Time signatures

The top number is how many beats sit in a bar. The bottom number is which note gets one beat. The full list lives on Western theory · Time signatures. Named cycles live on Tabla and Madal. Guitar strums the same meters on Strumming.

Press Feel it. Each beat divides in two. The metronome follows the practice bar.

	Count	Nickname / feel
44	1 2 3 4	Common time (the C symbol). Pop, hymns, most film songs.	Feel it
34	1 2 3	Waltz. Strong–weak–weak.	Feel it
24	1 2	March. Two-step, polka.	Feel it
22	1 2	Cut time / alla breve. Looks like 4/4; feel two half-note beats, not four quarters.	Feel it

Press Feel it. Each pulse divides in three. 6/8 is two pulses, 9/8 is three, 12/8 is four. This 9/8 is three even groups. The limping 9/8, one long group and three short ones, is under Odd and irregular meters. Same fraction, a different bar.

	Eighths	Feel as
68	3+3	Two pulses. Jig, ballad, many slow-rock grooves.	Feel it
98	3+3+3	Three pulses. Compound triple.	Feel it
128	3+3+3+3	Four pulses. Shuffle / 12/8 ballad.	Feel it

The metronome’s tempo box is the quarter note. An /8 meter ticks the eighths.

Press Feel it. The grouping is how you count the bar. 5/4 is often 3+2 or 2+3. 7/8 is often 2+2+3. 9/8 aksak (the “limping” nine) has four common groupings: 2+2+2+3, 3+2+2+2, 2+3+2+2 and 2+2+3+2; the long group of three moves, the nine eighths do not. Named taals with bols stay on Tabla.

Meter	Grouping
5/4	2+3 or 3+2	Feel it
7/8	2+2+3	Feel it
7/4	3+2+2	Feel it
9/8 aksak	2+2+2+3	Feel it
9/8 aksak	3+2+2+2	Feel it
9/8 aksak	2+3+2+2	Feel it
9/8 aksak	2+2+3+2	Feel it

Feel it on a row sets the metronome and plays a C major triad on the strong beats, a single C on the weak ones. The same button becomes Stop. Count with the dots here and in the practice bar.