Tell me what you want, what you really really want (Spice Girls - "Wanabee")
sock-it-to-me, sock-it-to-me, sock-it-to-me, sock-it-to-me
(Aretha Franklin's backup singers on "Respect")
Yeah, That's the Ticket (Jon Lovitz's "liar" character from "Saturday Night Live")
Can you hear any of these phrases in your mind? I'm hoping that at least one of them is familiar to you. Each of them has a certain rhythm to it. The first two are from popular songs and the rhythm can be notated using standard notation. The third phrase from above isn't from a song, yet it needs a specific rhythmic delivery in order to be effective. Those of you who were watching Saturday Night Live during Jon Lovitz's run on the show know how the "Yeah, That's the Ticket" phrase should go.
All together now: " Yeaaaahhhhh, that's the ticket!"
Say these phrases aloud. Listen to the rhythm of the words
The Tennessee Valley Authority
Sacramento State University
If I was to tell you the city I live in, I would say "I live in Santa Clara". Say it out loud.. Again. . . Say it over and over several times until it becomes a repetitive rhythmic phrase. These rhythmic patterns in speech can be used to help understand rhythmic notation. We will revisit some of these phrases later on in this lecture.
Note Values in standard notation
In order to incorporate rhythm into the notation system we must change the look of the note on the page to reflect its duration. Until now, the notes possessed only a notehead. There are more elements to the rhythmic portion of the notation system. Some notes have addtional attachments called stems, dots, flags and/or beams. This new stuff tells us the duration of the note (we already know the pitch of the note). Take a look at the different elements shown below.
Not all notes have these attachments, some are just the way we've been using them in the first few chapters. You will notice that we have been using "whole notes" in most of our examples. Here is a list of several more note values.
The notes are related to one another with regard to duration. Notice that the names of the notes tell us the proportional relationship with regard to the whole note. A half note is half the duration of a whole note. It takes four quarter notes in a row to last the time that a single whole note lasts. Do you see how this works? All of the different note durations are related to the others in some set proportion. The eighth note is twice the duration of a sixteenth note but only half as long as a quarter note. Notice that note values are relational and not tied to any set length of time. In other words a quarter note is not required to have any specific length of time. However once you decide on the duration of a quarter note, an eighth note will always be half of that duration. A half note will be twice the duration of the quarter note. Here are a couple of short examples.
Here's the beginning of the tune 'Jingle Bells'.
How about this Rock Anthem by the group Queen.
Although it is not nearly as common as a (single) dotted note value, a second dot can be added to a note, that second dot will add 25% of the original (undotted) value to the note. With 2 dots a note will increase its duration by 75%.
Each note value has a corresponding "rest" which is the music notation for a duration of silence.
The dot (and double dots) can also be used with rests. The dot has the same effect with rests as with notes; it lengthens the duration of the silence.
With these different note values and rests we can create countless different rhythms. By stringing together several different note values and rests we can notate the rhythmic element of music.However, in order to help make all of this a little easier to read there is another part to rhythmic notation. It is called "Meter", and it is used to further organize rhythms in music. We use a "Time Signature" to indicate the meter. A time signature consists of two numbers, one above the other. The top number indicates the amount of counts in one measure. The bottom number indicates the type of note value that will receive one count. Vertical lines, called barlines, are drawn in the music to separate the note values into measures.
Here are a few examples of time signatures and simple rhythms.
Most music is set within a rhythmic framework. We refer to this rhythmic framework as the Meter of a piece of music. The concept of meter allows us to organize the rhythmic element of music. Music can be subcatagorized with regard to its meter. For instance a Waltz is a 3 beat meter, most Marches are a 2 beat meter, and much of Rock & Roll is in a 4 beat meter. When you listen to music you can usually hear a steady pulse that might not necessarily be played explicitly, but it is definitely perceptable. Maybe you tap your foot, or bob your head to that pulse. Dancers react to the pulse with their moves.
Not only is there a pulse to most music, there are notes of a variety of durations, short notes, long notes, etc. If we subdivide the pulse into two equal parts we are, by definition, in a simple meter. It doesn't matter how many counts are in the meter, if the pulse is divided into two equal parts to create faster rhythms then it is a simple meter. It isn't necessarily a simple rhythm, quite the contrary, a simple meter can be used to create very complicated rhythms. The term 'simple meter' refers to the two part subdivision and it is in contrast to compound meter discussed below.
Here are a few simple meters:
If the eighth note is the beat then the sixteenth note will be a 2-part subdivision of the beat.
If the quarter note is the beat then the eighth note will be a 2-part subdivision of the beat.
If the half note is the beat then the quarter note will be a 2-part subdivision of the beat.
In a compound meter, a dotted note is used for the pulse and then the next faster note value becomes the three part subdivision.
The following meters use the dotted eighth note as the beat and the sixteenth note as the 3-part subdivision.
The following meters use the dotted quarter note as the beat and the eighth note as the 3-part subdivision.
The following meters use the dotted half note as the beat and the quarter note as the 3-part subdivision.
If you are in a compound meter such as 6/8, you can create a two part subdivision by notating a doublet.
Although rhythm and pitch work together to create melody, it is useful to isolate the rhythmic element for eartraining purposes. Below is a list of rhythms that you should try to understand and memorize. By studying these basic rhythms you will improve your ability to read any music notation. These rhythms are found at the following links. Listen to the associated audio file as you look at the notation file.
Since the next phrase is not set to a pulse, it could be interpreted differently than shown below. This is only one of several ways of notating the phrase.
Q. What note value is used throughout the final string line of the MIDI example?
A. Sixteenth notes, a long string of sixteenth notes.
In the Quizzes area you can take Test 5 (Note Values) and Test 6 (Meter).
Links to worksheets
Below are several time signatures followed by a single note value or rest. Determine the number of counts that note value or rest will received within the context of the given time signature. Use the answer menu (currently set to "select") to select the correct answer.
