Meter

Meter is the grouping of beat patterns. Certain beats are stressed more than others in music and this causes the beats to fall into perceptible patterns. These patterns almost always come in twos or threes.

Fundamental Meter Groupings:

These meters are the most basic meters. Almost all of the other meters are some combination of these two.

• Duple: [1 - 2], [1 - 2], [1 - 2], [1 - 2], etc.

• Triple: [1 - 2 - 3], [1 - 2 - 3], [1 - 2 - 3], [1 - 2 - 3], etc.

Other Meters:

• [1 - 2 - 3 - 4], [1 - 2 - 3 - 4], [1 - 2 - 3 - 4], etc.

• [1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6], [1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6], etc.

• [1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5], [1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5], etc.

• Many other meters are possible.

Meter, Beat and Tempo:

The Beat and Meter can change depending upon Tempo. For example, in a slow tempo a meter of [123] is usually a group of three beats. In a fast tempo the beat is felt as: [1], [1], [1], etc.

Duration of Notes And Rest, Dotted Notes, Ties and Beamed Notes

Duration is how long a note or rest is to be played. Notes and rests have fractional durations.

A Half-note is half as long as a Whole-note, a Quarter-note is a quarter as long as a Whole-note and half as long as a Half-note, and so forth. Each duration will have its own symbol.

Note Durations:

Rests work the same way, just with different symbols.

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Rest Durations:

Dotted Notes:

A Dot after a note indicates an elongation of the note by one-half. For example, if a Half-note has a Dot this tells us that the duration is: Half-note + Quarter-note.

Beamed notes:

Eighth, Sixteenth, Thirty-second, Sixty-fourth, and One Hundred Twenty-Eighth-notes will usually be beamed together when they are in groups.

Tied Notes:

Ties connect the durations of different notes together. In the following example a Whole-note is tied to a Quarter-note. The duration then becomes: Whole-note + Quarter-note. (Another way to think of it is: the length of four Quarter-notes + one Quarter-note).

Time Signatures

Time Signatures tell us what the meter is and what note values comprise the beat. Time signatures are written as two numbers, with one number above the other.

The top number tells us how many beats there are in a measure; this is also the meter. The bottom number tells us what note values comprise the beat.

In the above example the top number is 3: This tells us that there are 3 beats in a measure. The bottom number tells us that the quarter-note gets the beat.

The Keyboard

The Keyboard is arranged so that the pitch goes left to right, low to high. The keys on keyboard instruments are arranged in a reoccurring pattern. The black keys are arranged in groups of two and three between the white keys.

This pattern continues up and down the keyboard.

The note names of the white keys are:

This key pattern repeats on the keyboard so that the note names of the white keys keep repeating: CDEFGAB-CDEFGAB-CDEFGAB and so on.

Sharps and Flats:

If we take a white key, D for example, and we go up (to the right) to the adjacent black key we are now on the note D-sharp. If we go down (to the left) to the adjacent black key from D we end up on the note D-flat. This is how we determine the names of the black keys and therefore all black keys will be a sharp or flat note.

You may have noticed that black keys can have more than one note name. For example C-sharp and D-flat are on the same black key but which name we should use depends upon context, such as the Key Signature.

Half-steps and Whole-steps:

A Half-step is the distance of two adjacent notes, such as D to D-sharp, E to F, or A-flat to G. (A half-step is also known as a minor second.)

A Whole-step is the distance of two Half-steps, such as C to D, E to F-sharp, or B-flat to A-flat. (A whole-step is also known as a Major second.)

Sharps, Flats, Naturals, and Enharmonic Notes

When a Sharp or Flat is added to a note it raises or lowers the note by a Half-step. For example, if we have the note C and we add a sharp to it the note now becomes C-sharp. If we have the note E and we add a flat to it the note now becomes E-flat.

Here are some examples of sharps and flats on the staff:

Naturals are notes without sharps or flats: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. For example the note D can be called D-natural because it has no sharp or flat.

Here are the natural notes:

Natural notes sometimes have their own symbol attached to them:

Enharmonic notes:

Enharmonic notes are notes that have the same pitch but have different note spellings. For example, F-sharp and G-flat are enharmonic notes, as are C-flat and B-natural.

Repeat Signs

Repeat Signs tell us to repeat a certain section of music during performance. A Repeat Sign looks like a double bar with two dots by it.

In the above music you see the repeat sign after the music. This tells us to repeat all of the music you have just played. When you encounter the repeat sign the second time you ignore the repeat sign and keep playing. Sometimes there are instructions to repeat more than once.

Sometimes only part of the music is to be repeated. For this a backwards repeat sign is used in addition to a regular repeat sign. To play the following music:

1. Play measures one through three.
2. Go back to measure two and play measures two and three.
3. If there is music beyond the repeat then go on to that music.

Measures and Bar Lines

Measures are groupings of notes, usually grouped by meter. Bar Lines show us where one measure ends and another begins.

There are different types of Bar Lines, each with a different function

A Single Bar Line is the normal Bar Line, it tells us where the measures are:

A Double Bar Line shows there is there is a major change in the music, such as a new musical section or new time signature:

A "Final" Double Bar Line shows that the piece of music is over: