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The time signature appears at the beginning of a piece of music, right after the Key Signature. Unlike the key signature, which is on every staff, the time signature will not appear again in the music unless the meter changes. The Meter of a piece of music is its basic rhythm; the time signature is the symbol that tells you the meter of the piece and how (with what type of Duration: Note Lengths in Written Music) it is written.
![media/image48.png](http://www.opentextbooks.org.hk/system/files/resource/2/2180/2206/media/image48.png)
Figure 1.45 The time signature appears at the beginning of the piece of music, right after the clef symbol and key signature.
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