by Timothy Cummings THEORETICALLY SPEAKING: The Signature of Time HLAVE been tesching private lessons on the pipes and osher instruments forclase 10 30year ove Those of youho hove done any etching for adecade or mor: can tanderstand my experience hat every stent is aniqee, and bags new combination of strengths and weakesss. Itstobe expected Its agood thing, But there has been one ‘weakness’ that the ast majority of sudets of mine have consitenty need help with: decoding time signarues (or mee signatures), beth the op and hortom numbers, but especially the bot: tom. Preity mach dic unly exceptions to this rule hare been thos: who previously studied music theory and are advanced pliyereofother insraments, have ven seen thicken the snmoarofthos playing in Grae | pipe bands ren afer having studied the pane for 10 years andthe pipes foreight—allthewhileus Ingrriven music forbeth-[ myslfnevr filly tandestod time signature and ehythen unl ot eped.ino plying handel a my fathers ‘hatch agi that ned very feted nt ing, Taking «music theory le adjoining « wind rsemblesonnthereaerseiled the del, “Tobe er ite not enentel to havea fll and pero undertanding of tne signatresin ondertopmdace gat mic. Hos Fede Pal McCarey. Jimi Hendrix and Fric Chpron lraeallconfencd to bing unable to cd sic. uc having this uedersapding can surly hel portclary if ron wer already heme ing undeniable signs of musical gers fiom 2 very young and tender age. (And Tr willing tober the frementonedgenise migh have benefit x asain i rom thisknowlegge fam timeto time) ‘Time signater ae nat eve ging to ge crate eye-popping beailine inthe pape, ror tens of milions of Heo on ie glowing sere but the god news istat they te gen indy useful and uncomplicated. Famixising yosrelfwah thor will despnyourmascaly Hive [convinced you to taea dost lok then? OF course I have, so now consider the faneyfnted number below. Canyer dere, precisely whit ac ofthose umber issigny- ing when # comes to writes mii? SS lfyourelikemostof my stadenes, yo might offs the she top mer his do with how many beat arina br, And youd be cores Burbeforeaskyeu aboutth: boom number, dha you know wht ‘heats in 2 a? efoto Probus bur ee me Belp flesh i ou est i sare. When matic thorns refer tothe bea tweare refering to stongerdythmic pues in the music that we ae expetiencing, For our purposes, this generally translates to a basic foot up o feottep you ase marching. A bar (or measure in Ameriar-speck), ees 9 2 sonsitnt section of mic. Hye allow me ‘osompucabar of musica picket Fenesdhe barisal othe enciagin beeen the support pots and he are ee the pot themeces, In his naouy ach picks, overt board represents best. Atime signature with a top number of 2 therefore means that there will be two tvenly-spaced pickets between each post. to cvcl-xpac fant eaps within cach br. Fas; pas: ut do you remember what che Btn an refer to? This gustion normally slicitsvome Insecure guess downFingal's [quickstep] H trad, Scottish ok; ats a= ye 4 oe Pas ° ° utes fF rortter ‘Theborom number = 4 ia ths cate, elle crtcher but tha fare noe at all obvious toa obras in each segment of sis, oro as what ype of ate what eytumic value youraveragestudens of rus. Att lance, plies in each bar ewo picks betwee cach being snigaad ockebeat Fo the top the mumber 4 and che word ‘oicke? have Fane pts And i the riche, or gear number oF the ime satire, we know haw abst pthing common, What iedighiy note, thats geting the best we comtinne fiequenly wee apping che bea; but wat, mere obvious isha ia the US, dha: Loom he impertect fence arb, the might be xsl, ae we upping our foot 192 Each 4 commaponde 10 a quarter ace, «note that comparable to. plat thats 1/4 ofthe wih ‘wuiver er each crtcht, or each minim, or makes 4ofawholeaeteorsemibiev,in of ene he wide picket snes arable romthing che! Betish plane. Iuhebottons sumber were biota to tote ha hie 2/4 BAR N‘ure (ofien allel tnewe} isalo aru. You cannot, by decree ft de ordinary croches be quarternetesint abarf te ime signee cals fortwo, Fortis fence design, thereient room far three pickets hetween the nce past, you pron enecrorchet in that space then there wlllea gp in the fence and all of your shesp wllescpe, tthe rain of you and your family. your fence design imply must have three pickets beween the posts if your une tandenably hs three seone pulses er miscel segment, chen youl eter change the rule 50 thar the top rumberisa 2. yout free design calle Fr wider ce arrower picket, then wel need to change bottom sumber — normally vw a pres of two: 2, Bor 16, fr example Remember that wee dealing wih fractions in a ayvand tate bigger the boom punube, ‘heshortr the rote duration. Hers another very important note: time signaares dont cay have anything todo with tempo though they somtimes cn give an ini ‘ialimpresson of speed. Technically speaking, time sgnaturce ae all about the organisation ‘of beat and beat groupings. tn ix mone basic nudea sense, the word tempo ~ alan for time —has ta da wits hove ft youre moving alongside the fence and is pickets. Are you ‘caving on your kness, walking modensely fst, jogging, oF rding stop a galloping sheep? “Thats what tempo i gsnealy about, not che timesignature. 2/4 can beackingly slow, mod. ccately paced, Mich? or anything is beoween. “To fartber ctf. youhare te same exact inelady writen out in thie diferent metres “one in 2/4 anther in 212 and snether in £2152 they walla different on the pags batchey wllall wad and fd the same ifthe indicated tempos these (6 bats per rinute). Whether the best noteie« emechet sninimordonbsom goons ‘convention, whidh mayulimtey be bused on ow clearandeay itis to readonthe page. We Pipers ne far more used to reading quickseps in 214, And quckseps may be nested that sway bests, for example, witng i in 2192 mis moreon ‘roll be cumbersome to sad te pale notes would be demi-semi-quavers, of 32nd-n01s, ceich having ari of fags or bars, The fter runswithin the tune would hen rquiehemi- ¢demisemi-quivers and reni-hem-demi-semi- squvers (6ith and 128th note) sequin four tnd veflags or beams per note, Unimatdy that ‘vould sul inate fur mes as mach nkas the 2/4 vesion, malnga pag of msicmach more viully chitesd. Sars, you could dso wt thesameture oat na 2i4metreinwhich the semibreve hole soe) gts eben but hat, right give the iia impression. visll that, thicarmuch dower ne, The beat groapings sould thr be es inal apparent 20. (Oncfina note:ifyoutheught dhe mentions of sheep in this ancl were inane and un scconaty ewer, youll be ght, But you may nonethdess appreciate the following according 19 Googles dictionary the erigins ofthe word ‘grata’ (asin tine signa), include sgaatant, a lte-Lain tenn once wed to rer to she markings on sheep. @