4/4, 3/4, and 6/8 in Practice
A time signature on paper is just two numbers, but in practice it's what actually decides where the hand swings and where the accent lands. The difference between 4/4, 3/4, and 6/8 is audible and physical once you work through them as a count out loud on the guitar, not as theory.
4/4 - four even beats
The most common time signature in popular music: four equal beats per bar, counted '1-2-3-4'. The accent naturally falls on beat one - that's the easiest beat to hear in any familiar song if you count bars off it.
3/4 - the waltz count
Three beats per bar instead of four, counted '1-2-3' with the accent on beat one - a distinctive sway that's instantly recognizable by ear (the classic example is a waltz). On guitar, 3/4 often gets confused with 4/4 if you strum on autopilot in even fours - the difference becomes clear once you deliberately count to three instead of four.
6/8 - six beats that feel like two
6/8 is formally counted in six, but by ear and in the hands it reads as two large groups of three - '1-2-3-4-5-6' with accents on 1 and 4. That feeling of 'two big pushes, not six small ones' is what distinguishes 6/8 from simply counting six beats at a 3/4-like tempo.
How to hear the time signature in an unfamiliar song
Your foot usually finds the pulse, not necessarily beat one. First lock onto an even pulse, then use recurring accents, harmony changes, or the drum pattern to identify the downbeat. Count from one confirmed bar opening to the next: four suggests 4/4, three suggests 3/4, and two large groups of three suggest 6/8.
Why this actually matters in practice
The time signature decides where a strumming pattern naturally puts its accent and where a chord change logically fits (see the article on changing chords inside a strumming pattern) - a pattern that sounds great in 4/4 almost never transfers directly to 3/4 or 6/8 unchanged, precisely because the accents and the hand's anchor points sit in different places within the bar.
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