Rhythm Book

1
Chapter
H O W T O R E A D M U S I C A L R H Y T H M L I K E A G E N I U S
Quarter Notes and Eighth

Notes
The two most common beats in music
T
he most common rhythm in music is the quarter note. It lasts for one “beat”.
There are usually four beats in a measure. Here is one measure of music with
four quarter notes in it.
Take a minute to examine the symbol that makes a quarter note. It’s basically a black
dot with a stem coming up from the right side of it.
Sometimes, if the quarter notes are higher on the staff, the stem will be on the left side
and face downward. The fact that the stem is on the left and facing downward doesn’t
change the rhythmic value. It is only to keep the music compact on the page.
It would take up too much space if the stems faced upwards when they are on the top
of the staff.
There are some odd key signatures in which there will be more or less quarter notes in
a measure.
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Q U A R T E R N O T E S A N D E I G H T H N O T E S
For example in what’s called “three four” time, you’ll have 3 quarter notes in a
measure.
The “three” represents the number of beats per measure.
The “four” means that the quarter note represents one beat. So if for example, you
were in “three two” time, you would still have three beats per measure, but the quarter
note wouldn’t be the beat, but rather a half-note would. Half notes look a lot like
quarter notes, except the dot isn’t filled it. It is a hollow dot.
Three half notes
Sometimes you’ll find music with more than four beats in a measure, but this is rare.
Here’s a measure of music in “five four” time:
That means there are five beats in the measure, and the quarter note gets the beat.
The most common time signature is “four four” time. It is often just called “common
time” because it is the most common time signature.
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The cursive C means that we’re in common time, or “four four” time. The first “four”
means that there are four beats per measure. The second “four” means that the
quarter note gets the beat.
When you count beats in a measure, each beat will have a number assigned to it. So
you would count four quarter notes in a measure, “one, two, three, four”
Each of these beats is equal in length but fall in different places in the measure.
Usually, the downbeat of a measure will have a greater emphasis. The downbeat of a
measure is the first beat, beat “one”.
So if you had four measures in a row, you would count beat “one” slightly louder, than
the other three beats in each measure.
EXAMPLE 1 -- http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/example_1.mp3
Eighth Notes
Eighth notes are like the little brother of the quarter note. They are half the durational
value. In other words, they last half as long, so they make the music seem faster.
Visually, eighth notes are a little deceptive because they look just like quarter notes,
except that their stems are connected by thicker black lines called beams. You have to
learn to distinguish them by their beams rather than their dots, because their dots look
just the same. Here is a measure of eighth notes. Notice that we are still in common
time (we know this because of the cursive C). So there are now eight notes being
played in the same length of time as the four we’ve seen previously.
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When we count eighth notes, we want to keep track of where we are in the measure, so
each eighth note that falls on a beat will get a number, and the eighth notes that fall in
between the beats will be counted “and”.
The eighth notes that are counted “and” are called off-beats. Usually they are not
emphasized as much as the beats, so you will want to say them a little quieter than the
beats.
So generally, the first beat is the loudest, the next three beats slightly softer, and the
four off-beats are softer still. This should sound something like this:
Of course, the style of the music and the “groove” of the music can change the way it’s
counted. For example, Reggae music emphasizes the off-beats. Also, you might not
want to emphasize the downbeats as much depending on the style.
Or dance music sometimes emphasizes beats one and three very strongly. Listen to
example 5 to hear beats 1 and 3 emphasized. In the notation, I’ve added accents to
show that these beats are to be emphasized.
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Sometimes eighth notes are notated with flags instead of beams. Remember, beams
are the heavy black line that connects two eighth notes by their stems. If you remove
the beam, each eighth note will get it’s own flag.
Here are eighth notes written with flags instead of beams.
Eighth notes are harder to read when they are written with flags. The beam makes it
easier to see the beats. Isn’t it easy to see that there are four groups of eighth notes
below?
But flags are a necessary evil. There are some rhythms where they can’t be written
without flags. But we’ll get to that later. First let’s keep our eighth notes nicely
beamed!
Mixing Eighth Notes and Quarter Notes

More often than not, you will see a variety of durations in a measure. Let’s look at
some rhythms that mix eighth notes and quarter notes. First, take a look at this
measure.
First find the quarter notes. We have quarter notes on beats 1 and 3. Now find the
eighth notes. We have eighth notes on beats 2 and 4.
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When you count this rhythm, notice how the “2, and, 3” part of the rhythm is close
together.
One Two and Three Four and
Even though these three notes have different durations, their start point, or attack is
equally distant. Now let’s look at another rhythm that is basically the reverse of the last
one.
Now the quarter notes are on beats 2 and 4, and the eighth notes are on beats 1 and 3.
This rhythm is famously used in the song “Jingle Bells”.
One and Two Three and Four
Now let’s listen to these two rhythms counted.
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Counting Through Your First Song: Danny Boy

There are a few things in this song we haven’t talked about yet, but don’t let that worry
you. This is just to give you a sense of how all this works. You should notice how
context can often be a faster way to figure out a rhythm than math. For example, if the
last three notes in a measure are eighth notes (such as in measure 4 below) the must be
counted “and four and”.
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Exercise: Write in the Counting

So now you should know enough to figure out how to count a few measures.
Write the counting in below the notes on this page. Then check your answers against
the following page, where the counting is written in for you.
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Exercise: Write in the Counting

Here is the correct counting.
A Note on Quality Counting

When you count, you have to remember that you are trying to help yourself
understand duration. Duration, of course, means how long something is. Often
when people try to count music, they make the mistake of thinking that the beats are
four distinct “dots” in time, probably because, that’s the way they’re written on the
page. But a beat actually starts at one finite point in time and then continues until the
next beat.
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NOT four distinct “hits”
one two three four
But the hit and then the time until the next hit.
one two three four
When you are adding words to music, you have to be careful, because often to get the
right groove, the consonants have to come before the beat, and the vowel comes on the
beat. If you sing the words, “you are my lucky star”. You would hit the “ar” part of
“star” on the beat, but the consonants, the “st”, would have to come just before the beat.
my lu- ck y st ar
This is something that is in milliseconds, and it’s the kind of thing that you will just
have to develop a feel for as you practice.
When you count, you have to anticipate when the beat is going to hit, and then put the
consonants slightly before. If you don’t, your counting will always sound a little late.
NOTE: THIS IS PRETTY SUBTLE ON THE RECORDING. IF YOU CAN’T

HEAR THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE FOR NOW, DON’T WORRY
ABOUT IT. YOUR RHYTHMICAL EAR WITH DEVELOP!
Listen to Example 6. The consonants are hitting on the beat, rather than slightly
before. You’ll hear how it sounds just a little late or sloppy.
Now listen to Example 7. You’ll hear how it fits with the beat much tighter.
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2
Chapter
Using Context to Read

Quickly
Knowing where you is sometimes easier than you think.
T
here are several tricks for learning to “parse” or figure out a measure of
rhythm quickly. Often context will tell you more than math. For example, if
you saw a measure like this, you should know instantly how to count the last
two notes.
This is because the last two notes are eighth notes, and if the last two notes in a
measure (of common time) are eighth notes, they must be counted “four and”.
The same rule applies for the beginning of the measure. If you see two eighth notes, it
doesn’t matter what else comes in the measure, those two eighth notes are counted
“one and”
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U S I N G C O N T E X T T O R E A D Q U I C K L Y
Using this logic, let’s learn some common “pick-ups”. A pick-up is a group of notes
leading into a measure. One of the most common is the pick-up we saw in “Danny
Boy”. It is three eighth notes leading up to the beginning of a measure. Notice that
the first eighth note is notated with a flag instead of a beam.
Another common pick-up uses five eighth notes. It looks like this:
When you see that the end of a measure is a series of eighth notes, you should
recognize instantly where to start with the counting. The same goes for quarter notes.
If you see a quarter note at the end of a measure, you should know instantly to count it
“four”, no matter what comes before.
quarter note, counted

“four”
So if you see a measure with rests in it, but with quarter notes at the beginning or end
of the measure, you should know how to count it, without even having to think about
the rests. How would you count this measure? (Answer on next page)
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Here are some examples of measures with only beat one and then various pick-ups
into beat one.
Write in the counting, then listen along with the audio track. You can check your work
on the next page, where I’ve written in the counting.
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EXAMPLE 8
Here is the counting written in.
Try to listen to this track once a day for a week. At first, it may be difficult to follow
along, because your brain doesn’t know where to focus its attention. But as you get
used to counting while following notation, you’ll find your brain will let go of errant
thoughts and focus on the task at hand.
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Quarter Rests
Let’s learn what quarter rests look like. You’ve seen them both in “Danny Boy” and in
Example 8.
A quarter rest is a little hard to describe. You might say it looks like a lightening bolt. I
like to think of it as a mouse running up a wall!
quarter rest
Here’s a measure of music with quarter notes on beats 1 and 4, and quarter rests on
beats 2 and 3.
Try to visualize the “mouse” you see above in the quarter rests in this measure.
When you see a rest, you will not count it out loud. You can count it silently, or tap
with your foot or hand, but do not count it out loud. You want your counting to
match what will eventually be played or sung. Otherwise, your counting sounds like
code, instead of the melody!
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So if you see a measure like this, you would count, “one” and “three”, but remain silent
on beats two and four. Again, for right now, try to see the quarter rests as the mouse
cartoon from the previous page. This will help you remember it’s shape.
Eighth Rests
Eighth rests are a dot with a line coming off of it. You might even say it looks like a
scrunched-up quarter note. I like to think it looks like the arm of a cartoon basketball
player slam-dunking.
You will usually see an eighth rest paired with a single eighth note (with a flag).
Often, the best way to think of this is to ignore the eighth rest. You don’t need to count
it, you need to count around it. Think of the eighth note here as a pick-up, and think
of it as grouped with the notes that follow, rather than with the eighth rest.
So even though you have four beats in the measure . . .
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you can think of it as two separate phrases. The eighth note is basically a pick-up into
the 3rd beat.
Single eighth notes are usually pick-ups, and should feel as if they are attached to the
note that follows.
Scanning a measure for the beats

One important skill you will want to develop is to be able to look at a measure and
quickly know where the beats are. Often this is a facilitated by a thoughtful music
transcriber who will write out the music in such a way as not to obscure the beat.
Usually this means that the notes are grouped according to the beat.
Do you see that there are four groups here? Each of these groups starts on a beat.
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Look at the measure below. You should be able to immediately scan the measure and
see that there are quarter notes on beats 1, 2 and 4.
Can you still see that there are quarter notes on beats 1, 2 and 4 in this measure?
Scanning a measure for the easy to understand elements will speed up your ability to
understand any more difficult elements. For example, in this measure, you have six
notes that have to fit into the 3rd beat. If you were reading from left to right, without
having scanned the measure for quarter notes, you might have falsely assumed that all
those notes would fit into a larger span of time than just the 3rd beat!
ONLINE QUIZ
Now let’s exercise your ability to quickly identify quarter notes in a measure. Visit
http://www.patternpiano.com/read_music_rhythm_1/ for an online quiz.
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3
Chapter
Sixteenth Notes
Being quick can take some time.
Y
ou can fit 4 quarter notes in a measure – or you can fit 8 eighth notes in a
measure. Can you guess how many sixteenth notes fit in a measure? Would
you surprised to find out the answer is 16? Sixteenth notes are half the
duration of eighth notes, and go by twice as quickly. The look essentially the
same as eighth notes, but are double beamed. Here is a measure of sixteenth notes:
Notice that this measure takes up considerably more space on the page than a measure
of quarter notes. Here’s one of music notation’s great ironies. While in the Olympics,
the faster a runner runs from point A to point B, the shorter the time it takes him to
get there, with music, the faster the music sounds, the more space on the page it takes
to notate it. Two minutes of really fast-sounding music might take 10 pages to
transcribe, while two minutes of really slow-sounding music would probably only take
1 page to transcribe. This is, of course, due to the fact that music that sounds fast is
really not any faster, but rather busier!
The “dot” portion of a sixteenth note looks just the same as that of an eighth note or
quarter note. It’s the beam that changes. Also, if a single sixteenth note is by it’s self, it
will be written with a double flag.
Notice the
double flag on
this single
sixteenth note.
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S I X T E E N T H N O T E S
Note on Counting Sixteenth Notes

To count sixteenth notes well, you sometimes have to mumble a little. The point is to
accurately reflect the rhythm, not to pronounce the syllables clearly.
Example 12 is the same music as Example 11, except I over-pronounce the syllables,
making the rhythm sloppy.
The Two Most Common Mixed Rhythms

There are several rhythms that mix eighth notes and sixteenth notes, while still adding
up to one beat. Here they are:
1 eighth followed by 2 sixteenths
2 sixteenths followed by 1 eighth
Do you notice how in these two rhythms the sixteenths and eighths are beamed
together, as long as they are within one beat? This helps keep the beat divisions clear.
Again, the only difference visually between the eighths and sixteenths is the single
beam or the double beam.
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Other Common Mixed Rhythms

1 sixteenth followed by 1 eighth followed by 1 sixteenth
This rhythm, which could be called an “eighth note sandwich”, has a hopping sort of
feel. Notice the sixteenth notes are double beamed, but the second beam breaks, to
show that the middle note is single beamed.
1 dotted eighth followed by 1 sixteenth
Dotted notes are held 150% of their un-dotted duration. A dotted eighth note is
equivalent to one eighth note plus half an eighth note. What’s half an eighth note? A
sixteenth note. Another way to say it is that a dotted eighth is equivalent to three
sixteenth notes.
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You’ll occasionally see the opposite rhythm, but it is much less common.
1 sixteenth followed by 1 dotted eighth
Battle Hymn of the Republic

This song uses the dotted eighth paired with a sixteenth rhythm.
http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/battle_hymn.mp3
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Joy to the World

This song uses several of the mixed eighth note / sixteenth note rhythms.
http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/joy_world.mp3
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Comparing the Mixed Rhythms

Let’s use boxes to help compare the mixed rhythms that add up to one beat.
One ee and uh
One and uh
(equals 2 sixteenths)
One ee and
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One ee uh
One ee
One uh
Quiz
When you feel you understand these rhythms, take this online quiz to test your
knowledge:
http://www.patternpiano.com/read_music_rhythm_2/
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Here we have two staves, as you would see in piano music. You will only need to
follow along with the top staff. Often voice/piano/guitar arrangements of popular
songs are written this way to save space on the page. The melody and a few extra right
hand notes are written in the right hand. The left hand is only for the piano player.
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Sixteenth Rests
Sixteenth Rests look much like eighth rests, but have two dots instead of one.
E I G H T H R E S T S I X T E E N T H R E S T
The most common place you’ll see a sixteenth rest is right before an unpaired
sixteenth. Just like the eighth rest that is followed by an eighth note, the sixteenth rest
followed by the sixteenth note is usually a pick-up into a phrase.
Look at this example below.
Right away, you should see that the first two beats are quarter notes, so they’ll be
counted, “1” and “2”. Now how do you count through the rests in the middle of the
measure?
Remember how we talked about using context instead of math? Try counting back
from the end of the measure. You see that you have four sixteenth notes at the end of
the measure. They are equal to one beat, so they must be counted “four ee and uh”.
What does that leave us after beat two and before beat four? A bunch of rests and one
sixteenth note. Now, you don’t need to know what those rests add up to. All you
need to see is that you have one sixteenth right before beat four, so it must be counted
“uh”. In fact, when you are counting, you can simply feel beats one and two, then feel
or anticipate when the downbeat of the next measure will be, then place the five
sixteenth notes as a pick-up into the next measure. It will almost always be easier to
think of notes at the end of a measure as leading into the next phrase, rather than try to
count the spaces between phrases.
EXAMPLE 16
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The Last Sixteenth in a Beat

As you saw in the last example, one common rest/note combination consists of an
eighth rest, a sixteenth rest and then an eighth note:
This adds up to one quarter note, so this figure will fill the same space as a quarter
note. As an exercise, go through and circle this figure you see above, where it appears
in the example below.
It might help to go through first and label the quarter notes with their counting:
Now do you notice how every sixteenth comes right before a quarter? Label them
“uh”. Now finding this figure should be much easier. Answer on the next page.
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If these rhythms seem difficult, don’t worry. We’re actually getting into more
advanced stuff, so you won’t come across these rhythms as often. Plus, you can feel
proud that you’re starting to move beyond the basics!
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4
Chapter
Understanding Tied and

Dotted Notes
So happy together
W
hen two notes are tied together, the first note will hold through the second
note without re-attacking. Tied notes are used for very long notes that
cover several measures and also for rhythms that are difficult to notate
without ties.
In this example, ties allow notes to be held from one measure to the next.
Example 18
The best way to visualize tied notes when you are reading is to cross the second note
out in your mind. Especially because beginners often want to play/sing the second
note.
hold through . . .
X
hold through . . . hold through . . .
X X
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U N D E R S T A N D I N G T I E S A N D D O T S
Ties are also used to show rhythms that hold through the beginning of a beat. For
example:
The same duration can be written with dots, but in this situation doing so would
obscure the beat. Ties often allow rhythms that start on off-beats to be written while
still showing four groups of notes. Do you see the four groups of beamed notes in this
first measure?
Here is a dotted eighth. It’s equivalent to an eighth plus a sixteenth.
It can also be written with ties like this:
The dotted eighth is generally easier to read, because you only

have to read one note, not two and then tie them together. The
only reason you would ever used the tied version is if it starts in
the middle of a beat, rather than the beginning. You want to
keep the beats clear. So you might see something like this:
In this measure, the tied rhythm is equal to one eighth note. But if wrote it as an
eighth note, rather than two sixteenth notes tied together, the four beats in the measure
would be hard to find. The way it’s written, you can still clearly see the four groups of
notes.
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Often you’ll see a tie connecting two of our mixed rhythms from chapter three.
Exceptions to the Rule

There are several rhythms that break from the rule that notes starting on the offbeat
should be written with ties instead to keep the beats clear. These are very common
rhythms, and are quite simple, so they are often written in this “sloppy fashion”.
The most common is what I like to call “the quarter note sandwich”. It’s equal in
value to two quarter notes.
It’s an eighth note, a quarter note, and an eighth note.
Where’s beat two? Beat two has been obscured, because it begins in the middle of the
second note.
The beats in the measure would be clearer if it were written this way:
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But the quarter note sandwich is such a common rhythm that the sloppy way is usually
used.
Here’s another common rhythm that’s equal to two quarter notes and is usually written
with dots instead of ties:
The beats would be clearer if it were written this way (because you can see beat two as
part of the tied rhythm):
But again, it’s such a common rhythm and quite simple, so it’s often written the
“sloppy” way because it’s easier to read with less notes. If there are only four notes in
the measure anyway, obscuring the beat isn’t such a problem, because the measure is
easy enough to figure out.
Let’s compare some rhythms written both with ties and without.
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Four Rhythms That Are Two Beats in Duration

Here are four common rhythms that are equal in value to two beats.
The Half Note
The Quarter Note Sandwich
Eighth and a
Dotted Quarter
Dotted Quarter
and an Eighth
NOTE: Anther common rhythm that is equal to two beats is three quarter note
triplets. But we’ll cover that in the next chapter on triplets.
Three Quarter Note Triplets
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Listen to this example, then read the following pages on anticipation. Then come back
and look through the example again, making note of the anticipations.
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Anticipation
When a rhythm starts on the offbeat, it often sounds as if certain beat hit early. For
example, if you had a rhythm that had three quarter notes on the beat for two
measures, like this:
Then in the third measure, the third note hits before beat three, like this:
the “and” of three
The third note will sound as if the third beat has come early. Of course, if you count
the measure, you’ll count that beat “and”. But it is often very helpful to understanding
a rhythm to think of it as an anticipated beat three. Often, the “and” that comes right
before a beat is called the “the and of . . .” and then the name of the beat. So, if you
were to talk about this third measure, you might say, “you play the ‘and’ of three, rather
than three”.
Here’s what anticipated beat two would look like:
In this case, you have anticipated beat two by an eighth note. You could also anticipate
it by a sixteenth note:
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The opposite of an anticipated note is note a delayed note. Look at this example.
Beat two of the third measure is missing. You might think of it as coming late, on the
“and of three”. The problem is, it doesn’t feel like beat two comes late when the “and”
of three comes in. The “and” of three sounds like a pick-up to beat three.
This is just a quirk of the way musical time works. You can anticipate the beat, but
usually, if you delay a beat, it just makes the previous note sound longer, and the
“delayed” note just sounds like a pick-up into the next beat.
A pick-up and an anticipated beat are very similar things. The only difference is that
with a pick-up, you will hear the beat after the pick-up. With anticipation, the
anticipated note holds through the beat.
anticipated beat one

pick-up to beat one
The quarter note sandwich rhythm contains both an anticipation and a pick-up.
anticipated beat two pick-up to beat three
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The second note in this rhythm anticipates the following beat.
Dotted Quarter Since this is a two note rhythm, it will

and an Eighth either anticipate beat three, or beat
one.
pick-up to beat three pick-up to beat one
If this rhythm falls on beat two, it will usually be written with ties:
This rhythm’s counterpart contains an anticipation:

Eighth and a But this rhythm will many times be
Dotted Quarter written with ties instead of dots.
That’s because this rhythm, when
written with dots, obscures the second
beat.
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For the recorded example on this exercise, I’ve left the voice out. See if you can count
along. Also, try to pick out anticipations and pick-ups as you count.
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5
Chapter
Triplets
Three times the charm.
T
riplets and other tuplets are unique compared to the rhythms we’ve studied so
far because they divide the beat into a quantity that isn’t a factor of two.
Eighth notes divide a beat (a quarter note) into two parts. Sixteenth notes
divide a beat into four part. The other rhythms we’ve learned were built by
dividing the beat up into various combinations of eighth notes and sixteenth notes.
Triplets, which divide a beat into three even notes, create an entirely new feel.
We’ll count triplets by saying the number of the beat it starts on, and then count
remaining two triplets as “trip” and “let” respectively. Look at the example above.
Triplets can be written two different ways. Usually, you’ll see them beamed together as
you see above, with a cursive numeral 3 written above the beam.
You also see them written with a bracket around the numeral 3.
This is usually how they’re written if there are rests instead of notes for any of the
triplets (see example below). This is because, when you put a rest in, you have to break
the beam. When the beam is broken, the bracket makes it clear that the three notes are
still grouped together – and therefore still triplets.
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U N D E R S T A N D I N G T R I P L E T S A N D O T H E R T U P L E T S
Beat three is bracketed instead of beamed

because one of the triplets is a rest instead of
a note.
This example demonstrates triplets and switching between eighth notes and eighth
note triplets.
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PRACTICE COUNTING EXAMPLE 23
Here’s example 23 again, only this time, I’ve taken out the written counting. Now it’s
your turn to practice counting, just by looking at the notes and figuring out the rhythm!
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Time Signatures Based on Triplets

If you remember how time signatures work, the bottom element is what value gets the
beat, the top element is the number of those elements per measure. For example,
common time is “four four” time.
That means there are four beats per measure, and each beat is equivalent to a quarter
note. If you change the top element of a time signature, it changes the number of
beats per measure. For example, “three four” time would look like this:
If you change the bottom element, it changes the number of beats per measure. For
example, “three eighth” time would look like this:
Because “three eight” time is based on the eighth note, and there are three of them per
measure, the basic groove of “three eight” time is a triplet feel. So, the best way to
count them is as triplets. The most common time signature of this sort is “six eight”
time. After that is “twelve eight” time. “Twelve eight” time is like “four four” time,
but with triplets by default.
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“Three Four” time is often called waltz time because this is the time signature of
waltzes.
The Blue Danube Waltz

-- http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/blue_danube.mp3
Reading in “three four” time isn’t very difficult when you understand how to read in
“four four time”. You just have to leave off the fourth beat, and then get used to
coming back to beat one after beat three.
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This example demonstrates 6/8 time. Try counting along. If you get stumped you can
use the filled-in version below.
FILLED-IN VERSION
Here’s the example again, only this time with the counting written in for you.
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O Holy Night
This Christmas song demonstrates “twelve eight” time. --
http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/holy_night.mp3
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Quarter Note Triplets
Quarter note triplets are the same idea as eighth note triplets. Three quarter note
triplets will fit in the space of two quarter notes – in other words, half a measure.
Three Quarter Note Triplets
Since quarter notes are not beamed,

quarter note triplets use a bracket
instead of a beam.
EXAMPLE 25 – A variation on “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
Other Tuplets
Using the same principle of a triplet, you can fit any other number of notes into the
space of another note or two notes.
There are no hard and fast rules on how the other tuplets look. Various combinations
of note values and numbers of notes are possible. The easiest way to figure out how a
group of notes are supposed to fit is to look at the rest of the measure.
Page 47 of 59
Obviously, the seven notes here will have to be squeezed into beat four. Sometimes
music is taken freely or rubato. Rubato means “robbed” in Italian. That means you
can pretty much hold any note as long as you like, and you just use the written notes as
a guide. When you have strangely written rhythms such as this one, it might well be in
a piece that is slow and rubato, so musical precision as far as timing is not expected.
Odd combinations of notes in tuplets are pretty rare in most styles of music. You just
don’t see very tuplets of seven, eleven, or thirteen. Most of the time, you’ll see smaller
numbers of tuplets, such as three, four, or five notes in the space of one or two notes.
Quite often tuplets are used to changed the feel from a triplet-based time signature to a
duplet based time signature, or vis versa.
For example, if you are in “six eight” time and you want to have four notes where
there were three, you might do something like this:
Or if you’re in “four four” time and you want a “six eight” feel:
If sextuplets are used instead of triplets, as you see here, it usually means that you
should accent only the first note of the six..
Page 48 of 59
Counting “Six Eight” Time without Triplets
Another possible way to count triplet rhythms is to count each eighth note as a
number.
So instead of counting with triplets, like this:
You might count with numbers, like this:
Usually, it will be easier to think in terms of triplets. But sometimes, when there are
lots of sixteenth notes in 6/8 time, it may be easier to count it with numbers. For
example:
Of course, once you get the idea of subdividing elements, you could just as easily
break-up the triplet with a neutral syllable.
Page 49 of 59
EXAMPLE 26 – Basic Rhythm Etude --

http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/example_26.mp3
This piece contains most of the rhythms we’ve studied so far. It may not be great
music due to its lack of tasteful repetition, but if you practice reading it every day for a
week or two, you’ll have mastered most of the basic rhythms you’ll come across.
Page 50 of 59
EXAMPLE 27 – Basic Rhythm Etude 2
-- http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/example_27.mp3
This piece, which sounds even worse than the last one, contains most basic rhythms
that equivalent to one quarter note. It will be very helpful for mastering counting and
understanding rhythm.
Page 51 of 59
EXAMPLE 28 – Basic Rhythm Etude 3 --

http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/example_28.mp3
Page 52 of 59
6
Chapter
Swung Eighth Notes

Writing jazz rhythms the easy way.
S
wung eighth notes means that the eighth notes are not read exactly as written.
Every other eighth note will be a little shorter. It’s very much like you replace
each group of two eighth notes with a quarter note triplet and an eighth note
triplet:
Swung eighths look like normal eighths:
But they are played more like this triplet rhythm:
Depending how fast the music goes, or how “bouncy” someone wants to play it, the
swung eighth notes might start to sound more like a dotted eighth and a sixteenth:
The popular music of the 1920s, 30s and 40s was often swung. If you are looking to
get into jazz music at all, you’ll want to be aware of how this music is played.
Page 53 of 59
S W U N G R H Y T H M S
Jazz Etude
Count along with swung eighths. Notice that only eighth notes are swung. Dotted
eighths and sixteenths don’t count.
-- http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/jazz_etude_1.mp3
Page 54 of 59
S W U N G R H Y T H M S
The Flower Aria

“La Fleur Que Tu M’Avais Jetee” from Carmen by Georges Bizet
Practice counting along with both with swung eighth notes and straight (no swing).
-- http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/flower_song_straight.mp3
-- http://www.patternpiano.com/rhythm/flower_song_swung.mp3
Page 55 of 59
7
Chapter
Reading Two Rhythms At

Once
Knowing when to play notes together or apart.
I
f you play an instrument like the flute, you’ll never play more than one note at a
time. If you play an instrument like the guitar or the piano, playing more than
one note at a time is the usual thing.
Here is an example of one note played at a time:
Here is an example of three notes played at the same time, but all in the same voice.
Here’s the same three notes but this time, the bottom two notes are in a different
voice. You can see this because the stems for the second voice point downward.
Page 56 of 59
T W O V O I C E S A T O N C E
If you are playing the piano, music notation with two different voices is simply a tool
for the music editor to make things clearer when the music gets complex. If you are
reading music for four part vocal harmony, two separate voices might literally be two
separate voices!
Two separate voices are necessary if some notes hold while others move. For
example, let’s say that voice 1 is all quarter notes, and voice 2 is all half notes:
This would mean that you would hold the bottom two notes while the top note re-
attacks (or re-strikes).
When you count a rhythm like this, you would count the smallest value note. So you
would count this measure “one, two, three, four”, even though you’ll hold some of the
notes while counting others.
In this next example, in measure four, the smallest value is no longer in the first voice,
so for this one measure you would count the notes in the second voice:
For the first two beats of measure

four, you would count the second
voice, then you would switch back to
counting the quarter notes on beats 3
and four while the half note in voice 2
holds.
Often piano music will write the rhythms on separate staves instead of separate voices.
Page 57 of 59
T W O V O I C E S A T O N C E
In this example, you would start down in the lower staff, then you’re alternating
between the two staves throughout the measure. Do you see how this is just a
sixteenth note rhythm?
This rhythm, though it takes up a lot of space because of the variety of notes, is the
same as this rhythm written on one staff:
And it’s counted the same as this basic rhythm:
The difference in the previous rhythm is that not all the notes strike at the same time,
and some of the notes are held longer than others.
Often if one of the rhythms is very regular, you can just count the rhythm that’s more
difficult or irregular:
Do you see how the bottom voice is just eighth notes?
Page 58 of 59
Conclusion
N
ow you should have an idea of how to count rhythms. The only way to
truly learn it well is to study real live music. I would recommend you go out
and get recordings of artists you like, and then get the sheet music for those
songs – if available. Then photocopy the song and write in the counting (if
it’s difficult). Or better yet, practice figuring out rhythms at sight. Figuring out music
in real time is called sight reading. If you ever get stumped, e-mail me at
[email protected] and I’ll see if I can help you out with the rhythm you’re
having trouble understanding. It will help me improve the book over time, so I don’t
mind.
I hope you have enjoyed this book. If you have any questions or suggestions for
improvement, feel free to contact me. I’m also available for phone lessons if you are
interested. Thanks again for purchasing my book.
Nathan Andersen
475 4th Ave #1L
Brooklyn, NY 11215
[email protected]
212-582-6765
Page 59 of 59

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What are the two most common note durations discussed in the text?

What are the two most common note durations discussed in the text?

How do eighth notes differ from quarter notes?

How do eighth notes differ from quarter notes?

1

Quarter Notes and Eighth

The “three” represents the number of beats per measure.

Three half notes

Here’s a measure of music in “five four” time:

Here are eighth notes written with flags instead of beams.

Mixing Eighth Notes and Quarter Notes

One Two and Three Four and

This rhythm is famously used in the song “Jingle Bells”.

One and Two Three and Four

Now let’s listen to these two rhythms counted.

Counting Through Your First Song: Danny Boy

Exercise: Write in the Counting

Exercise: Write in the Counting

A Note on Quality Counting

NOT four distinct “hits”

one two three four

one two three four

NOTE: THIS IS PRETTY SUBTLE ON THE RECORDING. IF YOU CAN’T

Using Context to Read

quarter note, counted

So even though you have four beats in the measure . . .

Scanning a measure for the beats

Note on Counting Sixteenth Notes

The Two Most Common Mixed Rhythms

1 eighth followed by 2 sixteenths

2 sixteenths followed by 1 eighth

Other Common Mixed Rhythms

1 dotted eighth followed by 1 sixteenth

1 sixteenth followed by 1 dotted eighth

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Joy to the World

Comparing the Mixed Rhythms

Look at this example below.

The Last Sixteenth in a Beat

Understanding Tied and

Here is a dotted eighth. It’s equivalent to an eighth plus a sixteenth.

It can also be written with ties like this:

The dotted eighth is generally easier to read, because you only

Exceptions to the Rule

It’s an eighth note, a quarter note, and an eighth note.

Four Rhythms That Are Two Beats in Duration

The Half Note

The Quarter Note Sandwich

Three Quarter Note Triplets

Here’s what anticipated beat two would look like:

anticipated beat one

anticipated beat two pick-up to beat three

The second note in this rhythm anticipates the following beat.

Dotted Quarter Since this is a two note rhythm, it will

pick-up to beat three pick-up to beat one

This rhythm’s counterpart contains an anticipation:

Beat three is bracketed instead of beamed

PRACTICE COUNTING EXAMPLE 23

Time Signatures Based on Triplets

The Blue Danube Waltz