A “ barline,' or measure line, is where the five horizontal lines of a staff are intersected vertically with another line, indicating a separation:Įach measure has a specific number of notes allowed to be placed in it, and that number of notes is dependent upon the time signature. In musical scores, we organize the music into “ bars” or measures. Musicians learn how to play these rhythms in the context of each piece by using the time signature. Rhythms are the lengths of the notes in the music itself - which notes are long and which notes are short. That said, there is another way that musicians also discuss how music moves through time, and that is through rhythm. Meter is the comprehensive tool we used to discuss how music moves through time. The methods for classifying the various time signatures into meters is discussed in detail later in this article. When discussing music, the terms 'time signature' and 'meter' are frequently used interchangeably but time signature refers specifically to the number and types of notes in each measure of music, while meter refers to how those notes are grouped together in the music in a repeated pattern to create a cohesive sounding composition. The organizational patterns of beats, as indicated by the time signature, is how we hear and/or feel the meter of said piece. The time signatures give us a way to notate our music so that we can play the music from scores, hear its organizational patterns, and discuss it with a common terminology known to other musicians.

This organization of music through time is managed in the Western music system through time signatures. Hence, music is sound organized through time. Fundamental to the definition of music itself is that music must move through time-it is not static.

In the end piano notes