Q: what the fuck is a time signature and how do i read and write their expressions
A: i guess 90% of the game here is realizing that the most common time signature is 4/4, also sometimes written as 'C'. This means there are 4 beats per bar. if you already have an understanding of beats and bars, then i can go ahead and explain how the number system works (which, again, is really only important about 10% of the time, because most of the time it's just 4/4 and you don't have to worry about it). But if you don't know what beats and bars are, then i'd have to start there. There is a mathematical explanation of how the time-signature system works, and it's good to understand that, but, there's also some ways that it's used that are more like a societal standard and not so much just math. The way the number system is supposed to work is, the top number is how many beats there are in a bar (4) and the bottom number is what note gets one beat. So for example, 4/4 (written on paper with the first number directly on top of the second number) means there's 4 beats per bar, and a quarter note gets one beat. 7/8 should mean there are 7 beats per bar, and an 8th note gets one beat. But actually, the second half of those statements is kind of shaky, because, for example, in a time signature like 6/8, which is extremely common, it would be like "6 beats per bar, and an 8th note gets 1 beat" but in many cases 6/8 is really felt more like 2 beats per bar and a dotted quarter gets one beat (which is mathematically equivalent, but no one writes dots in timesignatures). But, one thing that remains certain, it still correctly describes the bar length. So it would always be accurate to say, for 6/8 for example, there are 6 8th notes per bar. In 4/4, there are 4 quarter notes per bar. in 11/16, there are 11 16th notes per bar. This way of describing it will always be correct. in 3/4, there are 3 quarter notes per bar. in 2/2, there are two half notes per bar