Notes and Rest Values
Rhythms are naturally very important. Not only to play better solos, but also to be able to play better accompaniments.
Let’s start from the beginning. What is a beat? Here marked in red.
In each case, a ‘beat’ refers to the ‘click of the metronome.’ A song with a 4/4 time signature has four beats per measure.
Note durations / length
With the whole note, you should sustain the note completely. Sustaining means playing it on beat 1 and letting it ring until and including beat four. Only on the next measure is the new note played, without any interruption.
This sounds something like this:
For half notes, we play on beat 1 and let the note ring until and including beat 2. Only on beat 3 is the new note played again without interruption.
Quarter notes are the simplest because you can play them just like you tap your foot to the beat.
Try to synchronize the note with your foot. Play the note at the exact same time or tap your foot simultaneously.
Try to play eighth notes twice as fast as your foot tapping the beat. In other words, in the same time it takes your foot to make one beat, you should play two notes. Play the notes evenly, not one longer or shorter. Remember, even notes should always be played evenly.
The most challenging notes are the 16th notes. Not because they are abstract or illogical, but mostly because they are often very fast. It can help to set the metronome a bit slower. =)
Try tapping your foot twice and playing 4 evenly spaced notes in between.
Triplets
I was most afraid of triplets, but that was actually wrong because they don’t do anything naughty. 😛
In the end, triplets are nothing more than quarter notes, eighth notes, or sixteenth notes, with the only difference being that while in eighth notes you should fit two notes into one beat, in eighth note triplets, you should fit three notes into one beat.
As described earlier, try to fit three notes into a full measure with half note triplets.
For quarter note triplets, you hear three notes within two beats. This is also called ‘polyrhythm,’ where two different but still evenly played rhythms overlap.
Try counting the beats -> 1–2–3–4, and then count the triplet. For example, you can say/sing ‘Trip-o-let’, or ‘One-o-let, two-o-let’ and so on.
The same goes for eighth note triplets. Here, 3 triplets are played within one beat, so a total of 4 sets of 3 triplets per measure.
Dotted Notes
Dotted notes may look worse than they are, but they are definitely trickier to count, in my opinion.
A dotted quarter note is nothing more or less than a quarter note multiplied by 1.5, or a quarter note plus half of itself. In this example, we would have a quarter note plus an eighth note. Another way to represent this is by tying a quarter note to an eighth note. This method is used to connect notes that span across measures. So, if a note is dotted but doesn’t fit within a single measure, the note needs to be extended and ‘tied’ to a note from the next measure. These are then called tied notes.
Another way to count dotted quarter notes is to break all notes down to the smallest denominator. So (1 quarter + 1 eighth = 3 eighths). Now we count in eighth notes, and we would only play the bold numbers -> | 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8 |.
Remember, when playing 8th notes, 8 notes has to fit into a 4/4 time signature and must be played twice as fast accordingly.
The same applies to dotted eighth notes. Here, we break it down further, so (an 8th note + a 16th note = a dotted 8th note). Count 16th notes, but again, only play every 4th note.
| 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16 |
Remember, when playing 16th notes, 16 notes fit into a 4/4 time signature and must be played accordingly faster.
3/4 Time Signature
In a 3/4 time signature, as the name suggests, there is room for only 3 quarters. This means that everything remains the same; all rhythms are played the same, all notes are held for the same duration, etc., with the only difference being that the measure goes up to 3 and not 4 as previously. The best example of a 3/4 time signature is a waltz.
Quarter Notes in 3/4 Time
Eighth Notes in 3/4 Time
Sixteenth Notes in 3/4 Time
The same principle as triplets, but played/counted exactly the opposite, applies to duplets.
That means: Here, two notes are played within three beats. In the case of quarter note triplets, three triplets are played within two beats.
Or in the ‘4 over 3’ rhythm, four notes are played within three beats. This is again the exact opposite of what we had with ‘half note triplets.’ In half note triplets, we play three notes within 4 beats (3 over 4 rhythm). In the 4 over 3 rhythm, we play 4 notes within the 3 beats in 3/4 time.
Swing Phrasing
In swing phrasing, for example, eighth notes are written the same way as in the ‘normal’ style but are played differently.
While some sheet music uses this symbol , in jazz, a notation at the top of the sheet simply says ‘Swing.’ Different notation, but it means the same thing.
However, what remains the same is the playing style.
A ‘normal’ 8th note rhythm, as described above, sounds like this without swing phrasing:
While eighth notes that are swing phrased sound like this:
Both are written exactly the same, with the small difference at the beginning.
Without a swing feel:
With a swing phrasing:
You can download a PDF with all the previously explained Notes and Rest Values here:
