What does 44 time mean

Skip to main content. Rhythm and Meter. Search for:. Measures and Time Signatures Measure Measure is a segment of time within a piece of music defined by a given number of beats. Types of Bar Lines. Licenses and Attributions. The top number tells us how many beats there are per bar, and the bottom numbers tells us what note values to use for these beats. So when you see that the bottom number is a 4, this tells us that we are using crotchets for each beat.

The 4 at the bottom indicates crotchets like before, but this time there are only 2 crotchet beats per bar the top number. Time signatures using quavers are written with an 8 at the bottom rather than a 4. Beethoven wrote the opening of the Moonlight Sonata op. Go to the lesson Odd time signatures A composer can make a choice when it comes to time signatures — as you can see, there is more than one way to write a piece a music to convey the sound you want.

There are pieces of music written in much more adventurous time signatures. A composer can create whatever time signature they need. However, the person who is going to be reading and interpreting the music should be considered and clarity should be the aim. Praeludium 15 in G major by J. Bach is written with a different time signature for each hand.

Not for the faint of heart, if you decide to learn it, it is at least a short piece. Many songs and classical pieces do this. A time signature tells you how the music is to be counted. The time signature is written at the beginning of the staff after the clef and key signature.

The top number of the time signature tells you how many beats to count. This could be any number. Most often the number of beats will fall between 2 and The bottom number tells you what kind of note to count. That is, whether to count the beats as quarter notes, eighth notes, or sixteenth notes. So the only numbers you will see as the bottom number the denominator will correspond to note values:. You could continue on with 32, 64, but you will hopefully never encounter them! After a while it gets a bit unwieldy.

The most common bottom numbers are 4, 8 and