time signature

Music Theory for Dummiesを読んでいます。
The pair of numbers is called the time signature, which incidentally, is the main topic of this chapter. The time signature tells you two things:
*The number of beats in each measure:...
*Which note gets one beat:...
"time signature" は拍子ですね。具体的な拍子を示す、3/4, 4/4, 6/8（/は楽譜上では実際は水平の―でその上下に数値が書かれている）はそれぞれ "three-four time", "four-four time", "six-eight time" と読むそうです。
"time" の他に "meter" を使う例も後で次の様に出て来ました。
Up until now, you've had to follow the rule that says 4/4 meter has four beats to every measure.