Forum: music.stackexchange.com
Tags: <guitar><theory><drums><time-signatures><tempo>
Title: What do these numbers at the start of the music score mean
Question: At the start of a guitar or drum score , there are always these 2 numbers which I don't understand    What do the 2 numbers circled in  red  mean ??

Answers:
sents: text: I'm guessing this is from guitar tab, with 6 lines.
text: The 6/8 really means 2 beats per bar, made up with 3 triplet quavers (1/8 notes).
text: This will give each bar only 2 beats, despite numbers like 6 and 8.The tempo mark found above tells how many b.p.m.
text: (beats per minute)
text: the tune should be played at, In this case, 107.
text: A metronome can be set to this, and every two clicks will represent a full bar.
text: This information is very basic, and could have been found with a few second's looking on thousands of websites.
text: Guitar tab will rarely have the time signature, so maybe this is drum music.
text: The time sig.
text: will always be present on staves with 'proper' music.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/2808/Tim
score: 8
sents: text: The 107 defines the tempo(speed) of the song.
text: If you see a metronome, you'll see that you can determine the speed.
text: The speed of the specific song is 107 bpm (beats per minute).
text: Also, you can see that the duration of the note is a quarter.
text: That means that if you set your metronome at 107 bpm, every tic would be a quarter.
text: So, the correct name for this would be '107 crotchet (or quarter) per minutes' The 6/8 is the time signature of the song.
text: It determines how many beats are in each bar and which note value constitutes one beat.
text: These don't just appear at the start of a guitar or drum score; they appear at the beginning of every score/song/exercise/whatever.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/7356/Shevliaskovic
score: 7
sents: text: Here's a way for you to know how to understand time signatures.
text: The folks above have done a fine job explaining this, but you should know how to read all time signatures and what these things really mean.
text: The first number above, the '107' is the beats per minute.
text: This refers to the tempo, if you play with a metronome, you should set it at that value in order to play it at the speed that the composer intended it to be played at.
text: The other 2 numbers that are on top of each other refers to the time signatures.(6/8)
text: the note on top refers to the number of beats per measure and the number below refers to which note value gets the beat.
text: So in the case of 6/8, there are 6 beats per measure where the 8th note gets the beat.
text: If your time signature is 3/4
text: you have 3 beats per measure and the quarter note gets the beat.
text: If you have 4/4, you have 4 beats per measure and again the quarter note gets the beat and so forth.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/9131/MrTheBard
score: 3
sents: text: The bottom number in the fraction is unit for counting the "tics".
text: The top number indicates that there are 6 tics (or 8th notes) in one measure.
text: To set the speed.
text: The top indication tells you that there are 107 quarter notes (or 214 8th notes) per minutes.
text: This serves to set your drum computer or metronome.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/7287/dorien
score: 2
sents: text: plain 'gets the beat' is essentially that value of the note by which the time signature and rhythm are measured.
text: So again to recap, the top number is the number of beats per measure and the bottom note (the one that gets the beat) is the value of the notes
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/9490/wefwfwf
score: 2
sents: text: The 107 on top of the score is the tempo or as it is referred to, beats per minute ( BPM ).
text: The BPM is relatively known as the speed at which the song goes at.
text: The second set of numbers ( 6/8 ) is known as the time signature or the meter signature or the measure signature.
text: There are 4 main types of time signatures.
text: Simple ( 4/4 ) compound ( 9/8, 12/8 ) complex ( 5/4 ) mixed ( 13/16 & 4/4 or 5/8 & 3/8 ) and additive ( 3+2+3/8 )
text: , it shows you at which how many beats are in each bar over what note gets the beat or the value of tones.
text: So say if the time signature was of a common bottom value; the most common bottom values include 4, 8, 16, 32.
text: so a good example would be anything from 4/4 or 2/4
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/31374/Qeiner
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
At the start of a guitar or drum score , there are always 2 numbers, the top number is the number of beats per measure and the bottom note (the one that gets the beat) is the value of the notes.
The bottom number in the fraction is the unit for counting the beats and the top number tells you how many beats are in a bar. The top number tells you that there are 107 quarter notes per minute.