Rhythm
If you think of a song you are familiar with, you can probably clap it. It won’t sound like the[Are_PayPal_LoginPlease] song because the sounds won’t be high or low, yet the timing you have between each clap will remind you of that song. This is rhythm. A pattern of tones of various duration.
As said on the webpage before this one, tones have a certain duration. We measure this duration in beats. Therefore, one note could have 1 beat, another note could have 2 beats, and another note could have 1/2 a beat. Beats by themselves make a fine measurement. The problem is, how long is a beat? We decide how long a beat is by how often it occurs in a minute. We can have 40 beats a minute(bpm) which would make each beat 1/40th of a minute. We can also have 60 beats a minute(bpm) which would make each beat one second long. We can also have 120bpm, 180bpm, or 200bpm. The number of beats per minute(bpm) is often shown in the upper left above the music. After looking at this number, we know how long a beat is, we know how long each note should take. Then it’s only a matter of practice.
Yet, how do we know for absolute certain what 180bpm is like? We know in knowledge, but can we apply it? We can by the use of a tool called a Metronome. A metronome is a tool that can be set to different beats per minute for practice. After the beat per minute is set, the metronome makes a sound every beat. We can tap our feet to each sound or clap to each sound to help us apply that bpm speed. Along the same lines, we can use a ticking clock as a metronome for the speed of 60 beats per minute(bpm).
I can’t read it – I need it bigger
As noticed above, just past the clef, which tells us how high or low the notes are, and the key signature, which tells us how to change or keep the pitch of the notes, there is a fraction or a letter -c- that tells us rhythm information. The fraction is often 3/4, 4/4, or 6/8.
The time signature is simply this:
the top number is the number of beats from one vertical line to the next vertical line. the bottom number tells us which note is worth one beat.
[/Are_PayPal_LoginPlease]