It’s a good idea to watch the video before or along with this blog as it will emphasise many of the key points in this blog.
In the notation diagram below you will see the Whole note called the “Semibreve” this is worth four beats or four 1/4 notes.
We will now cut this in half and have two “Minims” or two half notes per semibreve.
Now we will have four 1/4 notes called “Crotchets” per Semibreve
The next rhythmic division is the 1/8th note called a “Quaver”
They are more commonly grouped and counted like this
The doubling of the 1/8th note gives us the 16th note called a “Semiquaver”
Semiquavers [16ths] are more commonly seen and counted like this
Lastly we will add “Triplets” to our Basic Rhythms. These are 3 notes played over one 1/4 note beat
More commonly counted as:
When setting out to write down music we apply a “Time Signature” in order to acknowledge how many beats there are per bar.
Here we have “Three” 1/4 note beats per bar
Now we have ‘Six Eighth” notes per bar displayed by the 6/8 time signature
Now let’s apply this to the Scale that we learnt in the previous blog/video “How to read music part 1”
SYNCOPATION: Syncopated Common Rhythms
Some rhythms are tied as we see below: This makes them syncopated as we start “On” the beat and then accent the “Off-beat”.
The above rhythm is more commonly written like this:
SYNCOPATED RHYTHM NUMBER 2:
The other very common syncopated rhythm is this:
Again, notice the tied notes. This means that the 2nd “On” beat is not played but the “And” Off-Beat is played. It is more commonly written like this:
Now let’s apply these two common syncopated rhythms to our “Triads” from our previous blog/video lesson on how to read music
The first Rhythm with triad melody:
The second Rhythm with triad melody:
Okay, that’s the end of part 2 on “How to Read Music Rhythms and Notation”.
If you found this useful then it is a good idea to look at “How to Read Music” part 1 Blog and Video.[ Also, the Video is on Youtube and it covers the Scale/Triads notation].
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