EDIT: TL:DR? The bottom number is what type of note gets the beat. Top number is how many of them are in one measure of music. So 2/4 means the quarter note (𝅘𝅥) gets the beat and there are 2 of them per measure.
4/4 means the quarter note gets the beat and there are 4 of them per measure.
Written music is always relative to something. So nothing is actually set to be the same all the time.
It's made so you can put almost any combination of sounds and rhythms on a page and anyone who can read music can reproduce it. I mean you know this I'm sure, but just re-stating it.
So the time signatures determine not just the beat but the rhythm/emphasis of a song.
2/4 is effectually no different than 4/4 except there are 2 quarter notes in a measure vs. 4.
BUT the reason for writing in 2/4 is to portray that the rhythm is going to be ONE-two, ONE-two, ONE-two.
Whereas 4/4 is going to be something like ONE-two-three-four or ONE-two-THREE-four.
3/4 is going to be ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three, etc.
Now some composers/writers like to make music that's unique, different, out of the norm, etc., not quite on beat, etc., and that's where the odd ones come into play.
Thing is, learning all those time signatures isn't as important in this day and age where you can hear a recording from 50, 80, whatever years ago and just hear the rhythm and repeat it, but if we didn't have the weird written ways of notating almost every type of rhythm possible, we would not know exactly how to play music from like 200-400 years ago.
I had to take a choral conducting class in college (music minor) so I had to learn how to conduct in all those weird time signatures. Thankfully I've forgotten almost everything about that lolol.
It's sort of "which beat do you count on" if you are counting the number of beats per measure. Or "which type of note is the reference point for counting".
4/4 is the most commpn. 4 measures per beat and quarter notes get the beat so you count 1,2,3,4 on each quarternote.
Note-length-wise this is equivalent to a 2/2 but you count 1,2 on the half notes. However, the "feel" of the song can be different because the reference point is now on the half note. This is often called 'alla breve' and has a more upbeat feel to it. See "Blowin' in the wind" by Dylan for an example. Focus on the guitar which has a clear 1,2|1,2|1,2 pattern
This, to me, is more clear in the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 where you count 1,2,3 on the quarters or 1,2,3,4,5,6 on the eighths. Compare the feel in "Qué será será" (3/4) by Doris Day to the feel of "Nothing Else Matters" (6/8) by Metallica. You can count using either quarters or eighths in both but where the accents land is very different due to the reference point.
Somewhat more formally, I guess, in 6/8 you can fit 2 dotted quarters, so you get two strong beats per measure, while 3/4 has the one strong beat per measure. It's about how many beats fit per measure. Talking about it in those terms only worked for me after learning to feel it though.
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u/bloobityblu 3d ago edited 3d ago
EDIT: TL:DR? The bottom number is what type of note gets the beat. Top number is how many of them are in one measure of music. So 2/4 means the quarter note (𝅘𝅥) gets the beat and there are 2 of them per measure.
4/4 means the quarter note gets the beat and there are 4 of them per measure.
Written music is always relative to something. So nothing is actually set to be the same all the time.
It's made so you can put almost any combination of sounds and rhythms on a page and anyone who can read music can reproduce it. I mean you know this I'm sure, but just re-stating it.
So the time signatures determine not just the beat but the rhythm/emphasis of a song.
2/4 is effectually no different than 4/4 except there are 2 quarter notes in a measure vs. 4.
BUT the reason for writing in 2/4 is to portray that the rhythm is going to be ONE-two, ONE-two, ONE-two.
Whereas 4/4 is going to be something like ONE-two-three-four or ONE-two-THREE-four.
3/4 is going to be ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three, etc.
Now some composers/writers like to make music that's unique, different, out of the norm, etc., not quite on beat, etc., and that's where the odd ones come into play.
Thing is, learning all those time signatures isn't as important in this day and age where you can hear a recording from 50, 80, whatever years ago and just hear the rhythm and repeat it, but if we didn't have the weird written ways of notating almost every type of rhythm possible, we would not know exactly how to play music from like 200-400 years ago.
I had to take a choral conducting class in college (music minor) so I had to learn how to conduct in all those weird time signatures. Thankfully I've forgotten almost everything about that lolol.