How to read a time signature
The top number says how many of something fit in a bar; the bottom number says what that something is: 4 for quarter notes, 8 for eighths, 16 for sixteenths. That is the whole notation, and it hides the thing that matters most: where the beats are. In 3/4 the beats are the three quarters. In 6/8 the beats are not the six eighths but the two groups of three they form. In 7/8 there are three beats of unequal length. The metronome here is built around that idea: for meters over 4 you set the number of beats; for meters over 8 or 16 you set the grouping, and the beat click lands on every group start while the eighths inside can tick more softly.
Three families cover almost everything. Simple meters (2/4, 3/4, 4/4) have beats that split in two. Compound meters (6/8, 9/8, 12/8) have beats that split in three. Odd or additive meters (5/8, 7/8, 11/8) mix twos and threes in one bar, long and short beats side by side.
Simple meters: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4
2/4
Two beats a bar: the march, the polka, and the honest feel of a great deal of fast music that is written in 4/4 for convenience. Count ONE-two; the downbeat carries the weight, the second beat lifts. Because the bar is short, 2/4 is the meter to use when you want to hear where the phrase turns every two beats. Load 2/4 at 110.
3/4 metronome: the waltz and everything that dances in three
Three quarter-note beats, ONE-two-three, strong-weak-weak. It is the meter of the waltz, the minuet, the mazurka and the sarabande, of Chopin's waltzes and Strauss's "Blue Danube", of "My Favorite Things" and "Someday My Prince Will Come" as jazz waltzes, and of Billy Joel's "Piano Man". The characteristic mistake is rushing the third beat into the next downbeat; practise with the third beat set to a soft accent so you can hear yourself lean on it, then remove the accent and see whether the lean survived.
- Slow waltz / ballad: ♩ = 84-96. Load 3/4 at 90.
- Minuet, moderate waltz: ♩ = 100-130. Load 3/4 at 120.
- Viennese waltz: ♩ = 174-180, fast enough that you feel one pulse per bar. Load 3/4 at 176.
- Mazurka feel: accent beat 2 or 3 instead of 1; sarabande: lean on 2. Use the grid.
Subdivide to eighths ("1 & 2 & 3 &") to hear the waltz's lilt as three even pairs; subdivide to triplets and you are one step from 9/8, which is the point where 3/4 and compound meter meet.
4/4: common time
Four quarter-note beats, strong on 1, medium on 3, with the backbeat (2 and 4) carrying popular music since the blues. Almost every feature of the main metronome (subdivisions to sixteenths and beyond, swing, the accent grid) was designed with 4/4 in mind, so that page is the better home for it. Here it is the reference the others are measured against: Load 4/4 at 100.
Compound meters: 6/8, 9/8, 12/8
6/8 metronome: two beats of three
The number says six eighths; the music says two beats, each a dotted quarter made of three eighths. Count ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six if you must, but the meter clicks into place when you count it as a drummer does, ONE-and-a TWO-and-a, with the eighths ticking underneath. It is the meter of jigs and tarantellas, of barcarolles and many lullabies, of "House of the Rising Sun" and Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters", and of a great many slow rock and soul ballads that feel like a gentle roll rather than a walk.
Set 6/8 here and the grouping is 3+3: the beat click on eighths 1 and 4, the other eighths softer. Choose Beats only to hear just the two-pulse, Every 8th for the full roll, or Every 16th when a passage is written in sixteenths. The tempo number counts quarter notes by default; switch the tempo note to the dotted quarter and it counts the two beats the way a 6/8 score marks them.
- Slow 6/8 ballad: ♩. = 50-66. Load 6/8 at ♩ = 90 (♩. = 60).
- Jig: ♩. = 110-130. Load 6/8 at ♩ = 180 (♩. = 120).
- Tarantella: faster still, and often felt in one.
9/8
Three beats of three (the Irish slip jig, the pastoral 9/8 of the Baroque), counted ONE-and-a TWO-and-a THREE-and-a. But 9/8 has a second life as an additive meter: Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk" groups it 2+2+2+3, three short beats and a long one, in the manner of a Turkish aksak rhythm. Both groupings are one chip apart here: 9/8 as 3+3+3 · 9/8 as 2+2+2+3.
12/8
Four beats of three: the slow blues ("Since I've Been Loving You"), the doo-wop ballad, the gospel shuffle. It is 4/4 with every beat rolling in triplets, which is why so much blues is written in 4/4 with a "shuffle feel" instruction instead. Accent beats 1 and 3 (eighths 1 and 7) to hear the two-halves swing of a slow blues. Load 12/8 at ♩ = 72 (♩. = 48).
3/4 vs 6/8: the same six eighths, two different bars
A bar of 3/4 and a bar of 6/8 both contain six eighth notes, which is why the question comes up so often. The difference is entirely in the grouping. 3/4 is 3 × 2: three beats, each divided in two, ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and. 6/8 is 2 × 3: two beats, each divided in three, ONE-and-a TWO-and-a. Same notes, different accents, and the ear hears them as different music. Try them back to back at the same eighth-note speed: 3/4 at ♩ = 120 with eighth subdivision, then 6/8 at ♩ = 120 (eighths at the same 240 a minute).
When a piece deliberately flips between the two, three groups of two becoming two groups of three, that is a hemiola. Bernstein built the chorus of "America" on it ("I like to be in A-me-ri-ca" is 6/8, "OK by me in A-me-ri-ca" is 3/4), and Baroque composers ended phrases with it for centuries. You can hear the effect here by setting 6/8 with a 2+2+2 grouping. The eighths do not move, but the beats do: 6/8 grouped 2+2+2.
Odd and additive meters: 5/4, 7/4, 5/8, 7/8, 11/8 and beyond
5/4 metronome
Five quarter-note beats, almost always felt as 3+2 or 2+3. "Take Five" is 3+2, ONE-two-three FOUR-five, and so is the theme from Mission: Impossible; Holst's "Mars" and Sting's "Seven Days" live here too. Set five beats and give beat 4 a soft accent for 3+2 (or beat 3 for 2+3): Load 5/4 at 108.
7/4
Seven quarters, usually heard as a bar of four followed by a bar of three: Pink Floyd's "Money", Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill", Brubeck's "Unsquare Dance". Soft-accent beat 5 to mark the second half. Load 7/4 at 116.
5/8 metronome
Five eighths in two uneven beats: long-short (3+2) or short-long (2+3). Fast Balkan dances and a lot of Stravinsky live here. Because the beats are unequal, the bar has a limp that you feel rather than count once the grouping is in your body. 5/8 as 3+2 · 5/8 as 2+3.
7/8 metronome
Seven eighths in three beats, and the grouping is the whole personality of the bar. 2+2+3, short-short-long, is the Bulgarian rachenitsa and the shape most rock and metal bands reach for; 3+2+2 puts the long beat first; 2+3+2 tucks it in the middle. The click on each group start makes the difference audible instantly: 2+2+3 · 3+2+2 · 2+3+2. The same dance is often written 7/16 at a faster count: same shape, smaller note.
11/8, 13/8 and the sixteenth meters
Longer additive bars are strings of twos and threes: the kopanitsa is 11/8 (or 11/16) grouped 2+2+3+2+2, the daichovo horo 9/16 as 2+2+2+3. Nobody counts to eleven; dancers count the five steps of the bar, quick-quick-slow-quick-quick. Do the same: set the grouping and count the group starts. Load 11/8 · Load 9/16 · Load 13/8. Anything else (15/8, 17/16, a bar you invented) comes from "Build your own": choose the count and the note value, then a grouping from the list or one you type.
How to count odd meters: grouping is everything
- Find the groups. Every odd bar is twos and threes. Write 7 as 2+2+3, 11 as 2+2+3+2+2. If the piece is written down, the beaming tells you; if it is a recording, listen for where the accents fall.
- Count the group starts, not the eighths. A 7/8 bar is three beats: ONE-two ONE-two ONE-two-three. Say it out loud with the click set to Beats only.
- Add the eighths back. Switch to Every 8th and keep saying the three beats over the ticking eighths. The long beat should feel like a slight hold, not a hesitation.
- Move the long beat around. 2+2+3, then 3+2+2, then 2+3+2. When all three feel natural you own the meter, not one riff in it.
- Speed up in steps and, later, mute the eighths and keep the beats alone; the practice trainer automates the ramp.
Which note gets the tempo: ♩, ♪ or ♩.
A tempo marking names a note: ♩ = 120 means 120 quarter notes a minute, ♩. = 60 means sixty dotted quarters. The same music can be described three ways (a 6/8 jig at ♩. = 120 is ♪ = 360 is ♩ = 180) and scores use all of them. The tool lets you pick which note the number counts, so you can type the marking exactly as printed: for a 6/8 score marked ♩. = 60, choose the dotted quarter and type 60; for a 7/8 passage marked ♪ = 240, choose the eighth and type 240. The click does not change, only the label.
Accents that make a meter feel right
| Meter | Default accent | Try |
|---|---|---|
| 3/4 | Beat 1 | Soft accent on 3 (waltz lift); accent on 2 (sarabande); on 3 (mazurka) |
| 4/4 | Beat 1 | Accents on 2 and 4 for the backbeat; mute 1 to test your downbeat |
| 6/8 | Eighths 1 and 4 | Soften eighth 4 for a lighter second beat; accent only 1 for "in one" |
| 12/8 | Every third eighth | Accents on 1 and 7 only, the two-halves swing of a slow blues |
| 5/4 | Beat 1 | Soft accent on 4 for 3+2, on 3 for 2+3 |
| 7/8 | Group starts | Change the grouping; mute the eighths inside the long beat |
Every block in the grid cycles through accent, light accent, normal and silence, and the pattern stays where you put it when you change subdivision, because accents live at musical positions, not tick indexes. A useful trick for any meter: silence the downbeat and keep the rest. If you still land on 1, you are counting; if not, you were following.
Every meter in the picker
| Meter | Family | Grouping | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/4 | simple | 2 beats | Two beats: marches, polkas, and the feel most fast music actually has. |
| 3/4 | simple | 3 beats | Three beats, strong-weak-weak: the waltz, the minuet, the jazz waltz. |
| 4/4 | simple | 4 beats | Common time. Four beats, the backbeat on 2 and 4 in most popular music. |
| 5/4 | simple | 5 beats | Five quarter-note beats, felt as 3+2 or 2+3: "Take Five", the Mission: Impossible theme. |
| 7/4 | simple | 7 beats | Seven quarter notes; usually a bar of four followed by a bar of three: "Money", "Solsbury Hill". |
| 6/8 | compound | 3+3 | Two beats of three eighths. Jigs, tarantellas, lullabies, slow rock ballads. |
| 9/8 | compound | 3+3+3 | Three beats of three (slip jigs) or, additive, 2+2+2+3 as in "Blue Rondo à la Turk". |
| 12/8 | compound | 3+3+3+3 | Four beats of three: the slow blues, doo-wop and gospel shuffle feel. |
| 3/8 | compound | 3 | One beat of three eighths per bar: fast scherzos and dances counted in one. |
| 5/8 | odd / additive | 3+2 | Five eighths in two uneven beats. Balkan dances, Stravinsky, prog. |
| 7/8 | odd / additive | 2+2+3 | Seven eighths in three uneven beats: the Bulgarian rachenitsa, and a favourite of prog and metal. |
| 11/8 | odd / additive | 2+2+3+2+2 | Eleven eighths in five beats, the kopanitsa grouping. |
| 13/8 | odd / additive | 3+2+3+2+3 | Thirteen eighths: count the groups, never the eighths. |
| 7/16 | odd / additive | 2+2+3 | Seven sixteenths: the same shape as 7/8 at twice the speed of the unit. |
| 9/16 | odd / additive | 2+2+2+3 | Nine sixteenths in four uneven beats: the daichovo horo. |
| 11/16 | odd / additive | 2+2+3+2+2 | Eleven sixteenths; a kopanitsa at sixteenth resolution. |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between 3/4 and 6/8?
Both hold six eighth notes per bar, but 3/4 groups them in three twos (three beats, each a quarter note) and 6/8 in two threes (two beats, each a dotted quarter). Set both here and listen: 3/4 goes ONE-two-three, 6/8 goes ONE-and-a TWO-and-a. Switching a bar of 6/8 to 3/4 grouping is called a hemiola; "America" from West Side Story alternates the two.
What does the bottom number of a time signature mean?
Which note value the top number counts: 4 means quarter notes, 8 eighth notes, 16 sixteenths, 2 half notes. It does not by itself say which note is the beat: in 6/8 the beat is the dotted quarter, three of the counted eighths.
Is 4/4 the same as common time (C)?
Yes. The C sign is an old notation for 4/4. Cut time, a C with a line through it, is 2/2: two half-note beats per bar, which sounds like 4/4 at half the beat count. Set two beats here and think of each click as a half note.
How do I set 7/8 as 3+2+2 instead of 2+2+3?
Choose 7/8, then pick a grouping chip (2+2+3, 3+2+2 or 2+3+2) or type your own under "Build your own time signature". The beat click lands on each group start, so the bar changes shape while the count stays seven.
Can I make 5/4 feel like 3+2?
Yes. 5/4 is five quarter-note beats; use the accent grid to make beat 4 a soft accent (or beat 3 for 2+3) and the bar splits into two halves. For 5/8, where the halves are eighths, pick 5/8 and its 3+2 or 2+3 grouping.
What tempo does the number mean in 6/8?
By default the tempo counts quarter notes; the eighth runs at twice that. Switch the tempo note to the dotted quarter (♩.) and the number is the two-beat pulse most 6/8 scores mark; switch it to the eighth (♪) for the fastest count. The click does not change, only which note the number refers to.
Can the metronome change time signature mid-song?
Not automatically: one meter loops until you change it. For a passage that alternates bars (say 7/8 and 4/4), practise each meter separately at the same eighth-note speed, then set a 15/8 grouped 2+2+3+2+2+2+2 to hear both bars in one loop.
Why do odd meters feel hard?
Because people count the eighths. Count the groups instead (a 7/8 bar is three beats, long-short-short or short-short-long) and it becomes as easy as a waltz with one beat slightly longer. The counting line above the grid shows exactly which eighth each beat starts on.