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I know what time signatures are but they are a very grey area for me. I have been checking out some off the tutorials from youtube and I am still not really any the wiser.

I get 4/4 time and I pretty much get 3/4 time but anything else I really do not understand.

For example 2/4 - I read people asking what the difference between this and 4/4 is and the general response is that there is very little difference so why would anyone use it?

Can anyone help with explaining more about time signatures and their uses?

Olly wrote:I know what time signatures are but they are a very grey area for me. I have been checking out some off the tutorials from youtube and I am still not really any the wiser.

I get 4/4 time and I pretty much get 3/4 time but anything else I really do not understand.

For example 2/4 - I read people asking what the difference between this and 4/4 is and the general response is that there is very little difference so why would anyone use it?

Can anyone help with explaining more about time signatures and their uses?

The time signature definition is quite simple:

The aboive number suggests the number notes
The below number indicates the note value.

So 4/4 basically means you have 4 4th notes. But of course you can use variations of the 4th's and play 8 8th notes, or 4 8th notes and 2 4th notes etc.

The idea of 2/4 is probably used when you want to end a song or have an interlude in a song.

Of course you can make every mix you want between time signatures.

For example:

If you have a 4/4 and a 2/4.

You could also mix them and make a 6/4 bar. Or transform the 2/4 bar into a 4/4 and insert pauses to the last 2 notes.

I hope that you understood what i wanted to tell you.

I also wrote something about time signatures in my free ebook so feel free to check it out if you want to.

Hope it helped,

Paul