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This guide is designed for guitar players of all levels (And could be handy to musicians of any instrument). We’re going to look at the most basic parts of rhythm, and see how this can improve our playing, and then move on to see how these simple rhythmic devices can be used to create complex time signatures.

What this tutorial covers:

• Time Signature basics, and the common 4/4 measure
• Length of Notes
• Triplets
• Dotted And Tied Notes
• Simple and Compound beats
• The Difference between */4 and */8 signautres
• Constructing complex time signatures

4/4 And Time Signature Basics

Most songs (and our first few examples) are in 4/4 times. The bottom number tells us what of note division we are using, usually 4 meaning quarter note or 8 meaning 8th note. The top number tells us how many of that type of note we are using. Therefore, 4/4 means we are using 4 quarter notes in one bar.  We can count them in the following manner:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and . .. (repeat)

You can count this way to most music. Try counting along with your favorite band, provided your favorite band isn’t Tool.

Length of Notes

• Whole Note - These are 4 quarter notes. In 4/4 time, this is one whole bar, which can be an easy way to remember it.
• Half Note - 2 quarter notes, or half a whole note. Using our previous way of counting, “1 and 2 and”, “2 and 3 and” , “and 3 and 4″ could all be half notes.
• Quarter Note - One fourth of a whole note.  This is usual measure of one ‘beat’.
• Eighth Note- half of a quarter note. In our counting, this is any one single syllable.
• 16th note - half of an eighth note, or a quarter of a quarter note. To count 16th notes, it is standard to count in the following manner: 1 ee and uh 2 ee and uh 3 ee and uh 4 ee and uh .. (repeat) where each syllable is one 16th note.

This pattern can continue down a similar pattern 32nd and 64th notes, but these aren’t used as much.

Triplets

Triplets usually replace eighth notes. When playing triplets, you are divided a quarter note into 3 notes instead of two.  We can count these like so:

1 and uh 2 and uh 3 and uh 4 and uh

To get used to the feel of these, try setting a metronome to a fairly slow speed, and try alternating between both counting methods in an even fashion, making sure that you are saying a number at each click of the metronome. Notice that triplets are shorter than standard eighth notes.

If you subdivide it further, then they are called sextuplets. Sextuplets are the 16th note equivalent of triplets.

Dotted And Tied Notes

Dotted Notes are notes that equal to one and half times their usual length. For example:

Half note:  1 and 2 and

Dotted Half: 1 and 2 and 3 and

It is considered improper notation to have notes be longer than the bar that contains them. You could not have two dotted half notes in a bar of 4/4, because that would be the same a 6 quarter notes. To solve this issue, you can use tied notes. Two notes that are tied together are played once, but held for the duration of both notes.  A dotted half note, and a regular half note tied to a quarter note are the same length. The order is also not important; a half note tied to a quarter note and a quarter note tied to a half note are functionally the same.

So in our previous example of two dotted half notes, you could use a dotted half note, then a quarter note tied to a half note that would start on beat 1 of the next bar.

Simple and Compound Beats

Everything we have discussed up to the point has been in 4/4, and it has been using simple beats. a simple beat is simply using quarter notes as your beat. A compound beat uses a dotted fourth note as the beat. Notice that a compound beat and playing triplets is NOT the same thing, even though they both have three notes. If you played both at the same BPM, the one with simple beats would be faster, because a quarter note is still shorter than a dotted quarter note.

The Difference Between /4 and /8 Time Signature

Time signatures are almost always in */4 or */8 form. (where * is any number).  You may be thinking that 4/4 and 8/8 would be exactly the same, but that’s not entirely true. Time signatures in /4 form only use simple beats, where signatures in /8 form use either compound beats or a combination of simple and compound beats.  While 4/4 and 8/8 have bars of the same length, they would have the beats accented differently.

One way to think about it is to think of simple beats as groups of 2, and compound beats as groups of 3. then, think about how you can add them to get the total number of eighth notes in a bar, and that is how you count them. the 2s are counted as “1 and” the 3s are counted as “1 and uh”

Example: In 4/4, we can only use simple beats, and there are 8 eighth notes in a bar. There is only one way to get 8 by adding 2s: 2 + 2 + 2 + 2.  So we would count “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”.

In 8/8, since we can use 3s and 2s, there are a few different ways to get 8 (because order matters) so there are a few different ways to count and play 8/8:

3 + 3 + 2   ==  “1 and uh 2 and uh 3 and”

3 + 2 + 3 == ” 1 and uh 2 and 3 and uh”

2 + 3 + 3 == “1 and 2 and uh 3 and uh”

Constructing Complex Time Signautures

Once you understand how to count simple and compund beats, you can just play around with different combinations and come up with various time signatures. While 4/4 is the most common,  3/4 , 6/8 , 7/8, 9/8, and 10/8 are also common in various forms of music. they setting a metronome and playing in these different beats. It will feel strange at first, and odd time signatures are definetly not for everyone. But if you ever do encounter a song with them, Now you’re much more well equipped to handle it.

Here is an online metronome if you want to use it to practice.