In music rhythm is the placement of sounds in time whether it be a drum beat or the strumming of a guitar chord. While many guitarists get by without knowing how to read rhythms it is highly recommended to have a basic knowledge of how rhythms are written in music notation. This will help you to understand better how music works rhythmically and to be able to communicate rhythms to other musicians who aren’t just guitarists such as drummers!
In music notation, time is notated from left to right. Understanding rhythmic notation is essential to learning and studying rhythm.
The Beat
Most music has a steady pulse called the beat. It’s the steady rhythm to which you tap your foot to or dance to. Think of the music you’ve heard in a dance club and you can easily imagine the beat. Time in music revolves around this beat.
Bars
To help keep your place in music, beats are grouped into bars. Often four beats create a single bar. The steady pulse of a 4 beat bar would be counted as “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4” etc. Beat one always marks the beginning of the bar. Some music like waltz’s have 3 beat bars. Any number of beats can be grouped into a bar. The structure of the song will decide how the beats counted.
Barlines
In music notation barlines separate the musical bars. There are several types of barlines:
- Most barlines are a single line.
- A double barline marks the end of a section of music.
- A final barline is a double barline with a thick second barline marking the end of the piece.
- A barline with double dots on the left of the barline indicates a repeat back to the start of the piece or to the preceding double dot on the right hand side of the barline.
Rhythms
Rhythms in music are based on fractions. As a four beat bar is the most common, all rhythmic labelling is based on a bar containing 4 beats. For example a whole note is 4 beats as it usually fills a whole 4 beat bar while a half note is held for 2 beats. Like it or not rhythms in music are based on mathematics and you have to learn to count!
Notes and Rests
Rhythm notation will tell you two things about notes: when to play them, and how long they’re held for. The length a note is played for is called its note value.
Rests are also included to tell you when, and for how long not to play. Every note value has a matching rest value.
Below are the most common rhythmic values with their counts. A note value that is half the length will be played twice as fast as the slower note. For example a quarter beat note is played twice as fast as a half note.
The + in the eighth note example are counted as the word “and” while sixteenth notes are counted as “1 e and a, 2 e and a” etc.
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Listen to the audio of the Rhythm Notation Note & Rest Values. |
Dotted Notes
Dots placed after a note add 50% more length or time value to them. For example a 2 beat half note with a dot added after it will now be held for 3 beats.
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Rhythm Notation Dotted Notes | Download Listen to the audio of the Rhythm Notation Dotted Notes. |
Ties
Ties tie 2 notes together so that only the first of the 2 tied notes is played. This often happens across 2 bars. In the example below the quarter beat notes with the number written in brackets aren’t played.
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Rhythm Notation Tied Notes | Download Listen to the audio of the Rhythm Notation Tied Notes. |
Time Signatures
Time signatures tell you how many beats are in the bars in a piece of music. They are written as two numbers written like a fraction.
- The top number tells you how many beats to count
- The bottom number tells you what type of note to count.
This means whether you count the beats as quarter notes, eighth notes, or sixteenth notes. Have a look at the examples below.
4/4 Time Signature
4/4 has 4 quarter note beats per bar and is the most commonly time signature in most styles of music. Most pop/rock music is in this time signature which is why drummers often count a band in with “1 2 3 4” to set the tempo (speed) of a song.
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4/4 Time Signature | Download Listen to the audio of the 4/4 Time Signature. |
3/4 Time Signature Example
3/4 has 3 quarter note beats per bar and is used in waltz’s such as the famous “Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss. Other songs in 3/4 include “The Times They Are A Changin’” by Bob Dylan and “Mull of Kintyre” by Paul McCartney.
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3/4 Time Signature | Download Listen to the audio of the 3/4 Time Signature. |
6/8 Time Signature Example
6/8 has 6 eighth note beats grouped into 2 sets of 3 eighth note per bar and is used songs including “Norwegian Wood” by The Beatles, “House of The Rising Sun” by The Animals and “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. While ultimately having the same number of beats as 3/4, So 6/8 feels more like two with accents on beats 1 and 4 of the bar, while 3/4 feels more like three.
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6/8 Time Signature | Download Listen to the audio of the 6/8 Time Signature. |
So know you’ve nutted out the basic knowledge of how rhythms are written in music notation have a go reading some rhythms whether they be from drum music or classical or jazz music books etc. and apply them to your own chord strumming or single note playing. You could even try writing down your own rhythms that you may already be playing on the guitar. Rhythm reading isn’t easy and like any musical skill it must be practiced consistently to improve.