2. Rhythm: beats and their parts
▶ Open in Aratu to hear and change the examples
Three rules describe every rhythm in a bar.
Rule 1. A space separates beats. A line in 4/4 has four groups. If a bar
has the wrong number of beats, Aratu says so in those words: "bar 2 of
bass has 5 beats, but the meter is 4/4".
Rule 2. Symbols written together share their beat equally.
| Written | In one beat |
|---|---|
c |
a quarter note |
cc |
two eighths |
cccc |
four sixteenths |
ccc |
an eighth-note triplet |
ccccc |
a quintuplet |
Rule 3. _ holds the sound before it for one more part; - is a rest.
| Rhythm in one beat | Written |
|---|---|
| sixteenth, sixteenth, eighth | ccc_ |
| sixteenth, eighth, sixteenth | cc_c |
| eighth, sixteenth, sixteenth | c_cc |
| dotted eighth, sixteenth | c__c, or the shorthand c.c |
| eighth rest, eighth | -c |
A _ on its own is a whole beat held, so c _ is a half note and c _ _ _
a whole note. A _ at the start of a bar ties across the bar line.
Rests follow the same rules: - takes one part, as a note would.
| Rest | Written in 4/4 |
|---|---|
| a whole bar, in any meter | | - | |
| eight bars | | - x8 | |
| half | - - |
| quarter | - as a beat |
| eighth | -c or c- |
| sixteenth | -ccc, c-cc |
| dotted eighth, then a sixteenth | -__c or -.c |
Accents. An upper-case symbol is accented: cC cc accents the "and" of
beat one.
Bar lines. | is a bar line, as in a score. A line can hold several
bars: | cc cc | co cc |. A line with no bar line is one bar.
Groups. Square brackets make a group that shares one part, and spaces
are allowed inside them: c[cc] is an eighth and two sixteenths. The .
shorthand stands for __, so c.c is c__c.