I recently listened to Tigran Hamasyan’s “Vardavar” and everyone is saying that it is 4/4. Something about counting rhythms. I have no knowledge of music or any of it’s terms. Please help me out on this one. Thank you so very much.
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A beat is a steady pulse (like your heart beat). A measure is a small section of song.
A time signature tells you how many beats are in one measure. The top number is the **number** of beats and the bottom number is the **length** of the beat. (The bottom fraction makes more sense when you take the top number away, using 1/4 instead of 4/4)
So 4/4 time tells you there are 4 beats in a measure and each beat is equal to 1/4 of the measure. So you have four, equally divided beats in one measure. You can audiate this by clapping 4 steady beats in a row with a bit of space between each clap: 1, 2, 3, 4.
To know what time signature a piece of music is in, you listen for what is called a **down beat**. Which is a more emphasized or accented beat at the beginning of each measure. It doesn’t change in length, only in emphasis. Like clapping harder on the first beat and softer on the next 3 (for 4/4 time). Typically, the start of new verses, bridge, and chorus all start on a downbeat.
Hope this helps! I teach middle school music, so I tried to make this as simple as when I explain it to my students at the start of each year.
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