Rhythmic Notation

Just enough notation for you to read any examples in this book. (There’s much more to this topic: ties, rests, tuples, etc.)

For the examples in the rest of this book, it’s best to get a feel for the rhythm in your ears and hands. Listen to the examples for each and maybe play along. Each example has two pickup beats, followed by the measure played twice.

The Basics

Quarter notes

These are quarter notes. Each note is played for one beat.

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true notes :q 0/2 $1$ 0/2 $2$ 0/2 $3$ 0/2 $4$ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

Quarters

Eighth notes

Eighth notes (8th notes) are joined by a bar. An eighth note is half as long as a quarter note, so there are two eighth notes in one beat.

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true notes :8 0/2 $1$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $2$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $3$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $4$ 0/2 $and$ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

8ths

Sixteenth notes

16th notes have a double bar. A 16th note is half as long as an eighth, so there are four 16ths in one beat.

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true notes :16 0/2 $1$ 0/2 $e$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $a$ 0/2 $2$ 0/2 $e$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $a$ notes :16 0/2 $3$ 0/2 $e$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $a$ 0/2 $4$ 0/2 $e$ 0/2 $and$ 0/2 $a$ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

16ths

Triplets

Triplets fit 3 notes into the length of one beat. Sextuplets fit 6.

Some people like different words to say for each beat … e.g, “1-trip-let” or “1-and-uh” for triplets, instead of “1-la-li”. Use whatever works for you.

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true notes :q 0/2 $1...$ 0/2 $2...$ :8 0/2 $3$ 0/2 $la$ 0/2 $li$ ^3^ 0/2 $4$ 0/2 $la$ 0/2 $li$ ^3^ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

Triplets

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true time=12/8 notes :q 0/2 $1...$ 0/2 $2...$ :16 0/2 $3$ 0/2 $ta$ 0/2 $la$ 0/2 $ta$ 0/2 $li$ 0/2 $ta$ 0/2 $4$ 0/2 $ta$ 0/2 $la$ 0/2 $ta$ 0/2 $li$ 0/2 $ta$ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

Sextuplets

Dotted rhythms

Dotted rhythms are great for practicing, so be sure you get a good feel for this.

A dot after a note increases its length by half its value. In each example below, the first two beats are straight 8th notes, and the last two have dotted eights.

Long-short

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true notes :8 0-0-0-0/2 :8d 0/2 $3$ :16 0/2 $a$ :8d 0/2 $4$ :16 0/2 $a$ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

Dotted-long-short

In the above example, notice that the note after the dotted note is a regular 16th note, and it falls on the “a” of “1-e-&-a”. Here are two voices, one playing a dotted rhythm and the other playing straight 16th notes; the last note of each occurs at the same time.

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true tablature=false voice notes :8d 0/1 :16 0/1 voice notes :16 0-0-0-0/3

Short-long

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true notes :8 0-0-0-0/2 :16 0/2 $3$ :8d 0/2 $e$ :16 0/2 $4$ :8d 0/2 $e$ text :q,.1,1,2,3,4

Dotted-short-long

Here are two other voices, one playing a dotted rhythm and the other playing straight 16th notes; the first and second notes of each occur at the same time.

options scale=0.85 font-style=italic tabstave notation=true tablature=false voice notes :16 0/1 :8d 0/1 voice notes :16 0-0-0-0/3

More drills

There are lots of books and tutorials out there for reading rhythms. Some I like are: