A series of notes in ascending or descending order that presents the pitches of a key or mode, beginning and ending on the tonic of that key or mode. The degrees of a scale have specific names shown below and each of the unique 12 notes of the chromatic scale can be the tonic note of a scale.
Degrees of a Scale
1 - tonic
2 - supertonic
3 - mediant
4 - subdominant
5 - dominant
6 - Submediant - superdominant
7 - Leading Note - Subtonic
Rhythmic Notation by Andrew PouskaIn standard music notation, time is notated from left to right. In this lesson I will explain the basics of rhythmic notation and then show you some applied examples. Rhythm is very important to study since bass is a rhythm instrument. Understanding rhythmic notation is essential to learning and studying rhythm. The Beat Music is based in time. Most music has a steady, recurring pulse calledthe beat. It’s the steady rhythm to which you want to tap your foot or dance. Think of any music you’ve heard in a dance club and you can quickly imagine the beat of the music. The element of time in a piece of music revolves around the beat. Bars To help keep our place in music, beats are grouped into bars, or measuresas they are also called. In many songs four beats make up one bar. The steady pulse would be counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, … and so on. Beat one always marks the beginning of the bar. In other songs 3 beats will make up one bar. Any number of beats can be grouped into a bar. The structure of the song will decide how it is counted. This will be explained in later lessons concerning time signatures.
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Rhythmic Notation
Barlines
Barlines divide the musical bars. The space between two barlines is the measure or bar.
There are several types of barlines. Most barlines are a single, vertical line. A double barline marks the end of a section of music. A final barlineis a double barline with a thick second barline and marks the end of a piece of music.
Rhythms
Rhythms in music are based on fractions. Don’t be scared off when I say fractions. If you can cut up a pizza fairly, you know all the fractions you need for reading rhythm notation.
Since counting four beats to a bar is the most common, all rhythmic terminology is based on a bar containing 4 beats.
British-English speakers should read American-English music terminology.
Notes and Rests
Rhythmically, a note will tell you two things: when to play it, and how long to hold it. How long a note lasts is called its note value.
We also need to notate when, and for how long to be silent, or not play anything. For this we use rests. A rest tells you when and for how long tonot play anything. Every note value has a corresponding rest value. Here are the simplest and most common rhythmic values:
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Rhythmic Notation
The Whole Note and Whole Note Rest
A whole note lasts for 4 beats taking up a wholemeasure of 4 beats. It looks like a hollow football. This means you would play and hold the note for four beats.
A whole rest also lasts for four beats. A whole rest instructs you not to play for four beats. The whole rest looks like an upside down hat. To remember that it's upside down just think you can hold a whole lot of stuff in an upside down hat.
All the other basic rhythmic values are just simple fractions of the 4-beat whole note…
The Half Note and Half Note Rest
A half note lasts for 2 beats (half of a whole note). A stem is added to the hollow circle to form the half note symbol.
A half rest lasts for two 2 beats. This means youdon’t play for two beats. It looks like a right-side-up hat.
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Rhythmic Notation
The Quarter Note and Quarter Note Rest
A quarter note lasts for 1 beat (a quarter of a whole note). The quarter note looks like a half note with the notehead filled in.
A quarter rest lasts for 1 beat. This means don’t play for one beat. The quarter rest looks like a squiggly line. A really young student once told me to him the quarter rest looked like a seagull.
The Eighth Note and Eighth Note Rest
An eighth note lasts for half of a beat (an eighth of a whole note). The eighth note looks like the quarter note with a flag attached to the stem.
An eighth note rest lasts for half of a beat. The eighth note rest looks like a slash with a flag on it.
Sixteenth Notes, Rests and Beyond
Rhythms can be subdivided further by adding more flags to the note or rest. Sixteenths have two flags. 32nd notes have 3 flags, and so on. In most music you won’t see note values much smaller than 16ths.
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Rhythmic Notation
Note Beaming
Sometimes, to make rhythmic notation easier to read, the flags of notes are connected with beams. Beams still have the same meaning as flags: one beam across a group of notes indicates 8th notes, two beams across a group of notes indicates 16th notes, and so on.
Note Stem Direction
You may wonder why some stems point upwards and others point downwards. This is mainly done to save space above and below the staff so more music can fit onto a page of music. Typically the stems of notes below the middle line point upwards. Stems of notes above the middle line point downwards. Stems of notes on the middle line of the staff may point either direction.
Rhythm Notation Summary
That’s the basics of standard rhythmic notation. It’s just simple fractions of time. Learning about rhythm will be a big part of your studies as a bassist. Knowing rhythmic notation will help you out a lot in learning, hearing, thinking, reading and discussing rhythm. The best way to learn it is to practice it. I'll be posting some reading material for you soon. Here are some practice examples to give you a better sense of the different rhythmic values.
Written music always contains a time signature, which looks like a fraction and is found at the beginning of a piece of music. In the time signature, the upper number represents the number of beats per measure, and the lower one represents the time value of each beat. You'll encounter the two following main types of time signatures:
Simple: With simple time signatures, the beat of a piece of music can be broken down into two-part rhythms. Simple time signatures are the easiest to count, because a one-two pulse in a piece of music feels the most natural to a listener and a performer. Common examples of simple time signatures are 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/8, and 2/2.
Compound: In compound time signatures, the beat is broken down into three-part rhythms. The top number is evenly divisible by 3, with the exception of time signatures where the top number is 3. Also, each beat is divided into three components, creating a one-two-three pulse. Common examples of compound time signatures are 6/8, 12/8, and 9/4.
