Rhythm is the basis of musical literacy, the theory of this art form. In order to understand what a rhythm is, how it is considered and how to adhere to it, it is important to be able to determine the duration of notes and pauses, without which even the most ingenious music would be a monotonous repetition of sounds devoid of emotions, shades and feelings. Consider this section of solfeggio in more detail, from the very beginning to the end.
The basis of the basics of musical theory
Almost every person at one time to one degree or another studied music. Someone purposefully went to a music school, someone took private lessons from teachers. Most children get basic knowledge in secondary schools, where the teacher tells how to count to music, beat your hand to the beat, and pause. Therefore, almost everyone today understands what the duration of a note is, how this value can vary and what it depends on. Someone understood this better, while others could not get into the shares at all. Therefore, if in childhood you had no problems with the rhythm, and music lessons seemed to you an interesting and exciting pastime, then in this article you will find a lot of interesting things and, possibly, discover a new talent in yourself. It is worth noting that this material can also become your textbook in the process of teaching a child music.
General concepts in this section
In order for each reader to understand what it is and how it is applied in practice, and most importantly, how it interacts with music, we will introduce the main concepts and their meanings:
- Rhythm is an alternation of weak and strong beats that are inherent in each musical form. This is a kind of organization of sounds and their combinations.
- Size - that sequence of strokes that divides any product into equal time intervals. These spaces we call lobes.
- Pace - the speed of those beats that the metronome emits - the most commonly used instrument in music. With its help, the speed of a particular work is determined.
Note duration is a concept that contains all three of the above terms. Focusing on the type of note written in the book, you can determine its size. And here we come to the most interesting: what are the notes, what is the duration of each of them, how are they indicated on the letter and how to read them? Read the answers to all these and many other questions below.
Visualize music pictures
The first thing you need to understand when studying music is dividing the duration of sounds. The starting point for us is the duration of the whole note, since it is from the whole scale that it is the longest in sounding. The whole note is divided into halves, or half durations. In one whole note, there are two halves, which, in turn, are also halved, thus forming quarters, or quarter durations. It turns out that in one half note - two quarters, and in one whole - four. So such a division, a multiple of four, can occur indefinitely. Quarters are divided into eighths, those into sixteenths, then thirty second, sixty fourth and so on. Based on this, we come to the conclusion that for the time while one whole note lasts, eight eight-eighths or sixteen sixteenth durations can sound, which ultimately affects the virtuosity and technicality of a particular work.
How to explain to a child the duration of notes
A similar scheme, of course, is understandable to every adult, but it cannot be thoroughly understood by a child who is not familiar with mathematics, who still does not have such a rich imagination and a large stock of knowledge. But there is a way that can make the baby understand this part of musical theory, and it is called “dividing the pie”. Imagine that we have a whole cake that has a certain weight. It is a whole note that lasts a certain amount of time. When we cut the pie into two halves, their total weight does not change, and they occupy the same area. The role of the analogy is half the duration. Now we cut each of the halves in half, we get quarters. We get four quarters, each of which can be divided into two eighths. And next time try differently: cut the cake in half, divide one half into two parts (quarters), and leave the second whole. So you will have half and two quarters, that is, three parts, but one of them is large, and the other two are its halves.
Note duration and measure
All musical sounds, as you know, are combined into measures, the content of which, in turn, depends on the size. This indicator can have the following names: four quarters, two quarters, five quarters, and so on. It is the size that allows us to understand how to calculate the duration of notes, how many different beats can be in tact. It is customary to take one quarter of the size, which can be repeated two, three, four or more times. In the first case, it will be 2/4 (two quarters), 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 (five quarters are one of the most interesting and difficult to perform). If we choose, say, 4/4, this means that in one measure either four quarters, two halves, or one whole note can fit. Also, there may be any other equity combinations, which in total will represent four quarters. Less often in the works you can find sizes, which are based on the eighth note. Most often, the second indicator is a multiple of three, that is, we get the size 3/8 (three eighths), 6/8 and so on.
Note duration
Now we come to how to decipher the printed note, how to determine by its appearance its duration. So, this musical sign (we can say that it is the main one in this art form) always has a head, that is, a basis. A calm can be attached to it, and a tail to the calm. How does this affect the duration? So, the whole note, that is, the largest, is a transparent (unshaded) semicircle without other details. Half durations are also not shaded, however, styles are assigned to them - sticks that are directed up (for those notes that are located at the bottom of the camp) or down (for higher sounds). Quarters also have a calm, but still their heads are completely shaded. To the eighths we draw the calm, to the calm the tail, and we paint over the very base of the note. As for notes of shorter duration, they are all depicted as eighths, only they have double, triple, quadruple tails.
The rhythm, size and pace of music
As you already understood, the duration of a note is the basis of the foundations, without which you cannot further study and understand music. The technicality of any work depends on how long it consists of and at what speed they need to be played. According to these indicators, professionals recognize the style of various classical composers. For example, it was characteristic of JS Bach to write more lengthy pieces (although they were quite fast too), consisting of half and quarter beats, which should be performed at a slow pace. F. Chopin wrote plays consisting of the eighth and sixteenth (often thirty-second), which was characterized by a very fast pace.