Beats
Here you'll learn to tell strong beats from weak ones, beats that divide in two from beats that divide in three, and simple meter from compound meter.
Let's look inside the measure. A measure divides into two, three or four parts called beats. That gives three kinds of meter: meters with two beats, called duple, with three beats, called triple, and with four beats, called quadruple.
Strong beats and weak beats
Not all beats carry the same weight. Depending on how important they are, we speak of strong beats and weak beats. The strong beats are the first beat of every measure and, in a measure of four beats, the third beat as well.
| Meter | Strong beats | Weak beats |
|---|---|---|
| 2 beats | 1 | 2 |
| 3 beats | 1 | 2 and 3 |
| 4 beats | 1 and 3 | 2 and 4 |
Parts of a beat
Each beat can in turn be divided into several parts. The first part of a beat is strong compared with the others, which are weak. So the idea of strong and weak works at every level: within the measure, and again within each beat.
Beats that divide by two, beats that divide by three
When the beats of a measure naturally divide into two, they are called simple beats, or binary beats in Danhauser's words, and they make up simple meter. When they naturally divide into three, they are compound beats, or ternary beats, and they make up compound meter.
- Meter
- 4/4: simple meter
- Beats per measure
- 4 beats
- Beat unit
- quarter note
- Beat division
- duple: 2 eighth notes per beat
- Reading the numbers
- 4 = number of beats; 4 = the quarter note, which gets one beat
- Corresponding meter
- 12/8 (compound: top ×3, bottom ×2)
- Strong beats
- beat 1 strong, beat 3 strong for Danhauser (medium in current usage), beats 2 and 4 weak
Mark the strong and weak beats in this fragment, whose beats are numbered.
You can now feel how a measure breaks down into beats. Next, we'll see how a time signature tells you all of this at a glance.