We are going to begin to learn the fundamentals of the system of rhythm notation that has developed over the centuries. This system enables musicians to precisely write down a rhythm so that other musicians can duplicate it. Just as we write down words to precisely communicate thoughts to other people, we can set down HOW much TIME we want someone to give to the sounds they make when playing. 

In order to do this, we had to have some standard of measuring the time, and we have already seen that it is the BEAT. We have learned that the beat is the standard unit of time, and it is measured by the foot going up and down.

Why Is Rhythm Important?

Before we go further, I want to make sure you understand WHY it is important that we give each sound we make it's proper amount of time. Do this: tap your foot to a steady beat and sing "Happy Birthday". Notice a couple of things. When you start, the word "Happy" gets all crammed into the first beat, that is, you say it kind of fast, fitting it into the time it takes for your foot to make it's first trip up and down. Then, on "birthday" each syllable gets it's own beat. "birth" starts on a downbeat, and "day" starts the next time your foot goes down. The word "you" is longer. It gets two trips of your foot, or two beats. 

Now, realize this basic fact. If you changed these relationships around, it you gave, for instance, the first word "Happy" two beats for each of it's syllables, and then "birth" and "day" were crammed into one beat, and "to" and "you" each got, say, 4 beats, well then, it sure wouldn't sound like Happy Birthday!

What is the point? The point is that without the proper time relationships, THERE IS NO HAPPY BIRTHDAY! There may be something else, but it ain't Happy Birthday! If I am the guy that wrote the song, I have to have a way of making sure you do what I intend, I have to make sure you give all the notes their proper time value, and that they are all in the correct relationship to one another.

Note Values

So, how do I tell somebody "make a sound, and hold it for two beats, then make another sound, and make it last one beat, then make a sound for a half a beat, etc"? Well, here is where we will get into some concepts that are USUALLY the starting point for a students introduction to Rhythm. I am going to lay out these concepts, AND I am going to include all the vital understandings that SHOULD go along with them. 

Below, you see what are commonly called "notes". This is what we see when we look at music. Of course, we know they are not notes, because notes are sounds. These are SYMBOLS for notes, and they carry a MEANING along with them, and the meaning is made evident in their names.

Why is that funny little football called a WHOLE NOTE? Well, because it gets a "whole" lot of time. Why is the next one, with the STEM attached, called a HALF NOTE? Because it gets HALF the time that the whole note gets. 

The next one, the QUARTER NOTE, is called a quarter note because it gets one quarter (one fourth) the time of the whole note. The EIGHTH NOTE gets one eighth the time of the whole note. 

Notice, all the note values get their names from their relationship to the WHOLE note. This brings up an understanding that is VITAL to grasping the entire system of rhythm notation, and one that is dreadfully lacking for so many students. 

The note values, whole, half, quarter and eight notes, HAVE NO ABSOLUTE VALUE. They only have a relative value. They are in a PROPORTIONATE RELATIONSHIP TO ONE ANOTHER. 

In other words, when that good ole' method book your teacher started you on tells you "hello budding guitar player, this is a quarter note, it gets one beat", they are LYING to you. True, it's a white lie, they have good intentions. They figure you are not going to understand the real story, so they try to simplify it for you. The problem is, they never bother to explain the real story to you later on! It's like when you were 3 years old and your mother told you never to cross the street unless someone was holding your hand. What if no one ever told you differently as you got older, no one ever updated your belief system. That is a useful and workable attitude when you are 3, but hey, you're gonna look a little funny when you're 25 and still asking people to walk you across the street!

If you were 3 years old, I'd tell you the quarter note gets one beat, but if you were 3 years old, you probably wouldn't be reading this. So here is the real deal. 

What is a Proportionate Relationship?

Imagine you are going to a job interview with 3 of your friends. The boss sees you are obviously more intelligent than your friends, so he says "look, I'll pay you the most money, and your friend John, well, I'll pay him HALF of what I pay you. And your friend Steve, he's not too bright, I'm only going to pay him a QUARTER of what I pay you. And that guy Joe, he's a real dummy, he's only going to get an EIGHTH  of what I pay you."

I think you get the point. Nobody knows HOW MUCH they are making, that would be an ABSOLUTE VALUE. They only know how much they are making in RELATION to each other. That is a RELATIVE VALUE. 

All you know, being the smartest guy there, is you are going to make a WHOLE lot of money, at least more than your friends! Now, your friends are REAL interested in how much you are going to get! They ask you, but all you can say is "I don't know, the boss said he will post on the bulletin board every Friday how much I am making". So next Friday, everyone crowds around the bulletin board, and sees you are making $10 an hour. So, now John knows he is getting $5 an hour, Steve knows he's getting $2.50, and poor old Joe is going home with a buck and a quarter for every hour of his sweat!

The good news is that next week business is better, so you find out you are making $14 an hour, and of course, everyone else is happy for your good fortune! Now, John is making $7.00 and hour, Steve is making $3.50, and old Joe is quite proud of his $1.75!

The Time Signature

Understanding the Time Signature is usually the beginning of the end for most students concept of Rhythm. When they tell you in the beginning " the bottom number tells you what note gets one beat", it means NOTHING, and it can only mean NOTHING without understanding all the stuff I just talked about. 

WHY is it important that the bottom number tells you that? Because the bottom number is the BULLETIN BOARD, and you are the note it is referring to. Just as the bulletin board gave an ABSOLUTE VALUE to one of the people working (so that the others could be figured out), the bottom number of the Time Signature tells the ABSOLUTE VALUE for one of the note values, so that the value of the others can be figured out. 

So, if the Time Signature (which is that fraction, one number on top of another that you always see at the beginning of a piece of music) says 4/4, then that bottom number 4 means "the quarter note (4 stands for quarter) GETS ONE BEAT. Now you know, the HALF NOTE gets two beats, because the rule is the HALF NOTE always gets double what the quarter note gets, just like you are always going to get double the pay that John gets, and he is always going to get HALF the pay you get. 

And so on with the other note values. If the QUARTER NOTE get one beat, the WHOLE NOTE gets 4 beats, and the EIGHTH note gets 1/2 of a beat.

If however, you see this Time Signature, 6/8, where an 8 is on the bottom, then, all bets are off, we have a new ballgame. Now, the EIGHTH note gets one beat, and QUARTERS get TWO beats!

Every time you see an EIGHTH note, you have to make it last for the full trip of your foot. If you have spent a whole year treating QUARTER NOTES that way, (as many students learning to read do) AND believing that QUARTER NOTES had some God given right to a whole beat, then you are going to have trouble relating to the new system! And that is exactly what happens for many unfortunate students. Now, of course, you don't have to be one of them!

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Lesson Review

Key Understandings:

 Note Values: The Note Values, Whole, Half, Quarter, and Eighth notes, tell us how much time to give to each note. They have no ABSOLUTE VALUE, but only a RELATIVE TIME VALUE.

Time Signature: Two numbers, in fraction form, appearing at the beginning of a piece of music. The bottom number tells us WHICH OF THE NOTE VALUES GETS ONE BEAT, so we can figure out how much time the others get using the PROPORTIONATE RELATIONSHIP that exists between them