Just as a measuring tape provides indications of where specific distances such as inches, centimetres, or millimetres occur, meter provides information about the pulse of music, specifically on where emphasis is over a specified time. On the image of the ruler below you can see that although all the vertical lines are spaced evenly apart, the numbers appear below the longest vertical lines. The distance between the numbers are called centimetres. You can also see that another vertical line, half the length of the numbered line, divides each centimetre in half, and then shorter lines dividing each half into 4 smaller divisions. Each line, regardless of length represents one millimetre. The millimetre can still be broken down into much smaller divisions however for now it is enough to use millemetres as the smallest measurement since we will not need smaller divisions for the lesson.

As you can see however, the creator of this ruler decided that they would indicate the beginning of the centimetre with a longer line and to number them so that it would be easier for someone to determine the length of something. A ruler that spans the length of 100 centimetres (hence the name ‘centi’ which means 100) is one meter and it takes 1000 millimetres (milli means 1000) to make one meter. So how does this relate to music? Well the length itself doesn’t matter much as we would not measure the length of a song as ‘distance’ however when trying to define meter in music, it is the pattern of where the emphasis is placed that meter actually describes. In other words, if the length of the vertical lines were to represent the amplitude or volume of a sound occurring at each line, the longest lines would have the loudest emphasis while the slightly shorter line would have half the volume of the longer line, and the shortest lines would have ¼ of the volume of the longest lines. If you were to clap along, you would quickly notice that the repetition of these notes at the indicated volumes would begin to sound very rhythmic. The louder notes would repeat at a specific interval or frequency therefore making it easier to predict or assume what to expect. This is what meter is therefore describing. It isn’t necessarily telling you what rhythm to play yet however it does provide an underlying sense of which beats have a stronger or weaker emphasis. More on rhythm in a minute.

A wave file of a song would work the same way as it provides you a visual representation of the volume at different parts of a song. The louder the volume, the bigger the wave will be. From the image below you can easily see which parts of a the song are quieter and which are louder.

However, for this lesson we are not referring to a whole song but rather only a small snippet that will repeat over a longer period. A 12 centimetre depiction (or a whole meter for that matter) is not necessary to describe meter as it is understood that the pattern will repeat over and over therefore we only need to know information about that part that will repeat. After all, it isn’t being used to measure a distance but rather to explain what is expected rhythmically over time. All that is necessary therefore is to understand where the main emphasis is expected with regards to the beat or pulse of the song and to confidently assume that it will continue until otherwise indicated. The notation (how it is noted) is accomplished through the Time Signature.

Time Signature usually appears at the beginning of a piece of music, as indicated by the 4 over 4 in the image below. It may also at times appear at other points within a song as that would indicate that the time signature changes at some point however it will work exactly the same way as we are about to describe.

As is the case for mathematics, a fraction such as 4/4 is equal to 1. In Music, the 4/4 means that 1 measure has 4 pulses, 4 subdivisions, or 4 beats. 4/4 therefore represents 4 equal parts … or 4 occurrences of ¼ … 4 pieces of 1 pie… therefore in this example 4 beats make 1 measure or ‘section’ as shown below.

As shown in the image, the beats are numbered 1 to 4 and the pattern simply repeats and the beat count starts over. Since the time signature indicates that there will be 4 beats per measure before the pattern repeats, the numbers that are assigned to each beat help to visually see when the pattern will repeat. Sheet music however will not indicate the beat count as shown above as it would be too much information to read that is not necessary to repeat. There are also plenty of other attributes of a song that are more important to notate than to simply repeat information that can be indicated by simply using a Time Signature. You can theoretically count the beats in your head while playing however the drawback is that the act of counting throughout the whole song might take away from the experience of the music itself, or perhaps even take your attention away from noticing other notes or instructions. Meter and Time Signature together resolve this as the meter provides the underlying sense of which beats will have a stronger emphasis therefore the ‘count’ is felt rather than counted. In the example above, more emphasis is placed on each beat (compared to the subdivisions between the beats) and even more emphasis is place on the first beat so that the beginning of the repetition of the pattern is more apparent. If we use bolding as a way of explaining emphasis or volume, it would look something like this:

| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |

Notice that beat 1 is darker/bolder than beats 2, 3, and 4. This means that if you were to clap or even simply say the numbers for these 4 measures, you would put more emphasis beat 1 and would clap beats 2, 3, and 4 at an equal volume to one another. Doing so would allow you to easily feel the beginning of the measure without knowing the actual beat number. Listening to the drummer would easily allow you to know the meter since a drummer will accent beats with different parts of the drum set. For example, imagine that the drummer is playing a bass drum on every 1^st beat, the snare on every 3^rd beat and a closed high-hat on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4. The bass drum has the strongest emphasis, the snare’s volume is slightly lower and the high-hat is the lowest in volume and also the thinnest sounding. As the drummer plays, you can automatically feel where the emphasis is placed without the necessity of counting. When a drummer counts a band in before they begin to play, the drummer is actually counting in the meter at the tempo they will all be playing at so that everyone can understand and synchronize themselves to the intended meter and tempo.

As we mentioned a littler earlier, 4/4 means 4 pieces of 1 pie. If a pie is divided into 4, then each piece is ¼ of the pie. 4 quarters therefore make a whole pie, just as 4 quarters make 1 dollar. Since there are 4 beats per measure, then one measure consists of 4 quarter beats. Whether a note is heard or not however, the beat, count, or pulse of the song continues even through the silence.

So far we’ve seen a time signature of 4/4 however many other variations exist as a measure, just as a pie, can be divided into other subdivisions. For example, if 3 people were to share a pie, the pie would need to be divided into 3 instead of 4 so that each party would have an equally sized piece. This means that the pie would be divided into thirds (1/3) as 3 times 1/3 is equivalent to 1 (3/3). The difference however is that the time signature would not be 3/3 but rather 3/4 because the bottom number has no bearing on the size of the piece but rather refers to the note that is to be used. 3/4 therefore means that the measure is being divided into 3 equal beats and each beat will look similar to a quarter note which resembles a black dot with a stem (we’ll see more on notes in another lesson).

The meter on a 3/4 time signature would be : 
| 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 |

The emphasis would still be on the first beat as this is where you want the repetition or pattern to begin. If you were to keep the emphasis of 4/4 while the other musicians would follow 3/4 you would notice that the emphasis you put on your first beat would not always match the other musicians since your meter would be as follows: 
| 1 2 3 | 1 2 3  | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 |

Notice that if you put the emphasis on every fourth note, you would sometimes emphasize beat 1, then beat 2, then beat 3 and then skip a whole measure. While this could be an interesting exercise if done on purpose, it would be incorrect if the meter was misunderstood as it would be difficult to feel the meter in a natural way. This could only be accomplished by actually counting however this would be a completely ‘technical’ approach to music rather than basing it on ‘feeling’ which is extremely important if we expect our audience to appreciate or react to our music.

Other time signatures include 2/2, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, and 10/8 however many more exist as well. The difference with the ones that have an 8 on the bottom of the time signature is that rather than feeling the pulse on every quarter note, the pulse is now felt on every eighth note. A time signature such as 6/8 for example, would be similar to a 3/4 meter to a certain degree as it is basically double the quantity of beats that you would have in 3/4. In 7/8 and 10/8 however it would definitely make more sense to use an eighth note subdivision of beats as it would be difficult to display this using quarter notes. If you were to use quarter notes, one measure would have 3/4 and the next would have 4/4 or vice versa however it would affect your meter as the emphasis or accent would not occur at every 7 notes but sometimes at 3 and sometimes at 4. If the intention is to feel a stronger 1 beat after ever 7^thbeat, the 7/8 time signature would be the way to go.

Don’t worry too much about the bottom note of the time signature as this will become clearer in the next lessons. It’s important to remember that the goal of music theory is to explain what we are hearing and to transcribe or notate what we are hearing so that another musician can understand it and reproduce it. Many musicians do not have this knowledge and while this doesn’t make them bad musicians in any way, the ones who do know music theory are left with the task of notating it for everyone else. For this reason (for example) the bottom note of the time signature can be chosen strictly and specifically because it makes the music much easier to be read. Unless necessary, there wouldn’t be a reason to use a time signature that forces a musician to count when they can feel it instead.

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Breaking down a song into sections is not very strict (for the reasons described in the previous lesson) however, once a conversation about a song section occurs among musicians, there is a definite need for everyone to have the same understanding of various terms or concepts so that everyone can be on the same page. Lyrics are simple enough to understand since you can literally refer someone to specific words however when music is instrumental things can get a little tricky if we don’t all use the same language. As the term implies, ‘measures’ is a way of ‘measuring’ music from beginning to end so that you can easily jump to the section in question.

Imagine a song laid out on a whiteboard and that a ruler or ‘measuring’ tape is stretched out for the length of the song. With the help of the ruler you can now direct another musician to the 2nd centimetre … which represents part 2 of the Intro section (for example). 

The timeline of the intro in the example above is divided into 8 equal sections (8 centimetres). In musical terms, these subdivisions are called ‘measures’. The 8 measures are now numbered therefore allowing you to direct someone to a particular point or to play from measures 1 to 4 or 5 to 8 for example. Here is an example of how this would look on an actual chart where the verse is made up of 8 equal parts.

Often, you’ll hear the term ‘bar’ instead of the word ‘measure’ which is generally understood to mean the same thing. In context, you might hear phrases such as : “let’s play the first 8 bars” or “let’s play the first 4 measures of the verse”. 

The vertical line that separates one measure from another however is a ‘bar line‘ and definitely not a ‘measure line‘. Since the start and end of a measure occur at the bar lines, it would be correct to refer someone to the 4^th bar as it would still point someone to the 4^th measure. A measure however refers to the complete occurrence, which includes the bar lines and the notes in between and not simply the bar ‘line’. Since there are different types of bar lines that mean different things, it’s important to refer to a measure as either a bar or a measure and not a bar line as that would direct attention to the bar line itself.

The measures/bars are at equal distances from one another. Even if a particular song will show that one measure looks smaller than another, it is safe to assume, unless otherwise indicated, that the duration of time between one measure and another is similar. If a measure is in fact physically wider than another it may simply be that more space was required to fit more notes between the bar lines however the duration of the measure is still the same. 

In the example above, the 4 periods between each bar line … or … inside each measure have been added to show that all the measures are evenly apart from one another. Using this example, you can say that if each period represents a beat, then there are 4 beats per measure. But how would you know this? And what kind of notes are expected? Whole Notes, Half Notes, Quarter Notes, Eight Notes etc? This is accomplished through something called Meter which we will explore in the next lesson.

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A musical piece or song is similar to a journey in that it has a beginning, an end, and multiple stops or at least multiple points of interest in between. A song for example has an intro, a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, a bridge, and an end. Both the intro and the end are not moveable since they describe a beginning or an ending and would otherwise have to be called something else if they don’t perform the function implied by their names however the other parts can occur in different orders, may repeat, may be skipped, and can even be called something else that might describe a section in a better way (ie. Solo section).

Popular Music example:
Intro
Verse
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Verse
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Solo
Chorus
Ending

Each one of these sections can be broken down further similar to the way we described time in a previous lesson. A ‘year’ for example, can be the entire ‘song’, the ‘seasons’ can be the different movements of a song which might contain a specific theme, while ‘months’ can be the individual parts or sections of the song.

At times you’ll come across music charts where you see different approaches to naming song sections. This usually occurs for non-popular music or for instrumental music where there is no actual lyrical ‘verse’. In such cases you might simply see a song section labeled as Part A, Part B, Part C etc… or perhaps even Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 etc. In this case it is very possible that the various parts are unrelated to one another and have different motifs or musical ideas however the above song section names are very general therefore they can be used in whatever way the composer/songwriter prefers. 

ABCAB Song Section example:
Part A
Part B
Part A
Part C
Part A
Part B

If you were to place an entire song, (or even simply a part of a song such as a verse) on a timeline, you would need a way to explain where the different sections appear over the duration of the song. Time (as in seconds, minutes, hours etc) is usually used only once a song has been recorded and available for playback on a device however musicians use a different system where the speed of the song is expressed in ‘beats per minute’. Song Sections are similar in that you don’t want to refer a musician to minute 1:35 of the song when you can simply refer a musician to the verse section … or perhaps Part B of the song. This would allow the musicians attempting to play the song to jump to a specific section at a moment’s notice.

Jazz Improvization example:
Head (main theme)
Solo 1 (ie. guitar)
Head (main theme)
Solo 2 (ie. sax)
Head (main theme)
Ending

Song ‘Sections’ are basically simpler divisions of a song so that communication among musicians can be simplified yet also precise.

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When musicians communicate ‘beats per minute’ they aren’t expressing time per se but rather what is called ‘tempo’. The Italian word ‘tempo’ literally translates to ‘time’ and it is used to describe the ‘speed’ of a passage, melody, or song. It is mostly a way to indicate the ‘stable speed’ however there are also specific terms to indicate an acceleration or deceleration of tempo/speed. ‘Beats per minute’ literally describes how many beats (ticks, taps, claps etc) occur within a minute. For example, 70bpm means that if you start a stop watch and start counting the number of clicks or taps you hear over 60 seconds, the result would be 70 taps per minute. This is the same unit of measurement used when a doctor measures a heart beat or pulse. A person who has a heart rate of 70bpm or a pulse of 70bpm has 70 pulses or beats per 1 minute. If a pulse were to either decrease or increase drastically, a doctor could tell that something out of the ordinary might be occurring in a patient. I like the analogy of ‘beat’ to ‘pulse’ because a beat gives the impression that it can occur only once. A beat can be a hit, while a pulse gives the impression that it is a repeating event which is much closer to what is occurring in music. Still, the correct term for measuring tempo is ‘beats’ per minute.

In music, the tempo of a song reflects the composer’s or conductor’s intended pulse of a song and therefore the expected pulse or speed they expect the performing musicians to play at for everyone to play in sync with one another.

*Interesting note about composers and why they exist:
Have you ever wondered why some guy waving his hands and arms (the composer) is needed when music is being performed by orchestras? Is the conductor just some crazy person who is attempting to dance to the music? Why does he sometimes seem upset and why does he dance with only his arms and not his hips or legs? Does he even play an instrument or is he someone’s crazy uncle who just tags along with the rest of the band?

Well, the conductor’s role is actually very important to the orchestra as he/she is the time keeper for the whole orchestra. Since orchestras can be very large and can contain any number of musicians spread apart or at least seated away from one another in a large theater, the musician sitting at the far right will not hear the music being performed by the musician at the far left, just as the musicians in the middle might have trouble hearing musicians from either side. The reason is that sound does not travel very fast therefore there would be a delay in sound before a musician in the middle hears a musician on the far left or right of them (and vice versa) which would mean that musicians would constantly play out of time. Similar to thunder and lightning, you always see lightning before you hear thunder. The two have actually occurred at the same moment however since light travels much faster than sound, you will experience the lightning before you will hear the thunder. Since this is the case, musicians will rely on what they see, the composer, rather than what they hear for them to play on time. Since everyone, regardless of where they are sitting,  focuses on the composer’s movements (assuming they can see the composer), they now have a reference, a tempo, to follow and will all be synchronized to one another. A musician will never be so far away that they will experience a delay in what they see since light is that much faster than sound. In addition, the composer can provide other visual cues, either through emotions or perhaps with the use of the other arm, that might otherwise be too complicated to provide musicians through a different means.

The tempo is therefore the speed or pulse of a piece of music. As previously mentioned, the speed can fluctuate, since increasing or decreasing speed can help convey a sense of calm or urgency, however the tempo is usually stable for at least a couple of measures or bars before it changes (if it changes at all) since tempo is specifically there to help keeps musicians synchronized. An unstable tempo is counter-intuitive and even if it were to increase in speed, there would still be a controlled stability which would allow musicians to move at the same pace as one another.