Simple and Compound Meters

 

Meters are characterized as "simple" if they have duple division and "compound" if they have triple division.

 
 

Simple Meters

In these examples, the primary accent on the downbeat is shown in bold type.

In quadruple meter, or "four-four-time," there is also a lighter secondary accent on the third beat.
   

Click here for examples of Compound Meter.