There are two methods to indicate a tempo of a musical piece, either through musical notes or a set of words definition. Musical notes used to define tempo is closely associated with the time signature of music. A 4 over another 4 (or simply four four time, or common time) time signature is 88 beats-per-minute. Word used to define tempo are generally Latin or Italian. 'Adagio' for slow, 'Allegro' for fast, 'Presto' for very fast.
More recent words to describe the tempo of a music are 'laid-back' for very-slow, 'steady' for medium pace, 'upbeat' for fast pace. And what do we call a slow, sentimental song that speaks of love? A ballad, of course.
Time Signature
Time signature is a measurement of the basic beat of a musical piece. It's closely associated with meters. This is a little hard to understand without listening. Here is an excellent basic explanation of what is a time signature (together with explanation of notes, measures or bars, pitch and duration).
A simple way of reading the time signature using illustration in the above tutorial: for example, if it's written as 4/4 beat. The numerator (four at the front) is the number of beats in a bar of music. How many beats there are in a piece of music. We would always use the number in front to count the beats. So, if we see a 6/8 meter, instinctively we know that there are six beats in that particular musical piece. A song played in 7/8 meter, has seven beats in it.
Back to the same 4/4 time signature, the denominator (four at the back) refers to the type of notes being played. 2 means it's a half-note (minim), 4 is a quarter-note (crotchet), 8 is an eight-note (quaver), and 16 is sixteenth-note (semiquaver). The types of note also correspond to the duration of the beat.
Theoretically, we could have any number of beats but the type of note is always 2, 4, 8, 16. So, we could have a time signature with 7/8, 9/4 or 12/4, but there is no time signature with 4/6, 6/9 or 9/12.
Normal time signatures is commonly in duple, triple or quadruple meters. Duple is 1-2, 1-2. Triple is 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Quadruple is 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. Normal time signatures can be further broken into 'simple' time signatures eg. 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 'compound' time signatures like 6/8, 9/8, 12/8.
Almost all modern western music tends to be in 'four four time, 4/4' also known as 'common time': 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4.
Waltz uses a 3/4 beat, also call "waltz time". 1-2-3, 1-2-3, (strong-weak-weak, strong-weak-weak) beat/pulse.
Simple meter (time signature):
A duple simple (2/4 time)
A triple simple (3/4 time)
A quadruple simple (4/4 time or common time)
Compound meter (time signature):
A duple compound (6/8 time)
A triple compound (9/8 time)
A quadruple compound (12/8 time)
Then there are complex or odd time signatures: 5/4, 7/4, 7/8. It is called odd because the beats are not quantifiable into any of duple (2), triple (3) or quadruple (4).
Almost all modern pop music that constitute dance, hip hop, house, techno, drum-and-bass is in 4/4 time. It is said that more than 90% of all music we listen to are in some forms of 'four four time'. Only do jazz and classical music, and other not-so-popular genre like folk, funk, eastern and 'world' music uses compound and complex time signatures.
Why is it so common to use 'common time'? According to some expert in music, "four is a multiple of two, and two has roots in the way we go through our lives. Walking in two, left-right, left-right. So, it's kinda natural".
A drum kit use to make modern music consisting of:1) Cymbal; 2) Floor Toms; 3) Toms; 4) Kick/Bass drum; 5) Snare drum; 6) Hi-Hat
To distinguish the time signature or beat of a musical piece, listen to the drum beats. We start counting at the start of the strongest beat. Normally (but not always), the snare is used as the starting point as its cracking "tak-tak" sound is easily recognizable, and is the loudest part of the drums with the sharpest "attack" of the musical ADSR envelope. However, with some jazz songs, we use the cymbals or toms to count the first beat (or downbeat).
A perfect example of almost-perfect pop - Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is in common time (or 4/4 time), as are many other popular pop/rock music.
Using the above video, start counting when the drums begin around the 10 second up to the 28 second mark (enough time to practice over before the song proper). Count "one" when the snare drum hits on the second beat (1-2). You will hear the snare hit again on the third count, (3-4). A classic kick-snare-kick-snare combination. The beat is heard to be 'strong-weak-strong-weak-' throughout. This creates a catchy
If you start counting throughout the song 1-2-3-4, it would feel more natural to emphasize on the second and fourth beat which is the snare. The first beat, known as a 'downbeat' (the kick or bass drum here) is a little more difficult to discern
INXS' "Never Tear Us Apart" is in 6/8 time. INXS is basically a funk-rock band, and a very popular one when lead singer Michael Hutchence was still alive. Count 1-2-3-4-5-6 after the words "we could live..." at around the 1'44" mark. Here, the snare is accentuated on the fourth beat (1-2-3-4-5-6) but it gives a more natural feel to count it on the second beat (1-2-3-4-5-6).
Seal's "Kiss From A Rose" is also in 6/8 time, but the pace is more
Moving on to complex or odd time signature.
Radiohead "Morning Bell" from their "Kid A" album has a interesting 5/4 beat. It's fairly easy to distinguish the five beats here. The first snare hit is
Aside from Pink Floyd "Money", the only other song that has a 7/4 feel is Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" from their brilliant 1997 "OK Computer" album.
Here's another popular song with clearly defined four four beat. Downbeat on the hi-hat, followed by the backbeat on the snare. Watch the drummer plays!
All these are quite academic. Knowing how to read meters and identifying time signatures are important to musicians especially the drummers and rhythm players. As for us listeners, as long as the music is good, no one really care about its time signature.
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