Why Time Signatures?
4/4, or “common time”, has 4 beats per measure. Why not count a song, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,………” with no repeats? Better yet, why count the beats of a song at all? The answer is because of accents. Accents will open up the doors of understanding concerning rhythm. Each time signature, has a certain location where primary and secondary accents fall. In all time signatures, the heaviest accent falls on 1. Therefore, it is helpful when counting the rhythm of a song in 4/4 as “1, 2, 3, 4, “(I will illustrate primary accents in bold.) So, in 4/4, the primary accent falls every 4 beats, while in 3/4 this accent falls every 3 beats and so on. You will notice that chords generally change around this accent. Count a song out for yourself and see if this isn’t true. There is also a secondary accent. This accent is not as heavy as the primary accent. It usually falls in the middle of the count. In 4/4, the 3rd beat is the secondary accent. (I will illustrate secondary accen
