet to make a triplet all you need to do is make it clear which notes are affected you can do this by using the Biman quavers or by drawing a bracket over the notes and then writing a small number three this is what a triplet where the bracket looks like the crotchet and the quaver together make up one beat in compound time we have the opposite problem the main beat is always supposed to divide up into but we can divide it into two if we want to by using a duplet a duplet means that two notes are written in the time of three here's an example in six for remember that six four means that there are two dotted minim beats per bar and each of those main beats is divided up into three crotchets in the second bar there's a duplet this means that the two crotchets here should be played in the time of three normal crotchets so that's how time signatures work in your grade five music theory exam you'll be tested on time signatures in quite a few different ways so let's have a look at the kind of questions that will probably come up in your exam most likely you will be given some bars and you'll need to work out what the time signature is you'll be given some bars with the time signature and you'll need to put in the bar lines you will probably have to rewrite part of the rhythm in a new time signature without changing the rhythmic effect you're very likely to get some questions on the technical names of time signatures for example is it simple or compound is it duple triple or quadruple you might be asked to add rests to a bar and the specific rests that you need will depend on the time signature and apart from all that your knowledge of time signatures is tested in the composition question as well you'll be expected to use the right notation in your composition to reflect the time signature so that means that the the right note values used the right notes of beam together the right rests are used and so on the tempo that you choose for your composition has to be suitable for the time signature of the piece and last but not least if the composition has a none across as' otherwise known as an upbeat or a pickup then this has to be taken account at the end of the piece with a bar which has a different number of beats in it and this all depends on the time signature as well each of these questions I'm going to talk about in more detail in the next videos so check out the next videos for the grade 5 questions on time signatures