Music timing tool
Compare simple, compound, complex, and irregular meters. Each signature includes a practical count, beat unit, listening feel, and cited examples from pop, rock, jazz, folk, and classical music.
Filter common, compound, and odd meters. Each card shows the beat unit, a practical count, and cited song examples.
Common time
The default grid for most pop, rock, funk, country, and electronic music. The bar usually feels balanced as downbeat, backbeat, backbeat setup, return.
Beat divides naturally into two.
Waltz time
A simple triple meter associated with waltzes, country ballads, and storytelling songs that sway rather than march.
Beat divides naturally into two.
March time
Two quarter-note beats per bar make a compact marching feel. It can sound close to 4/4, but phrases turn over twice as often.
Beat divides naturally into two.
Cut time
Cut time keeps the bar visually roomy when the music moves quickly. Conductors and players feel two large beats instead of four quarters.
Beat divides naturally into two.
Fast triple
Three eighth notes per bar often make a faster, lighter triple feel than 3/4, especially in classical and dance-derived writing.
Beat divides naturally into two.
Compound duple
6/8 is common in ballads, sea shanties, hymns, and rock songs that rock back and forth in two large pulses.
Large beats divide naturally into three.
Broad compound or simple six
6/4 is context-sensitive: it may feel like two dotted-half beats or a deliberately spacious six-count phrase.
Large beats divide naturally into three.
Compound triple
9/8 is often compound triple, but it can also be irregularly grouped. Blue Rondo famously groups the nine eighths as 2+2+2+3.
Large beats divide naturally into three.
Shuffle compound quadruple
12/8 is the clean notation for slow blues, gospel, doo-wop, and triplet ballads where every beat keeps a rolling three-part subdivision.
Large beats divide naturally into three.
Quintuple quarter
5/4 gives five quarter-note beats per bar, but listeners usually feel it as a short group plus a longer group rather than five identical pulses.
Uneven groups such as 3+2 or 2+2+3.
Quintuple eighth
5/8 compresses the five-count into eighth notes. It is common in irregular folk meters and in rock riffs that need a quick lurch.
Uneven groups such as 3+2 or 2+2+3.
Septuple quarter
7/4 lets a riff breathe across seven quarter-note beats. Pink Floyd's Money is often discussed as a seven-beat rock example, with 4/4 sections later in the arrangement.
Uneven groups such as 3+2 or 2+2+3.
Septuple eighth
7/8 is a quick seven-count. Many rock examples use it for only a riff, bridge, or chorus rather than the entire song.
Uneven groups such as 3+2 or 2+2+3.
Eleven-eight
11/8 is additive rather than symmetrical. The count only locks in once you know where the shorter group sits.
Long additive patterns with mixed group sizes.
Thirteen-eight
13/8 is rare in pop because the phrase takes long enough to feel unstable. The usual trick is to split it into memorable smaller groups.
Long additive patterns with mixed group sizes.
A time signature tells you how a bar is organized. The top number gives the written units in the bar, and the bottom number names the note value: 4 means quarter note, 8 means eighth note, and 2 means half note. In simple meters such as 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4, each main beat divides naturally into two. In compound meters such as 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8, the written eighth notes usually group into larger dotted-quarter beats that divide into three.
Odd and irregular meters are best learned as groups, not as a long string of equal numbers. A bar of 7 can feel like 4+3, 3+4, or 2+2+3 depending on the riff. Count Pink Floyd's "Money" as a seven-beat 7/4 pattern, but count a faster 7/8 passage such as "The Ocean" in smaller chunks. For tempo math, pair this page with the BPM converter to turn beats into milliseconds and note values.