SHOSYS ACADEMY 10 LESSON: Conventions Of Rhythm
Kelvin Sholar
1 Introduction To The Blog Series
This series of lessons and tests incorporates an easy music appreciation curriculum for adult beginners who are remote learning, or are self-taught. Lessons are posted on Mondays while Tests are posted on Saturdays. For more in depth and private guidance, I offer personal instruction by Zoom (Personal Meeting ID 8522954569) – for 1 dollar a minute. Time schedules range from a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 60 minutes. Email me at [email protected] to set up personal instruction. I accept payments and cash gifts by Cash App ($KelvinSholar), Zelle ([email protected]) or Paypal (paypal.me/kelvinsholar).
2 Revisiting The Tree Of Knowledge
In Lesson 9, we learned about conventions of labeling harmonies. In this blog, we will learn about conventions of rhythm. This knowledge resides in the Ways branch (1.20) of the Tree of Knowledge (1.00), at the third leaf from the left (1.21) – Conventions.
2.1 Conventions Of Rhythm
Roger Kamien defines rhythm as: “ordered durations of sounds and silences” (Kamien 30). The most basic elements of rhythm are beats; they are positions of pulse in time. When beats are grouped into recurring sets then they are organized by meter (Kamien 31). For example, grouping three beats at a time is organization by triple meter; while grouping two beats at a time is organization by duple meter. Sets of beats in a meter often match the construction of measures. For example, “Mary Had A Little Lamb” is in quadruple meter, as four beats are organized, and each measure has four beats.
Sometimes groups of beats have different degrees of loudness. In Classical music, the first beat (or downbeat) is often louder than the other beats of the measure; it is accented. In Black American music, the second and fourth beats are often louder than the other beats of the measure. Sometimes beats occur between beats, and these are called upbeats. Syncopation is when beats occur in unexpected places; these places are called offbeats.
Roger Kamien defines tempo as “the speed of the beat” (Kamien 32). In physics, speed refers to space divided by time. In musical notation we find that the space of the beat is divided by the minute to defines tempo in “beats-per-minute”. Italian tempo indications where learned in Lesson 6.
In musical notation, each tone occurs for a certain duration or length of time called a time-value or note value (Miller 58). There are four basic time-values in staff notation: whole note, half note, quarter note and eighth note. A whole has the value of four beats. A half note has the value of two beats. A quarter note has the value of one beat. An eighth note has the value of 1/2 of a beat. A sixteenth note has the value of 1/4 beat.
In the staff notation example below, the first measure shows a whole note, the second measure shows two half notes, the third measure shows four quarter notes, the fifth measure shows eight eighth notes and the final measure shows sixteen sixteen notes; each measure is the same total duration of time.
Tones or sounds occur for a given length of time; the same applies to rests. Each time-value has a counterpart in rest-values. For example, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes and sixteen notes have counterparts in whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth rests. In the staff notation below, the first measure shows a whole rest, the second measure shows two half rests, the third measure shows four quarter rests, the fifth measure shows eight eighth rests and the final measure shows sixteen sixteen rests; each measure is the same total duration of time.
The time-value of notes and rests are changed by adding a dot after them; the dot adds half of the time-value. For example, a dotted quarter note adds an eighth note time-value; the result is a time-value of 1 1/2 beats duration. A dotted quarter rest adds an eighth rest time-value; the result is a rest-value of 1 1/2 beats duration. Alternatively, one can tie notes together to achieve longer time-values. For example, two quarter notes tied together produce the time-value of a half note; two quarter rests tied together produce the time-value of a half rest.
A “tuplet” is an irregular division of notes into a given beat; for example when three notes are divided into two beats a “triplet” is derived. (i.e. 3 into 2) (Miller 64).
3 Bibliography
Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives: The Classification Of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company, 1956
Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2018
Miller, Michael. The Complete Idiots Gude To Music Theory. New York: Alpha Books, 2005