Chapter 2

Counting Out Notes

In This Chapter

Understanding rhythm, beat, tempo, and note values

Counting (and clapping) out notes

Getting to know ties and dotted notes

Mixing up note types and counting them out

Just about everyone has taken some sort of music lessons, either formal paid lessons from
some crinkly old piano teacher or just the state-mandated rudimentary music classes offered
in public school. Either way, we’ve all been asked at some point to knock out a beat, if only by
clapping our hands.

Maybe the music lesson seemed pretty pointless at the time, or just a great excuse to bop your
grade-school neighbor on the head. However, counting out a beat is exactly where we have to
start with music. Without a discernible rhythm, there is no order to music and nothing to
dance to or nod our heads to. Although all the other parts of music (pitch, melody, harmony,
and so on) are pretty darned important, without rhythm, you don’t really have a song. So
rhythm is where we start in this book.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to be a perfect metronome of a percussionist to keep a beat.
Everything around you has a rhythm to it, from birds to automobiles to babies, and that
includes you.

In music, the rhythm is the pattern of regular or irregular pulses. The most basic thing you’re
striving for in music is to find the rhythm in songs. Luckily, written music makes it easy to
interpret other composers’ works and produce the kind of rhythm they had in mind for their
songs.

Meet the Beat

A beat is a pulse of time. A ticking clock is a good example. Every minute, the second hand ticks
60 times, and each one of those ticks is a beat. If you speed up or slow down the second hand,
you’re changing the tempo of the beat. Notes in music tell you what to play during each of
those clicks.

Let’s sum up:

Rhythm: A pattern of regular or irregular pulses in music

Beat: A series of repeating, consistent pulsations of time that divide time into equal lengths.
Each pulsation is also called a beat

Tempo: The rate or speed of the beat

Note: A notation that tells the performer how long and how often to play a certain musical
pitch within the beat

When you think of the word note as associated with music, you may think of a sound.
However, in music the official reason for notes is to explain exactly how long a specific pitch
should be held by the voice or instrument. The time value of notes determines what kind of
rhythm the resulting piece of music will have, whether it will run along very quickly and
cheerfully, or slowly and somberly, or in some other way.

Notes and Note Values

If you think of music as a language, then notes are like letters of the alphabet — they’re that
basic to the construction of a piece of music. Studying how note values fit against each other in
a piece of sheet music is even more important than their musical pitches because if you
change the notes values in a piece of music, you end up with completely different music. In
fact, when musicians talk about performing a piece of music “in the style of” Bach, or
Beethoven, or Philip Glass, they’re more than likely talking about using the rhythm structure
and pace characteristics of that particular composer’s music than any particular love of chord
progressions or melodic choices.

The big picture

As you may remember from school or music lessons, notes come in different flavors, each with
its own note value. Before we go into detail on each kind of note, have a look at Figure 2-1,
which shows most of the kinds of notes you’ll encounter in music arranged so that their values
add up the same in each row. The value of a half note is half that of a whole note, the value of
a quarter note is a quarter that of a whole note, and so on. Each level of the “tree of notes” is
equal to the others.

Figure 2-1: Each level of this tree of notes lasts as many beats as every other level. At the top is
the whole note, below that half notes, then quarter notes, eighth notes, and finally sixteenth
notes on the bottom.

Another way to think of notes that you may find helpful is to imagine a whole note as a pie,
which is easy because it is round. To divvy up the pie into quarter notes, cut it in quarters.
Cutting the pie into eight pieces gives you eighth notes, and so on.

Depending on the time signature of the piece of music (see Chapter 4), the number of beats
per note varies. In the most common time signature, 4/4 time, also called common time, a
whole note is held for four beats, a half note is held for two, and a quarter note lasts one beat.
An eighth note lasts half a beat and a sixteenth note just a quarter of a beat in 4/4 time.

Often, the quarter note equals one beat. If you sing, “MA-RY HAD A LIT-TLE LAMB,” each
syllable is one beat (you can clap along with it) and each beat gets one quarter note. You’ll find
out much more about this in Chapter 4.

The way notes look

Notes are made up of up to three specific components: note head, stem, and flag (see Figure
2-2). Every note has a head. It’s the round part of a note. A note stem is the vertical line
attached to the note head. A note flag is the little line that comes off the top or bottom of the
note stem.

Figure 2-2: Every note has a head.

An eighth note (the third one shown here) has all three w possible components of a note: the
head, the stem, and the flag.
By the way, stems can point either up or down, depending where on the staff they appear
(pointing up or down makes no difference in the value of the note — and you’ll find out all
about staffs in Chapter 7). Only eighth notes and smaller notes have flags. Quarter notes and
half notes have stems but no flags. Whole notes have neither stems nor flags.

Instead of each note getting a flag, though, notes with flags can also be connected to each
other with a beam (sometimes called a ligature), which is really just another, more organized-
looking incarnation of the flag. For example, Figure 2-3 shows how two eighth notes can be
written as each having a flag, or as connected by a beam.

Figure 2-3: Eighth notes can be connected together with beams instead of having individual
flags.

Figure 2-4 shows four sixteenth notes with flags, grouped into two pairs connected by a double
beam, and all connected by one double beam. It doesn’t matter which way they are written.
They would sound the same when played.

Figure 2-4: These three groups of sixteenth notes, written in three different ways, would all
sound alike when played.

Likewise, eight thirty-second notes could be written in either of the ways shown in Figure 2-5.
Note that thirty-second notes get three flags (or three beams).

Figure 2-5: Like eighth notes and sixteenth notes, thirty- second notes can be written
separately or “beamed” together.

Using beams instead of individual flags on notes is simply a case of trying to clean up an
otherwise messy-looking piece of musical notation.

Finding and following the beat

When figuring out how to follow the beat, rhythm sticks (fat cylindrical hard wood
instruments) come in real handy. So do drum sticks. If you’ve got a pair, grab ‘em — if not,
clapping or smacking your hand against bongos or your desktop works just as well.

It is absolutely fundamental that you eventually “hear” a beat in your head while you play
music, whether you’re reading a piece of sheet music or jamming with other musicians. The
only way you’re going to be able to do this is practice, practice, practice. Following along with
the beat in music is something you’re going to have to pick up if you want progress in music.

Perhaps the easiest way to practice working with a steady beat is to cheat: Buy yourself a
metronome. They’re pretty cheap, and even a crummy one should last you for years. The
beauty of a metronome is that you can set it to a wide range of tempos, from very, very slow
to hummingbird fast. If you’re using a metronome to practice with — especially if you’re
reading from a piece of sheet music — you can set the beat to whatever speed you’re
comfortable with and gradually speed it up to the composer’s intended speed when you’ve
figured out the pacing of the song.

Whole Notes

The whole note is the big daddy note of them all, as implied by its name. It lasts the longest of
all the notes. Figure 2-6 shows what it looks like.

Figure 2-6: A whole w note is a hollow oval.

When counting out beats, you only count as high as the highest-valued note in a selection. This
means that (again, in 4/4 time) you only count as high as the number four, no matter how
many whole notes are thrown at you.

So if you were to see a line of whole notes like the ones shown in Figure 2-7, you would count
them out like this:

CLAP two three four CLAP two three four CLAP two three four.

Figure 2-7: Three whole notes in a row mean each one w gets its own “four-count.”

“CLAP” means you clap your hands, and “two three four” is what you say out loud as the note
is held for four beats.

Even better for the worn-out musician is coming across a double whole note. You don’t see
them a whole heck of a lot, but when you do, they look like Figure 2-8.

Figure 2-8: A double whole note is held for twice as long as a normal whole note.

When you see a double whole note, you have to hold the note for an entire eight counts, like
so:

CLAP two three four five six seven eight

Another common way to show a note that lasts for eight counts is when two whole notes are
tied together. Ties are discussed later in this chapter.

Half Notes

It’s simple logic what comes next. A half note is held for half as long as a whole note. Half
notes look like Figure 2-9.

Figure 2-9: A half note is held for half as long as a whole note.

When you count out the half notes in Figure 2-9, it sounds like this:

CLAP two CLAP two CLAP two

Again, because the highest valued note in Figure 2-9 is a half note, you would only count up to
the number two.

You could have a whole note followed by two half notes, as shown in Figure 2-10.

Figure 2-10: A whole note followed by w two half notes.

In that case, you would count out the three notes as follows:

CLAP two three four CLAP two CLAP four

Quarter Notes
Divide a whole note (worth four beats) by four, and you get a quarter note with a note value of
one beat. Quarter notes look like half notes except that the note head is completely filled in, as
shown in Figure 2-11.

Figure 2-11:

These four quarter notes get one beat apiece, meaning together they last as long as one whole
note.

Four quarter notes are counted out like this:

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

Because the highest valued note is a quarter note, you would only count up to one.

Suppose we replace one of the quarter notes with a whole note, and one with a half note, as
shown in Figure 2-12.

Figure 2-12:

A mixture of whole, half, and quarter notes is getting w closer to what you find in music.

In that case, you would count out:

CLAP two three four CLAP CLAP CLAP two

Eighth Notes and Beyond

This is the point where sheet music starts to look a little scary. Usually, just one or two clusters
of eighth notes in a piece of musical notation isn’t enough to frighten the average beginning
student, but when you open to a page that is littered with eighth notes, sixteenth notes, or
thirty-second notes, you just know you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. Why? Because these
notes are fast.

An eighth note looks like Figure 2-13.

Figure 2-13: An eighth note is held for one eighth as long as a whole note.

As you may expect, an eighth note has a value of half of a quarter note. Eight eighth notes
would last as long as one whole note, which means an eighth note last half a beat (in 4/4, or
common, time).

How could you have half a beat? Easy. Tap your toe for the beat and clap your hands twice for
every toe tap.

CLAP-CLAP CLAP-CLAP CLAP-CLAP CLAP-CLAP

Or you can count it out as follows:

ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and FOUR-and

The numbers represent four beats, and the “ands” are the half beats.

Yet another way to think of eighth notes is to use the metronome. Just think of each tick as an
eighth note instead of a quarter note. That means a quarter note is now two ticks, a half note
is four ticks, and a whole note lasts eight ticks. That’s perfectly legitimate.
If you have a piece of sheet music with sixteenth notes in it, then each sixteenth note can
equal one metronome tick, an eighth note two ticks, a quarter note four ticks, a half note
eight, and a whole note can equal sixteen ticks.

A sixteenth note has a note value of one quarter of a quarter note, which means it lasts one
sixteenth as long as a whole note. A sixteenth note looks like Figure 2-14.

Figure 2-14: A sixteenth note is held for half as long as an eighth note.

While we’re at it, take a look at the thirty-second note in Figure 2-15.

Figure 2-15: A thirty-second note is held for half as long as a sixteenth note.

If you have a piece of sheet music with thirty-second notes in it, then with your metronome a
thirty-second note equals one metronome tick, a sixteenth note equals two, an eighth note
equals four, a quarter note equals eight, a half note equals sixteen, and a whole note equals
thirty-two ticks.

You’ll be glad to hear that you won’t run into thirty-second notes very often.

Dotted and Tied Notes

Sometimes you want to add, even if slightly, to the value of a note. There are two main ways
to extend a note’s value in written music: dotted notes and tied notes.

Dotted notes

Occasionally, you’ll come across a note followed by a small dot, called an augmentation dot.
This means the note’s value is increased by one half of its original value. The most common
use of the dotted note is when a half note is made to last three beats instead of two, as shown
in Figure 2-16.

Figure 2-16: A dotted half note is held for half again as & * long as a regular half note.

Less common, but still applicable here, is the dotted whole note. This means the whole note’s
value is increased from four beats to six beats.

If there are two dots behind the note, then the time value of the note is increased by another
quarter of the original note, on top of the half increase indicated by the first dot. A half note
with two dots behind it would be worth two beats plus one beat plus one quarter beat, or
three and a quarter beats. This is so very rarely seen in most modern music that you’ll
probably never come across it, but just in case you do, you know what it means. The composer
Richard Wagner was very fond of the triple-dotted note.

Tied notes

Another way to increase the value of a note is by tying it to another note, like Figure 2-17
shows.

Figure 2-17: Two quarter notes tied together are exactly equivalent to a half note. When you
see a tie, simply add the notes together.

Ties connect notes that are the same pitch together to created one sustained note instead of
two separate ones. Therefore, a quarter note tied to another quarter note equals one note
held for two beats: CLAP-two!
Don’t confuse ties with slurs. A slur looks kind of like a tie, except it connects two notes of
different pitches (you find out more about slurs in Chapter 6).

Mixing It All Up

You’re not going to work with many pieces of music that are composed entirely of one kind of
note, so you’re going to need to work with a variety of note values.

The five exercises shown in Figures 2-18 through 2-21 are exactly what you need to practice
making a beat stick in your head and making each kind of note automatically register its value
in your brain. Each exercise contains five groups (or measures) of four beats each.

In these exercises, you clap on the CLAPs and say the numbers aloud. Where you see a
hyphenated CLAP-CLAP, it means two claps per beat (in other words, two claps in the space of
one normal clap), and where you see CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP it means four claps per beat (four
claps in the space of one normal clap).

Start out counting and then dive in after you count four.