Music
Types of Musical Time Signature
Types Of Musical Time Signature is a structured music dataset with 15 entries. Its fields include Time Signature, Feel / Name, Common Genre. The source values are preserved as a structured reference table.
Every row is shown below and is also available as CSV, JSON, or Excel.
15rows
5columns
88views
0downloads
Source:Community curated
Updated:3/7/2026
Dataset details
- Table scope
- All 15 rows
- Fields
- 5 columns
- Source
- Community curated
- Data updated
- Mar 7, 2026
Included fields: Time Signature, Feel / Name, Common Genre, Famous Examples, Known For.
The table contains every record in this dataset; the same records are available in each download format.
Preview observations
No reliable range or grouping can be calculated from the loaded rows without interpreting the source data.
Useful for
- Comparing Time Signature, Feel / Name, and Common Genre across music entries
- Building reference tables, charts, or analyses from 15 downloadable records
15/15
Time Signature↕ | Feel / Name↕ | Common Genre↕ | Famous Examples↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
4/4 (Common Time) | Straight, steady, universal | Pop, rock, hip-hop, EDM, country — almost everything | 'Billie Jean' (MJ), 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Lose Yourself' | Used in ~90% of all popular music, the default human groove, so standard it gets a 'C' symbol, heartbeat rhythm |
3/4 (Waltz Time) | Elegant, swaying, ONE-two-three | Waltz, folk, some classical and ballads | 'Blue Danube' (Strauss), 'Tennessee Waltz', 'Hallelujah' (Cohen) | The waltz revolutionized European dance, triple meter felt scandalous in the 1800s (too close!), Christmas carol staple |
6/8 (Compound Duple) | Rolling, swinging, triplet-based | Irish jigs, blues, R&B ballads, marches | 'We Are the Champions' (Queen), 'Norwegian Wood' (Beatles), 'House of the Rising Sun' | Feels like 2 big beats each split in 3, Irish jig rhythm, creates a natural rocking motion, often confused with 3/4 |
2/4 (March Time) | Driving, LEFT-right, LEFT-right | Marches, polka, some Latin music | 'Stars and Stripes Forever' (Sousa), polka standards, samba | Military march tempo, natural walking rhythm, Sousa marches, polka bounce, Brazilian samba's foundation |
5/4 (Quintuple) | Asymmetric, lurching, hypnotic | Progressive jazz, prog rock, film scores | 'Take Five' (Dave Brubeck), 'Mars' (Holst), Mission: Impossible theme | Dave Brubeck made it famous in 1959, feels 'off' to Western ears, Mission: Impossible's tension, mathematically odd |
7/8 (Septuple) | Driving but lopsided, Balkan groove | Balkan folk, prog rock, progressive metal | 'Money' (Pink Floyd), Balkan folk dances, 'Schism' (Tool) | Pink Floyd's 'Money' intro is the most famous 7/8 riff, natural to Balkan dancers, feels like 'short-short-long' groups |
12/8 (Compound Quadruple) | Slow triplet shuffle, blues groove | Blues, doo-wop, slow jams, gospel | 'Oh! Darling' (Beatles), 'At Last' (Etta James), slow blues shuffle | The classic slow blues feel, each of 4 beats divided into 3, doo-wop ballads, gospel power ballads, Etta James grooves |
3/8 (Fast Triple) | Quick, light, dance-like | Baroque dance, scherzo, mazurka | Bach inventions, Chopin mazurkas, classical scherzos | Faster feeling than 3/4, common in Baroque and Classical eras, one-beat-per-bar at fast tempo, light and playful |
9/8 (Compound Triple) | Flowing, triple groups of three | Irish slip jig, classical, prog | 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring' (Bach), Irish slip jigs, 'Blue Rondo à la Turk' | Brubeck's 'Blue Rondo à la Turk' (2+2+2+3 grouping), Irish slip jig dance rhythm, Bach's flowing melodies |
11/8 (Hendecuple) | Extremely asymmetric, complex | Progressive rock/metal, Turkish folk, avant-garde | 'Triad' (Tool), Turkish aksak rhythms, Frank Zappa pieces | Almost impossible to dance to for Westerners, natural in Turkish and Greek folk music, Tool uses it extensively |
2/2 (Cut Time / Alla Breve) | Fast, 2 half-note beats, energetic | Broadway, fast classical, marches, swing | 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' (alternate), Broadway show tunes | Feels like 4/4 at double speed, written with a 'C' with a line through it, Broadway patter songs, conductor beats in 2 |
15/8 | Five groups of three, hypnotic cycle | Progressive rock, world music, experimental | 'Fracture' (King Crimson), some Carnatic music pieces | Robert Fripp (King Crimson) made it iconic, Indian classical rhythmic cycles, deeply mathematical, few pop examples exist |
10/8 (Decuple) | Two groups of 5, or 3+3+2+2 | Afrobeat, progressive jazz, math rock | Fela Kuti grooves, Afrobeat patterns, some Radiohead tracks | Common in West African music, Afrobeat polyrhythms, feels like extended 4/4 with an extra pulse, math rock favorite |
Free Time (No Meter) | Floating, unmeasured, rubato | Gregorian chant, ambient, aleatoric, cadenzas | Gregorian chant, John Cage pieces, concerto cadenzas, Sigur Rós | No time signature at all, performer decides pacing, Gregorian chant predates bar lines, avant-garde and ambient music |
4/4 Polyrhythm (4 over 3) | Two competing pulses create tension | Afro-Cuban, jazz, West African drumming | Afro-Cuban clave patterns, Steve Reich's 'Clapping Music', Tool songs | Foundation of Afro-Cuban music, 3-2 or 2-3 clave, cross-rhythm creates hypnotic grooves, West African drumming traditions |
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