Explanation of The Time Signature: 4/4 and 6/8 meter

Rhythm And Meter
In music, we keep time by using a time signature. It is also called time, as in 6/8 time or 3/4 time. The time signature looks like a fraction, as indicated below:

4
-
4


The upper number indicates the no. of beats to a measure.
The lower number represents the note value (for instance, in 4/4 meter, each quarter note will be one beat in 4/4)

Note: 4/4 meter is also designated sometimes with a "C" symbol instead of the usual "4/4" fraction.
This symbol is called common time, so called because most of the time, 4/4 meter is the most prevalent of all other meters.

Here is another example of a time signature:

6
-
8


This means that there are beats to a measure (upper number, "6"), and each eighth note (lower number, "8"), receives one beat.