The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Time Signature
Beats per Measure
69
By the way, 4/4 time is sometimes called 
common time
, and indicated by a large
“C” for the time signature, like this:
4/4 time is common time--indicated by a big “C.”
Eighth-Note Time
Not all music uses a quarter note for the beat. A lot of music—especially classi-
cal music—is based on an eighth-note beat.

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Part 2:
Rhythms
When you have an eighth-note time signature, such as 3/8 or 6/8, every time you
tap your foot you’re tapping an eighth note; not a quarter note. So for a measure
of 3/8, you’d tap three eighth notes; for a measure of 6/8, you’d tap six eighth notes.
When the eighth note is the beat, half a beat (the “and” after the beat, if you’re
counting) will be a sixteenth note. Also, if you see a quarter note in an eighth-
note time signature, that note takes up two beats.
It’s all about math, basically. When you play in an eighth-note time signature, all
your normal note values take up half as much space as they do in a quarter-note
time signature. It’s simple division.
The most common eighth-note time signatures are those divisible by three: 3/8,
6/8, 9/8, and so on. When you’re playing one of these time signatures and you’re
playing really fast, you might end up tapping your foot just once every three
beats, like this: ONE two three FOUR five six, ONE two three FOUR five six.
(In fact, many conductors will conduct 6/8 time with just two downbeats per
measure—the one and the four.) These time signatures sound a lot like 3/4, the
waltz time signature. The following table details the most common eighth-note
time signatures.
Eighth-Note Time Signatures
Time Signature
Beats per Measure
70

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Chapter 6:
Time Signatures
71