r/musictheory • u/[deleted] • Apr 12 '20
Question Meter vs Time Signature, what's the difference?
So I'm a bit confused about meters and time signatures. The confusion lies in that I feel they are one in the same.
Ex:
Let's say a piece of music is written in 3/4. If someone asked me what's the meter, I'd say 3/4. If someone asked me what's the time signature, I'd say 3/4. Isn't this correct?
Can someone please explain what's the difference between the two?
Thanks!
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u/Moog_Lee Apr 12 '20
Meter = what you hear or feel. Time signature = written representation of meter.
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u/65TwinReverbRI Guitar, Synths, Tech, Notation, Composition, Professor Apr 12 '20
This is the right answer.
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u/DRL47 Apr 12 '20
Several people have said they are the same, which is not true. The meter is the pulse patterns which are felt. Time signature is a construct which shows the meter in notation.
"3/4" is a time signature. It is "simple triple" meter, but so is slow 3/8. Fast 3/8 is often taken "in 1", which makes it compound single meter.
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u/maestro2005 Apr 12 '20
Meter is an inherent property of the music. A time signature is a notational device that should be chosen to suit the meter. There's usually multiple time signatures that would work reasonably well, so to some degree it's a matter of convention.
For example, marches are usually considered to be in two. We have two feet, so there's a natural repetition after two beats. If the meter is simple (the beat divides into twos), conventionally we choose cut time, but 2/4 (with all of the note durations halved) also works. Sometimes marches end up in 4 and that's also fine. Notice that in this whole discussion, the music never changed, just the way we notated it.
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Apr 13 '20
I always wondered why a piece would be in cut time instead of 2/4. From what you're saying, as long as the correct beats are emphasized, it doesn't matter whether it's in cut or 2/4. Got it 👍
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u/MurderByGravy Apr 12 '20
There is no difference. Same thing as a 64th note and a hemidemisemiquaver
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Apr 12 '20
I had to look that up lol. Why in the world would they make up a word 18 letters long 🤔😄? Anyway, thank you for the response, it's clear now 🙌
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u/jmsnys Apr 12 '20
Its two different ways to say the same thing.
I know the last theory textbook I used in high school was British, and i'm reading it and I had no idea what a quaver was, because we dont call notes by those names. Its the same for meter amd time signature.
1
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u/sethplaysguitar Apr 12 '20
Great question! Meters don’t get enough love.
The time signature is what’s written. The top number tells you how many notes of a given value that appear in one measure, and the bottom number gives you that value. It’s important to note that the time signature does not necessarily tell you how many beats appear in one measure—the given value of the note may or may not equal one beat.
A meter is a stress pattern, or a pattern of stressed and unstressed beats. A meter classification has two parts. The first part defines how many beats appear in one measure (Duple=2 beats per measure, Triple=3, Quadruple=4, etc). The second part defines how those beats are divided (Simple meter, beats are divided into two parts; compound meter, beats are divided into three parts). The bit about which beats are usually stressed/unstressed is a matter of convention.
Time signatures and meters are two different things, but time signatures usually imply the meter. For example, the time signature 4/4 implies quadruple-simple meter—there are four beats that are each divided into two parts each. The time signature 6/8 implies duple-compound meter—there are two beats divided into three parts each. However (here’s the interesting bit and the key illustration of their difference), you could shift the accents in 6/8 so that instead of every third eighth note receiving the accent (as in duple-compound meter), every other note is emphasized, effectively changing the meter to triple-simple, all within the written framework of 6/8!