Rhythm: See It, Feel It

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Reading rhythm is an essential step in learning the language of music, and it is notated with a set of symbols on a staff.

First, look at the line of music above. The set of five horizontal lines is called a staff, which is what music is written on. Think about a piece of notebook paper and how the lines keep our writing neat and legible. A staff does the same thing for music.

Now, look at the vertical line in the middle of the staff. This is called a bar line, which tells where one measure of music ends and another begins. Think of a measure like a sentence, dividing the piece of music into small sections. Measures divided by bar lines are used to easily find your place in the music.

The short piece of music above is two measures long, but many pieces are hundreds of measures long. Each measure has a number in these long pieces of music, and musicians use those numbers to ensure they're all starting at the same place in the music.

Now, look at the beginning of that line of music. Look at the two fours stacked on top of each other. These numbers, called the time signature, tell how many beats are in one measure of music. In this case, each measure of music will have - you guessed it - four beats.

• So, what is the difference between beat and rhythm?

Think of beat as what you clap to when listening to music. Listen to the beginning of this pop song (below), which is probably familiar.

• Do you hear the clapping sound?

It's the same beat you want to clap to when you listen. That's the beat, and through the whole song, it will remain steady and never change.

Rhythm, however, is about how those beats are filled.

In the intro of this song, many other rhythmic sounds are happening besides that steady clap. When you listen to those sounds, you're hearing rhythm. Rhythm is where creativity comes in, and it's what makes each song unique.

Look at the four measures of music above. It is a piece of music you know well but may never have seen written out.

The piece has four beats in each measure, just like the one we looked at earlier. But the last measure has more than four notes, and the second has less. This is where rhythm comes in.

The different shapes of notes of the staff notate rhythm. This piece of music uses three different kinds of rhythms.

This symbol is called a quarter note. A quarter note gets one beat.

This song's first and third measures are all quarter notes, so every beat has a note. Try to clap the first measure. Count yourself in with a steady "1, 2, 3, 4," and then repeat the numbers while you clap on every note. You should clap four times simultaneously as you say "1, 2, 3, 4."

This symbol is a half note. Each half note gets two full beats.

Look at the second measure of music above. Count yourself in and clap the second measure. You should clap on the first, second, and third beats but not on the fourth because a half note takes up two beats, in this case, the third and fourth.

This symbol represents a pair of eighth notes. An eighth note gets half of a beat and often comes in pairs.

When counting an eighth note, use the word "and" to count the second eighth note in a beat. So, for a measure full of eighth notes, you would count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and."

Clap the last measure of this music. You should clap on "1 and 2 and 3." The four eighth notes are "1 and 2 and," and the half note is on beat 3 and lasts through beat 4.

• Have you figured out what song this is?

Now that you know it's the ABC song, check the rhythms you clapped earlier.

• Were they correct?

Try and think of another song that uses only quarter, half, and eighth notes. Turn on a couple of your favorite songs and clap with the beat. Listen for the rhythms that fill those beats.

Next, move to the Got It? section to test your fluency in the language of rhythm.