Time Signatures and Note Groupings

Time Signatures

Time signatures are classified using two words:

Simple or Compound
and
Duple, Triple or Quadruple

Simple / Compound refers to the beats which make up the bar - if the beat is a note without a dot it is "simple", if it is dotted it is "compound" (that is, it is NOT SIMPLE, it is complicated).  In actual fact, "compound" time refers to a time signature in which the beat is not divided equally into halves, it is divided in to thirds.

Duple / Triple / Quadruple refers to the number of beats (this is the easy bit): 3 beats is "duple", three beats is "triple", and four beats is "quadruple".

Note Groupings

The purpose of grouping notes and rests is to simplify the reading of music for the player.

Some fundamentals:

• You can fill a whole bar with a single note or rest.
• In most cases, any note that includes the first beat is OK (*see the end of the activity sheet).
• You can group beats 1 & 2 together, and beats 3 & 4 together (where they exist),
• BUT YOU CANNOT group beats 2 & 3 together.
• You can group the first and second parts of a beat together,
• BUT YOU CANNOT group the second and third parts of a beat together.

EXCEPTIONS - For when applying the usual rules makes it look more complicated (remember, the aim is simplicity for the reader).

If you’re not sure, ... GROUP TO SINGLE BEATS.

In an exam, you might be asked to:

• Complete a bar with rests (do this for the first bar in each line below)
• Complete a bar with quavers correctly grouped (do this for the second bar in each line below
• Complete a bar with semiquavers correctly grouped
• Complete a bar with notes and rests (do this for the last bar in each line below)
• Identify correct and incorrect groupings
• Identify time signatures from groupings
• Correct groupings

Here is the worksheet we completed in class:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9JdpU-tw7FuTWhwR0pocGUxQVE