Lesson 7 Metre and Rhythm: Composing a 3-Part Rhythmic Piece.

Drum Pattern Listen to the following typical drum set rock pattern. Drum Pattern Describe in words what this pattern consists of.

There were three different drum sounds; hi-hat cymbals, a snare drum and a bass or kick drum. The bass drum kept a steady beat. There were two hi-hat attacks for every one bass drum. The snare drum beat with every second bass drum. Your description may or may-not have looked something like this: You can see how describing music in words can be cumbersome and inaccurate.

Rhythmic Notation Below is one way in which the pattern could be represented using musical notation. Time Signature Barline Quarter Rest Quarter Note Eighth Notes

Metre Metre is the term used to describe the way in which a piece of music is measured over time. The metre is set at the beginning of the musical passage using the TIME SIGNATURE. What is the Time Signature of the Drum Pattern? (See previous slide).

Time Signature The Time Signature for the drum pattern is set at 4/4. What does this mean? 4444 The top number indicates the number of BEATS in each measure. The bottom number specifies the type of note that will receive the beat.

Beats The music itself is divided into units known as Bars or Measures which are separated by Barlines..Measures contain a certain number of beats. The number of beats are determined by the Time Signature. In the drum pattern below, there are four beats in each measure. Notice the bass drum part contains four quarter notes which actually keep the steady beat. Count the beats by saying “one, two, three, four” listening to the example. How many times do you reach the number 4?

Pulse & Beat skip The bass drum in the previous example provides a steady beat of 4 beats in each measure. This is also known as the pulse of the music (similar to your own regular heart-rate pulse). In the drum pattern example, the pulse is four steady QUARTER NOTES per measure. The words pulse and beat refer essentially to the same things in 4/4 time – this will not always be the case!

Note Durations GG q Quarter note (1 count in 4/4 time) h Half Note – twice as long as quarter note (2 counts in 4/4 time) e Eighth Note – half as long as quarter note (1/2 count in 4/4 time) w Whole Note – 4 times as long as quarter note (4 beats in 4/4 time) How many half notes can fit in a measure in 4/4 time? Eighth Notes? Whole Notes? Different notes are held for varying numbers of beats or durations with respect to the metre.

Rhythm Rhythm is the combination of long and short sounds and silences which are symbolized by different kinds of notes. The rhythm for the bass drum part consists of 4 even quarter notes. In a previous slide we noted that this was the steady beat. In this case the rhythm and the steady beat are the same. Try counting while listening to the bass drum part.

Subdivisions of the Beat The hi-hat has twice as many notes as the bass drum. It’s rhythm is made up of 8 steady EIGHTH NOTES per measure. This can be counted as: 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and Ti – ti Ti-ti Ti-ti Ti-ti Try counting this while listening to the hi-hat part (with the bass drum pulse) Notice how the numbers still fall on the main beat. The “ands” happen within the beat and are called subdivisions of the beat.

Rests The snare drum is hit only on beats 2 and 4. During beats 1 and 3, it is given a REST equivalent to the length of 1 quarter note. Note the symbol for a quarter rest. Rests are also possible for other durations. These will appear in future chapters. The snare drum part can be counted: Rest-2-Rest-4 Count along while listening to the snare drum part (as well as the bass drum pulse).

Composition Assignment Obviously musical rhythms can be much more complicated than the simple pattern we’ve been examining. As well, metres other than 4/4 are possible. We will examine more complicated metres and rhythms in the next chapter. For now, write a 4 measure rhythm composition in 4/4 time. Use three separate lines. Make your bottom line a steady beat using 4 quarter notes. Use different note durations (or quarter rests) in the top two lines. Be careful that each measure adds up to 4. Select a different percussion instrument for each line and add dynamic and tempo markings.