FTCE Music K-12

Rhythm is the pattern of long and short sounds and silences in music. The beat is the steady underlying pulse, tempo is the speed of that pulse, and meter groups beats into regular patterns of strong and weak. Test questions show a short rhythm and ask for its meter, its counting, or the device it uses.

Each note value is half as long as the one before it. A whole note equals two half notes, four quarter notes, eight eighth notes, or sixteen sixteenth notes. In 4/4 the quarter note receives one beat, so a whole note lasts four beats.

Every note value has a rest of equal length. The whole rest hangs below the fourth line of the staff; the half rest sits on top of the third line. A whole rest also marks a full measure of silence in any meter.

A dot adds half of a note's value: a dotted half note lasts three quarter-note beats and a dotted quarter lasts one and a half. A second dot adds half of the first dot's value. A tie joins two notes of the same pitch into one longer sound and may cross a bar line. A slur connects different pitches and affects articulation, not duration.

A tuplet fits an irregular number of equal notes into a beat. A triplet places three notes in the time of two of the same value, so three eighth-note triplets fill one quarter-note beat. A duplet does the reverse in compound meter: two notes in the time of three.

In a simple meter each beat divides into two equal parts. The top number of the time signature gives the beats per measure and the bottom number names the note that gets the beat. In a compound meter each beat divides into three, so the beat is a dotted note; divide the top number by three to find the number of beats. Duple, triple, and quadruple mean two, three, or four beats per measure.

Common time (the symbol C) is 4/4. Cut time, or alla breve (C with a vertical line through it), is 2/2: the half note gets the beat and there are two beats per measure. Asymmetric meters such as 5/8 and 7/8 combine groups of two and three eighth notes, so the beats are unequal in length while the eighth note stays constant. 5/4 groups its quarter notes 3+2 or 2+3.

An anacrusis (pickup) is one or more notes that come before the first full measure. The final measure of the piece is normally shortened by the same amount, so the pickup and the last measure together equal one full measure.

Syncopation places an accent where it is not expected, on a weak beat or between beats. It is created by ties across strong beats, rests on strong beats, accents on offbeats, or long notes that begin off the beat.

Tempo and rhythm are separate ideas. Tempo is how fast the beat moves, shown by a metronome marking or an Italian term. Rhythm is the pattern of durations placed over the beat. Playing a passage faster changes its tempo; the proportions of its rhythm stay the same.