Time Signature Worksheet: Simple and Compound Time

About the Time Signature Worksheet

The Time signature worksheet is a free, printable practice sheet for reading time signatures. It gives you bars to name, time signatures to classify as simple or compound, and pairs of meters to compare. It runs in your web browser with no sign-up, and nothing you enter is uploaded.

You can set the difficulty, choose simple, compound or mixed meter, and pick the task. Each sheet comes with an answer key that you can show on screen or print. The worksheet suits students learning rhythm and notation, and teachers who need a quick set of questions for a lesson.

How to use the Time signature worksheet

Pick a Difficulty: easy, medium or hard.
Open the Metre menu and choose Simple time, Compound time, or Simple and compound mixed. The default is simple.
Open the Task menu and choose Mixed, Name the time signature of a bar, Classify a time signature, or Compare two time signatures. The default is mixed.
Choose 10 or 20 in the Questions menu.
Press New worksheet.
Work through the questions. To name a signature from a bar, add up the note values and count how many beat notes fit. The question tells you whether the bar is simple or compound.
To classify a signature, check the top number. If it is 6, 9 or 12, the time is compound; otherwise it is simple. Then decide how many beats the bar has.
Press Show answers to check your work, or press Print to get the answer page.

Printing gives page 1 with the questions and page 2 with the answer key. A4 and US Letter both work, and the sheet has Name, Date and Score lines. Each sheet has its own Sheet # number, and the page address keeps your settings and that number (after ?seed=). Open or share that address to use the same sheet again.

Start on easy with the Metre set to simple time, then move to compound or mixed once the top-number rule feels automatic. Practise one skill at a time with the Task menu.

How can I tell simple time from compound time?#

Look at the top number. If it is 6, 9 or 12, the time is compound; otherwise it is simple. In compound time each beat is a dotted note split into three, and in simple time each beat splits into two.

By this rule 6/8 is compound, and 6/4 is also counted as compound. The rule also makes 3/8 and 3/2 simple triple, so 3/8 is classed as simple even though it is often felt as one beat per bar at fast tempos.

What do duple, triple and quadruple mean?#

These words describe how many beats are in a bar: two for duple, three for triple and four for quadruple. For simple time the top number gives the beats directly. For compound time, divide the top number by 3, so 6 gives two beats, 9 gives three and 12 gives four.

This means 6/8 is compound duple, 9/8 is compound triple and 12/8 is compound quadruple.

Why does the bar task say whether the bar is simple or compound?#

Different signatures can produce bars of the same length. For example, 3/4 and 6/8 both last three quarter notes, and 4/4 and 2/2 both last four. A bar of notes alone cannot tell these apart, so the question states whether the bar is simple or compound. For this reason, the 4/4 and 2/2 pair is never used when you are asked to name a bar.

What do the top and bottom numbers of a time signature mean?#

The top number tells you how many beats are in a bar. The bottom number names the note value that gets one beat: 2 is a half note, 4 a quarter note, 8 an eighth note and 16 a sixteenth note. In 3/4, a bar has three beats and each beat is a quarter note.

To read the top number:

If it is 2, 3 or 4, the time is simple. Each beat splits into two smaller notes.
If it is 6, 9 or 12, the time is compound. Divide the top number by 3 to get the number of beats, and each beat is a dotted note split into three. So 6/8 has two beats, each a dotted quarter note.

Some examples:

4/4 is simple quadruple, with four quarter-note beats.
9/8 is compound triple, with three dotted-quarter beats.
3/8 is simple triple by this rule, even though at fast tempos it is often felt as one beat per bar.

Frequently asked questions

Can I print it with the answers?

Yes. Printing gives page 1 with the questions and page 2 with the answer key. A4 and US Letter both work, and the sheet includes Name, Date and Score lines.

Is 3/8 simple or compound?

On this worksheet 3/8 is simple triple, with three beats per bar and an eighth note as each beat. The top-number rule classes it as simple because the top number is 3.

Which difficulty should I choose?

Easy uses 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 and 9/8 for naming a bar, with 2/2 and 12/8 added for classifying and comparing. Medium adds 12/8 bars, plus 3/8, 3/2 and 6/4 for classifying and comparing. Hard adds 3/8 and 3/2 bars for naming, and 4/2, 4/8, 9/4, 6/16, 9/16 and 12/16 for classifying and comparing.

How do I open the same sheet again?

Each sheet has a Sheet # number, and the page address keeps your settings and that number after ?seed=. Open that address again to get the same sheet, or send it to someone else.

Is it free and does it need an account?

Yes. The worksheet runs in your web browser for free, and you do not need to sign up. Nothing you enter is uploaded.

Can I give a whole class the same worksheet?

Yes. Choose your settings, press New worksheet, then press Print. Page 1 has the questions for students, and page 2 has the answer key for you. To share a digital copy, send the page link. It keeps the sheet number, so anyone who opens it gets the same sheet and answer key.

Time signature worksheet