Guitar Lessons and Music Theory: Time Signatures

Time signatures dictate the feel of a song. Most music that you hear is written in the time signature of 4/4. To have a better understanding of what 4/4 really means, take a look at the picture below
The number on the top of a given time signature shows how many beats there are within the time signature, while the bottom number shows what value note you are counting. 4 on the bottom means that the measure is counted in quarter notes. 8 stands for eighth notes, 16 stands for 16th notes, 2 stands for half notes, and 1 stands for whole notes. Basically, any note value that there is can be put in the bottom of a time signature. The time signature given in the picture is 4/4. This means that the measure is counted in quarter notes and there are 4 quarter notes (or beats) total within the measure. The image below shows multiple different time signatures
Once you understand how to count the different time signatures, it becomes really simple. The hard part comes in when switching from one time signature to another, but more on that in another lesson. In the image, you can see there are time signatures of 3/4 and 2/4. All this means is that there are 3 beats in the measure for 3/4 and 2 beats in the measure for 2/4. In a 3/4 time signature, you could fill an entire measure with a dotted half note. You could still put a whole note if you wanted to, but it would carry over into the next measure. 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4 are what we call simple time. Below those you will see examples of compound time. The measures shown are 12/8, 9/8, 6/8, and 3/8. These are written differently but have the same feel as simple time signatures. A 12/8 time signature has the same feel as a 4/4 signature. It really comes down to how the composer wishes to write their song. 9/8 has the same feel as 3/4, 6/8 has the same feel as 2/4, and so on. Compound signatures like these really work well for creating a song that has a strong groove to it. 12/8 is used very frequently by Lamb of God, and is also the main time signature for "Walk" by Pantera, lending that strong sense of groove. More complex time signatures include the examples given in the image, such as 5/4, 13/8, or 11/16. These can have a strange feel to them. 5/4 feels like a 4/4 measure but with an extra beat. 13/8 can have multiple feels to it, as the notes can be grouped in different ways to get to 13 eighth notes. 11/16 is something that would more often than not appear in a composition with a slower tempo to make the sixteenth notes easier to count. I would recommend practicing with the simple and compound time signatures before really diving into the more complex ones.

That about does it for this lesson. I hope this helps anyone looking for help in music theory.