Rhythm Notation - Tremolo Lesson 11

Playing music requires a tune repertoire. A fast way to learn tunes is to read them, Asian music notation is a simple means for this. Earlier lessons showed the numbering scheme for notes. Now we add the notation for rhythm.

Music is organised into equal length note groups called bars. Listen to the track below

Notice how the beats are in groups of 4. Each group is a bar, on the track a different tone indicates the starting beat. This is a common musical form, called 4/4 time. The notation is

Now play 2 bars with this rhythm, where each beat is a 1 note (a C). It sounds like this.

The notation for is

Now play two bars again, this time with one note per beat in the first bar, two notes per beat in the second bar. It sounds like this.

The notation is

The first bar has 4 notes, one for each beat. These are called crotchets, or quarter notes. The second bar has 8 notes, two for each beat. These are called quavers or eighth notes, indicated by a line underneath, as the notation shows.

Now play the two bars a final time, again with one note per beat in the first bar, then 4 notes per beat in the second bar. It sounds like this.

The notation is

When 4 notes are played per beat they are called semi-quavers or 16th notes, and are indicated by two lines under the note, as shown above.

The music for this lesson is hardly exciting. However the ability to read and understand rhythm is essential. It leads to better things.

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