Uhm… maybe I’m being daft, maybe it’s just my memory failing as usual… But I cannot remember what the names of the top and bottom numbers in a time signature are… I mean as in, in a fraction, you have numerator and denominator… in a time sig, you have (the top one) and (the bottom one)… Anyone know the correct terms for those?
Thanks!
Oh look, there’s a little castle in my tank…
Oh look, there’s a little castle in my tank…
Oh look, there’s a little castle in my tank…
The upper number indicates how many beats there are in a bar.
The lower number indicates the note value which represents one beat.
I’ve never heard a name for the top/bottom numbers.
Hmmm. Call me crazy, but I’m not sure they have a name… It’s one of those things where you’re taught what it means, but not necc what it’s called. I’ve only really heard them called “upper” and “lower”..
If you’re looking for short but descriptive words that might fit easily on an LCD, perhaps you could use “beats” for the top, and “units” for the bottom.
Thanks guys. I’m pretty familiar with what it all means, just trying to pin down the name.. I can’t get it out of my head that there is a more formal term than upper/lower…
[img width=200]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sF7GLOjfSVM/RzDKdZ39zBI/AAAAAAAAABo/I3-vR8iJ0Xw/s400/IMG_0179.JPG
…Maybe not!
Thanks guys. I’m pretty familiar with what it all means, just trying to pin down the name..
The top number is callled ‘4’
The bottom number is called ‘4’
The music is called ‘techno’, or something
Seriously though, I imagine there would be obscure latin names for these things.
Seriously though, I imagine there would be obscure latin names for these things.
Or Italian… so we’ve got the language the word is in.. that narrows it down heaps. ;]
Okay so it’s a word ending with -us or -o or -i then… we’re getting there 
The top number is callled ‘4’
The bottom number is called ‘4’
The music is called ‘techno’, or something
OMG, I nearly choked. Gold. I will be chuckling at that for weeks.
No answers from another foum I post on… only thing I can see is that the upper number is the “beat” and the lower number is the “note value”
I thought Techno was in 1/4.
Usually the time signature also suggest where accents might lay within a bar. ie, the way 2/4 doesn’t sound the same as 4/4, or the way 3/4 doesn’t sound the same as 6/8.
But if everything is accented, wouldn’t it just be called 1/4?
Heheh it was mostly joke I think 
Yeh ‘techno’ could be lots of time sigs really… But remember it’s not just the drums that define the rhythm…
remember it’s not the drums that define the rhythm…
So african bands, that can’t afford real instruments and have to resort to using bongos only, have no rhythm? Poor africans (yeh I had alter your quote a bit to make it fit)
If it helps any: In german they are called “upper” and “lower” as well, sometimes (seeing how they represent a fraction) “numerator” and “denominator”.
I think I’m going to come up with a name for them, copyright the term and the use and then collect lots of royalties 
I always wanted to do a song about the twin towers in 9/11 time..
LMAO at those last 3 posts!!!
OT: 9:11:4 sounds great. One of my faves.
OMG, I nearly choked. Gold. I will be chuckling at that for weeks.
Thanks. I enjoyed it, too.
Yeah its simply the meter well sort of
4/4 would be called meter
6/8 would be called compound meter
Its kind of a divisible thing
So if the first cant be divided by the second it is compound
Hope that helps anyway
Flexi
To elaborate on what flexi says:
if I reach waaaaaaay back to music school, I remember the top number being commonly called the “beat” and the bottom being called the “meter”..
but I also sorta remember that there really is no official designator for them!
I think that strictly speaking, meter is the sonic (rhythmic) characteristic that is denoted by time signature…
Like you moogah I’ve heard the upper/lower numbers in the time sig referred to as beat/meter… I don’t know if that’s strictly correct, but the one I’m really after is the formal term. … (long pause)
Okay while I was writing this I had a lightbulb-moment, and it ‘clicked’:if the time signature is the scripted notation for meter (as in, if you gotta write down a meter, you use a time signature) then in fact the fractional form we use most commonly, is not the time signature, but only one method of representation of it - as such, the formal terms would be those of any other fraction, ie, numerator and denominator… So rather than googling to search for an answer (which yielded only “upper/lower” and stuff like “the top one” heh) I googled to confirm/deny that answer… And it seems I’m on the money. So:
Numerator and denominator constitute a fraction
The fraction is used as a form of time signature
Time signature denotes meter
OK so now I know what to put in my menus I think there’s an important music theory lesson here… and it’s nothing to do with rhythmic or notational aspects of music… It’s that sometimes theory can be extremely helpful and make you a better musician, or at least be an interesting topic of discussion… and sometimes it can be a waste of time that doesn’t help you write a song any better at all. Educate yourselves in moderation!
Thanks a million for your input guys, this was really racking my brain!
Hahahah lucem was right then
That is what he said you wanted when i originally posted that it was called the meter hahahahaha
Flexi
