Rhythm and Time Signatures

Rhythm and Timing are two of the most important parts of music. Though they don't relate to any particular pitches or notes, they are what define the length of these notes and organize the time line of our music. Here I'm going to be explaining from simple time signatures, to the more complex and harder to understand time signatures, and I will include various rhythms in notated form to show you what you can do with these. This is probably not for the absolute beginner, but read on anyway if you are.

The first time signature I will explain is 4/4. This is the most common time signature, and is also the easiest to understand, as it is synchronized with our natural rhythm.

This is a selection of simple rhythms that can be used in the 4/4 time signature. The first is simple, one Crochet on each beat of the bar. This would be played as a simple 1, 2, 3, 4, in succession. You just count, in equal increments, from 1 to 4, then back to 1 again to start the next bar!

'1, 2, 3, 4'

The second is two Minim beats on the first and third of the bar, which would be played as, "1 & 2 &". The & is in there because Minims are twice the length of a crotchet, so we have to count the first two beats of the bar as one beat.

'1, &, 2, &',

'1, 2, 3, 4'

The third rhythm is a mixture of both the above, starting with two crochets on the first two beats, then one minim holding over the final two beats of the bar.

'1, 2, 3, &'

'1, 2, 3, 4'

In the fourth rhythm I have introduced Quavers. These last only half a crotchet, and so the & will act as the second half of the beat.

'1, 2 & 3, 4 &'

'1, 2--, 3, 4--'

The fifth rhythm notated here is more difficult to count in 4/4, as it has a quaver Tied Across One of the Beats. This would be counted as

'1 & 2 &, & 4 &'.

'1--, 2-, 3--, 4--'

A little bit confusing, but easy when you get the hang of it. You just need to pause where the tie-line connects the notes, making them into one Crotchet.

There are also more complicated ways to notate rhythms in 4/4, including using Triplets and Swing time.

The first rhythm here is a Triplet Rhythm, notated using triplet Brackets over quavers. These work by taking One Third from the note, leaving it only 2/3 the length it would normally be. The two thirds lost from two of the notes can be added on at the end using one more triplet note, creating three triplet notes that fill the space of two full length notes. This would be written as:

'123, 1--, 1--, 123'

'1---, 2--, 3--, 4---'

The 123 here should be counted Within the Time Space of One Crotchet. This can take a while to get the hang of, so to help I'll say this. Think of pirate music.

There is an easier way to write triplets without using triplet brackets. I will show how this is done later using Compound Time.

The second rhythm is a Swing time rhythm. This is created by using one elongated note followed by a shortened note, creating a relaxed triplet style rhythm.

'1&2, 1&2, 1&2, 1&2'

'1---, 2--, 3--, 4--'

The 1, the & and the 2 are all of the same length in this example. As you can see from the notation above, I have introduced two new concepts. One is Dotted Notes and the other is Semi Quavers. These are the building blocks of Swing! A dot after a note means that the note needs to be extended by one half of its length, meaning that a dotted quaver is as long as one quaver and one semi quaver. A semi quaver is half the length of one quaver. This is the same as triplet quavers, but the middle note is extended as part of the first, and the third is left as it is. Triplets and dotted notes make slightly different time variations, but the effect remains the same.

Some more common simple time signatures include 3/4 and 5/4.

3/4 is much like 4/4, except that it has one less crochet beat per bar. "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3".

5/4 is also similar, but instead of missing one crochet beat it has one added on top.

'1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5'. An easier way to count this is "1, 2, 3, 1, 2,/ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2".