Very often we find rhythmic patterns in the music we hear. We are generally able to group the rhythm into beats of 2, 3, or 4.

For example, when we listen to a waltz, we feel the beat pattern as 1, 2, 3.

There are bars of 2, 3, and 4 beats. Although less common, we occasionally find measures of five or seven beats. To indicate measure, we use two things: the time signature of the measure and the bar lines.

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