Counting the Beat

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph
Hoffman,
and today we're going to be learning a
new more advanced way of reading rhythms
involving a concept called counting the
beat.
Let's come to the heartbeat mat to the heartbeat mat to get started.
Recently we've learned about
time signature.
Remember, time signature is this stack of two numbers that goes
at the start of a song.
This top number tells you how many beats they'll be in
every measure.
The bottom number, don't worry about it for now. It's always going
to be 4,
but if you must know, that four stands for quarter notes, which means there'll be 4
quarter note beats per measure.
So I use these popsicle sticks for bar lines.
Since the top number is 4, that means we can
have 4 beats in one measure,
and then we need a bar line.
So in a 4/4
song
the the beats will be in groups of four like this.
Now, we used to say our
rhythms like TA TI-TI TA TA
but today we're going to learn the more advanced
system of counting rhythms which
is actually what adult professional
musicians use called counting the beat.
Basically each beat in the measure will
get a number, and they just go in order.
1 2 3 4
And then when you hit
a bar line it starts over again at 1.
1 2 3 4
Good, will you point
and let's count the beat together. Ready, go:
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
And remember in music, beat 1 is the strong beat in a measure, so try and say it with a little extra energy.
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
And that will make
you a more musical person.
Good, now we've got other time signatures too.
It's also
possible to have a 3/4 time signature.
So, where should my bar line go
in 3/4?
Well, we'll have a group of 3 beats, then we need a bar line.
And I can duplicate that same bar line down here just to remind me we're starting a new row,
and then another bar line here.
So now,
let's count the beat for 3/4.
It would be 1 2 3 1 2 3
Now
let's try 2/4 time signature.
In 2/4 can you point to where the first
bar line should go?
If you're pointing right here you're correct.
We'll just need a
bar line every 2 beats basically.
Again, I'm gonna duplicate that bar line down
here,
here,
here, and remember at the end of a piece you can actually put a double bar line to show
for sure that the piece is over.
Now, when counting the beat in 2/4 you'll go like this: 1 2 1 2
Can you point and count with me? Go:
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
Good.
Pretty easy so far, right?
But this is just half of the challenge.
We're just counting the beat. Now let's add some rhythms to the beat.
Let's go back to 4/4 time signature
We'll add a bar line here,
here,
and here.
Let's go ahead and put that double bar linw.
Now we've got our bar lines and
measures set up, but
no rhythms inside. We're just seeing the beat.
So let's fill
it in with some rhythm.
I'm going to place here a whole note.
Now, a whole note
is just well it kind of looks like a hole.
It's this empty circle with no stem.
That's called a whole note and it lasts for 4 beats as you can see.
So when
you have a whole note you'll go: 1 2 3 4
Or on the piano you just play
that one note,
and hold it down for 4 beats: 1 2 3 4
I'm going to
place another whole note in this second measure.
Now let's try and clap the
rhythm that you see, which are these
whole notes on the blue cards. That's the
rhythm while we count the beat.
The beat is underneath,
and so when we say 1,
that's when we clap and then we'll just keep holding our hands together as we say 2 3 4.
Then when we get down here we'll clap
again on 1 2 3 4.
Let's try it together. Clap the rhythm while you count
the beat out loud with me.
Ready, go: 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
It may seem kind of obvious, but I really want you to count the beat
out loud.
Sometimes my students say, Oh I'm just thinking it in my head.
Well,
when you say it out loud it will make it,
it will make your beat more steady and concrete, and I promise you, professional musicians do this too.
We count out loud
to really feel that beat.
Let's try clapping another rhythm. This
time with half notes.
Remember, a half note gets 2 beats.
It looks a lot like
a whole note except it has a stem.
The reason we call this a whole note by the way is because in 4/4 time it takes up the whole measure.
And half notes you can
see, oh they take up half of the measure.
They're worth one half of a whole note. A
whole note is equal to 4 beats.
A half note's equal to 2 beats.