Hear the Beat, Feel the Music: Count, Clap and Tap Your Way to Remarkable Rhythm by James Joseph

Author:James Joseph [Joseph, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BlueChip Publishers
Published: 2018-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

LINGO ALERT: When referring to a time signature the word “signature” is often dropped. So a common way to verbally describe them would be “three-four time” for the 3/4 time signature and “four-four time” for the 4/4 time signature.

The bottom number of the fraction of the time signature—the number “4” in the case of both 3/4 time and 4/4 time—tells you what kind of note…whoops, I know, things just got fuzzy. But don’t stress, keep reading.

I find the bottom number important for one particular reason. It’s the explanation behind a term you might occasionally hear: quarter note. When the bottom number is a “4” that means it’s a quarter note. Although quarter note is a part of music theory, you might hear it used in a dance class because it’s not uncommon for a dance teacher to also be a musician. So it wouldn’t hurt to tack the phrase quarter note on the back wall of your brain for occasional access.

SUPER-ADVANCED INFO ALERT: I probably shouldn’t define it any further because you don’t need to know this, but here goes: a quarter note is a musical note with the time value of one quarter of a whole note. Now take a deep breath and just let it go.

Here’s the thing to know about a quarter note: what a non-musician would call the “beat,” a musician might call a “quarter note.” So, whenever you hear someone talk about a quarter note, don’t freak out, just consider that they may be talking about the beat of music. For example, if someone says, “clap on the quarter note,” they may just mean, “clap on the beat.” If someone throws “eighth note” or “sixteenth note” at you…duck. But, seriously, that’s way, way TMI if your only goal is to hear the beat. I think musicians mean well when they throw terms like quarter note and eighth note at the masses of starving non-musicians, but really, it’s confusing.

My apologies to music mavens if I took liberties and oversimplified time signatures. But, hey, that’s my job, to uncomplicate the complicated and comfort the confused.

LINGO ALERT: Generally, “3/4 time” and “waltz time” are used synonymously (although not all 3/4 time music will make you feel like dancing a waltz).

ULTRA-ADVANCED INFO ALERT: This may be TMI, but I think a chapter on the waltz and time signatures might be lacking if I didn’t mention the 6/8 time signature because you occasionally find it in popular music. The oddball thing about this time signature is that there’s both a fast way to count it, in sets of 6 like a waltz, plus a slow way to count it, as if it were in sets of 8. Pretty trippy, huh? Even though 6/8 time is, technically, not waltz timing, it can feel like a waltz and people often dance a Viennese waltz (a fast waltz). There are a few well-known songs in 6/8 time; for example, “One and Only” by Adele, “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal, “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, “We Are the Champions” by Queen and “Norwegian Wood” by the Beatles.

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