Provided below is one example in my own words of how to use a time signature. In addition to reading this post, I suggest doing a search on the Internet for time signatures.
All sheet music has a time signature. A time signature provides the timing at which the song is to be played.
Take Amazing Grace for example. This song is in 3 / 4 time (pronounced "three four time"). This time signature means the quarter note (4) gets three counts (3) per measure. Count "1-2-3" equally spaced out, over and over again. Each "1-2-3" is one measure. Amazing Grace looks like this, with each line being one measure and each count in parenthesis right before the corresponding lyric:
(3)A
(1)ma(2)...(3)zing
(1)grace(2)...(3)how
(1)sweet(2)...(3)the
(1)sound(2)...(3)that
(1)saved(2)...(3)a
(1)wretch(2)...(3)like
(1)me(2)(3)
(1)(2)...(3)I
(1)once(2)...(3)was
(1)lost, (2)...(3)but
(1)now(2)...(3)am
(1)found, (2)...(3)was
(1)blind, (2)...(3)but
(1)now(2)...(3)I
(1)see(2) (3) (1).
If you don't have a drummer, imagine each count as being a tap on the hi-hat. Feel the cadence. Play the song in its proper time signature at first. Once you feel the cadence and are comfortable with it, then you can jazz it up with different rhythms and timings.
