What indicates the number of beats in each measure and the kind of note that receives one beat?

Answer 1

time signature

Answer 2

How many beats are in each note varies depending on the time signature. The time signature is the numerical fraction you will see at the left edge of the bar at the beginning of each piece of music. There are different lengths of notes, from a fraction of a beat to lasting the entire measure.

For example, if the time signature is 4/4, that means there are 4 beats in each measure (determined by the numerator) and a quarter note is assigned to each beat (determined by the denominator). So each note can theoretically represent any number of beats and vice versa. This is all determined by the composer to best represent the style or emotion that is desired for each section of music, as a composer can assign as many time signatures as they want for each composition.

Now, let's go to the 2nd part of your question about how the notes look.

1. A whole note which represents an entire measure, looks like a horizontal oval like a 0 turned on its side.

2. A half note, worth one half of a whole note looks like a small circle with a stick pointing up and attached to the side.

3. A quarter note, worth one quarter of a whole note and one half of a half note (getting the idea here?) Looks like a large dot with that same stick attached to the side.

4. An 8th note looks just like a quarter note except at the top of the stick there is a small hashmark or "flag" attached to the top of it and pointing to the right and down.

5. A 16th note looks just like an 8th note it to except it has 2 flags. Further subdivisions such as 32nd notes and so on continue down this line of adding a flag for each new half value.

Answer 3

Depends on what kind of note it is and there is no seconds that you are supposed to wait. It all depends on the time signature of the piece.