Time Signature Switches

If a musician is working with a piece of music that prints a certain time signature at the beginning of the piece, but all of a sudden changes in the middle of the piece, this post explains what to do when you see the switch of the time signature.

Let's say you are working with a piece of music in C major, and the time signature starts with 4/4; you start with a couple of measures with quarter notes in the first measure, and a whole in measure two.

Let's pretend that you are playing well into your music and you come across a time signature switch like this one in 3/4.

When you see a time signature switch like the one in 3/4, this means to immediately switch the beat counts to the given time signature; meaning, if you start with the 4/4 time signature at the beginning of the piece and then have a switch to three beats per measure now in the 3/4 time signature, the composer or songwriter has to write the music in that time signature until they have the choice to either finish the music in 3/4 or switch the time signature back to 4/4.

A lot of music out there works with only one time signature at a time lasting throughout the entire piece, but there are those composers out there that like to change things up once in a while. These switches make for great music to be heard, but sometimes a little nerve wracking for musicians when they least expect it.