Music Lesson: Time Signature

Rhythm Lesson #6 Time Signatures:

Review:

Review the meters lesson with your child.

Learning Objective:

Your child will be able to tell you what the numbers in a time signature mean.

Instructions:

Show your child the picture below and tell your child that the picture is a time signature (or meter signature). Tell your child that a time signature is made up of a top and bottom number. The top number tells us what the meter in the piece is, and the bottom number tells us what the note value for each pulse is. For example, in the picture below the time signature is ¾. The 3 tells us that the piece is in triple meter (there are three pulses per measure), and the 4 tells us that the quarter note gets the beat.

Exercise: Write the meter and note value for each time signature below:

Example:

2--duple meter
8--eighth-note pulse

3__________
4__________

2__________

2__________

4__________
8__________

4__________
4__________

3__________
2__________

3__________
8__________

4__________
2__________

2__________

4__________

Answers:

1) triple meter
quarter-note pulse

2) duple meter

half-note pulse

3) quadruple meter
eighth-note pulse

4) quadruple meter
quarter-note pulse

5) triple meter
half-note pulse

6) triple meter
eighth-note pulse

7) quadruple meter
half-note pulse

8) duple meter
quarter-note pulse

Exercise: Tell your child that a whole note/rest gets 4 pulses, a half note/rest gets 2 pulses, a quarter/rest note gets 1 pulse, and an eighth note/rest gets and eighth of the pulse. Review dotted notes with your child also. Now have your child write bar lines in the musical example below: