Lesson Two Duration

Beat Stop for a minute and feel your pulse. If you are sitting in one place, your heart will probably be beating very regularly. In music we also have a pulse or beat which occurs regularly. Listen to the following melody for the woodblock which is keeping the pulse or beat while the flute plays the melody.

Note Values In that last sound clip you heard some notes that were longer than others. The length of time a note sounds is called its note value. In the sound clip some notes lasted for one beat. They are called quarter notes. Some notes are called half notes. They sound for two beats.

Time signature Notes are organized into groups of two, three, or four beats. We use a time signature to indicate which grouping of beats is being used. A bar line separates the groupings of beats. We count the groupings by saying

Whole notes last for 4 beats. These note values are called eighth notes. These notes last for half a beat. Sometimes they have stems with flags. Sometimes they are joined by beams.

Getting Ready To Compose The melody above uses all the note-values we have learned so far and it is four measures long. A double bar indicates the end of a melody The distance between two bar lines is called a bar or a measure.

Creating a melody using Noteworthy Composer Double click on the program icon. Close the “Did you know?” window Go to File – select “new” Select “blank score” from the Song Templates Window. Click “OK”. Type in a name for your composition Type in your name as “author-composer”. Click “OK”. YOU ARE NOW READY TO BEGIN

Press the letter “C”. Select “treble clef” from the drop box. Click “OK”. Press the letter “G”. Select “4/4 time signature” from the drop box. Click “OK”. Select a quarter note from the tool bar at the top of the screen. Using the arrow keys scroll up or down until you find middle “C”. Press “Enter”. Continue adding the quarter notes until you have completed the first measure. To add a bar line press “Tab”. We will now create this melody using NoteWorthy Composer.

The first measure should look like this: To create the second measure select the eighth note from the tool bar. Use the arrow keys to find the note “G”. Hit enter twice to create the two eight note G’s. To beam the eighth notes high light the two eighth notes and select the beam icon from the right hand side of the tool bar. Continue inputting the notes for measure two. Don’t forget to select the note in the tool bar when you wish to change to a quarter note or eighth note. When you finish to the end of measure four, put the cursor at the beginning of the melody and press F5 to listen to the melody.

My First Composition You are now ready to write your first composition.  Make it 4 measures long  Use a time signature of 4/4  Begin and end on middle “C”.  Use quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes.  Have the notes in your melody move in step-wise motion.