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Basics of Time in Music Notation: Beat, Bar, Time Signatures

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Summary

In this lesson, students will explore the concept of musical time. They will learn about its divisions - beats, as well as about the basic time signatures - 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. The class will listen to song excerpts in these meters and practice playing a steady pulse along a song, using different types of body percussion.

 

⏰ Time: 45 min

🎓 Grades: 5-12

🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will be able to...

  • Understand different musical elements and building blocks;
  • Understand what beat, pulse and time signature is;
  • Play a steady beat;
  • Play one drop rhythm;
  • Reflect on the difference of time signatures.

💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:

  • Basic rhythm.

💻 Materials:

  • Solfeg.io app best used with Chrome browser
  • Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi
  • Simple percussion instruments (optional)

 

Visual presentation

 

Song suggestions:

 

Inspiration

🕐 10 min - Time in music

  • Talk about musical time.
    • What makes music different from such art forms as painting and sculpture?
      • Obviously, there's no sound in painting or sculpture! Point students' attention to the fact that music requires no material substance and occurs over time.
    • How could musical time be measured?
      • Seconds? Minutes? Years? Hmm, sure, there are some extreme cases, for example, the piece 'As Slow As Possible' by the American composer John Cage which is supposed to last for 639 years and is played on a church organ in the German town of Halberstadt.
      • Usually, though, the basic units of music don't correspond to the common units of time.
    • What, in your opinion, is beat?
      • A regular, rhythmic sound or movement.
    • Where can you hear or feel beat in your daily life?
      • Heartbeat;
      • Footsteps;
      • Clock ticking;
      • Sea waves etc.

 

Warm-Up

🕐 5 min - Feel the beat!

  • Shortly explain what beat is in music.
    • Basic rhythmic unit;
    • A division of musical time;
    • Regularly recurring articulations in the flow of musical time;
    • Often used interchangeably with 'pulse'.
  • In music, the beats are organized in measures.
  • There are accented and unaccented beats (called downbeats and upbeats). The strongest accent usually falls on the first beat after the bar-line.
  • The number of beats to the measure is indicated by the time signature at the beginning of a piece.

 

Practice

🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - 4/4

  • Open the song 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' by The Proclaimers or explore the Song Library and find another song in 4/4 time signature.
    • 4/4 is the most common time signature in popular music, so most of the songs in the Song Library are in this time signature.
    • 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' is suggested because of the simple rhythm in Chorus.
  • Show students where the time signature is located: after the clef and the key signature.
  • The lower number of the time signature indicates the unit of measurement (here: a quarter note), the upper indicates the number of units in each measure (here: four). It means there are four quarter notes in each measure.
  • Listen to Chorus 1 and invite students to do the beat - play quarter notes using the body percussion of choice and/or simple percussion instruments, if available.
  • When students have achieved a steady pulse of quarter notes, ask them to count from 1 to 4 and accent the beat 'one'.
    • Imagine a rolling square!
    • They can either simply try to play the first beat louder or use a different body percussion type.

🕐 5 min - Exercise 2 - 3/4

  • Explain that the beat can be organized in twos or threes - it's called duple or triple meter.
  • Open the song 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica.
  • Ask students what is the time signature of this song (3/4).
  • Play and excerpt of the song and repeat the previous exercise:
    • Do the beat - play quarter notes using the body percussion of choice and/or simple percussion instruments, if available;
    • Count from 1 to 3;
    • Accent the first beat - imagine a rolling triangle!

🕐 10 min - Exercise 3 - 2/4

  • Open the song 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley.
  • Ask students what is the time signature of this song (2/4).
  • Play and excerpt of the song and repeat the previous exercise:
    • Do the beat - play quarter notes using the body percussion of choice and/or simple percussion instruments, if available;
    • Count from 1 to 2;
    • Accent the first beat.
    • You spoke about a rolling square and triangle previously. Ask the class:
      • What shape could now illustrate the movement?
        • Instead of geometric forms, you could let yourself be inspired by the title of the song: think of a bird moving its wings up and down!
  • Discuss with the class:
    • Was this task more challenging than the ones in other time signatures?
    • Why?
      • This song features 'one drop rhythm' - characteristic of reggae. In the rhythm section, the hit on beat one is omitted.
  • Under the menu 'Controls' - 'Volume' mute all the tracks, except the vocal line and the first rhythm line.
  • Invite students to snap their fingers (or do a different suitable body percussion) along the rhythm.
    • A challenge: can they sing along too?
  • When they have achieved a steady pulse, gradually unmute the other tracks: start with the other two rhythm lines, then add the second keyboard part, then all the rest.
    • Students should try to keep on playing the rhythm!

 

Reflection

🕐 5 min - Discussion

  • How would you describe the difference between music in 4/4 and music in 3/4?
    • Since 3/4 is usually associated with waltz and 4/4 with march or disco, such qualities as dancing/flowing vs. marching/square could be mentioned.
  • How would you describe music with one drop rhythm? (Cheerful, moving forward, jumping, relaxed etc.)

 

Beyond the Lesson

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...

  • Exploring the Song Library and playing the beat to other songs;
Capture.PNG
  • Assigning the chatbot class 'Master the Rhythm I' as homework.

 

Summary

In this lesson, students will explore the concept of musical time. They will learn about its divisions - beats, as well as about the simple time signatures - 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. They will use the online class “Basics of Time in Music Notation” with chatbot guidance to listen to song excerpts in these meters and practice playing a steady pulse, using different types of body percussion. The lesson consists of setting up the online class, explaining theory fundamentals, and guiding your students to do practical exercises with the help of a chatbot.

 

⏰ Time: 45 min

🎓 Grades: 5-7

🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will be able to...

  • Understand different musical elements and building blocks;
  • Understand what beat, pulse and time signature is;
  • Play a steady beat;
  • Reflect on the difference of time signatures.

💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:

  • Basics of music notation

💻 Materials:

  • Solfeg.io app best used with Chrome browser
  • Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi

 

Song suggestions:

 

!!! If this is the first online setup lesson for your class, we recommend starting with an onboarding lesson using this presentation explaining how solfeg.io works. Download it here. If the class is more than 10 students, this may take around 30 minutes to register and go through the app.

🤳 Video conference call provider:

  • Google Hangouts is recommended, as students only need a Google account and won’t need to install the program in advance. You can share a link however best works for you. Read how to set it up here.

 

Before the lesson

🕐 5 min - Announcement for Students

  • Instructions for your next lesson...
    • Open this Google video call link via phone: Insert your unique Google Hangouts invite link here
    • Access your Solfeg.io account via desktop: Insert your unique Solfeg.io invite link here
    • The online class will be 45 minutes. For optimal learning, find a room with little background noise.
    • We will be learning how to recognize different clefs, tempo and dynamic signs.

🕐 5 min - Setting Up an Online Classroom

  • Send your video conference call link to students. For best results:
    • Encourage them to make this call via mobile device for optimal sound management
    • Make sure everyone can hear and see you.
  • Students log into Solfeg.io on their desktop
  • Students mute their microphone to hear you clearly. They should unmute if they want to ask a question.
  • Teacher preloads one of the suggested songs for this lesson.

 

Warm-Up

🕐 7 min - Time in music

  • Talk about musical time.
    • What makes music different from such art forms as painting and sculpture?
      • Obviously, there's no sound in painting or sculpture! Point students' attention to the fact that music requires no material substance and occurs over time.
    • How could musical time be measured?
      • Seconds? Minutes? Years? Hmm, sure, there are some extreme cases, for example, the piece 'As Slow As Possible' by the American composer John Cage which is supposed to last for 639 years and is played on a church organ in the German town of Halberstadt.
      • Usually, though, the basic units of music don't correspond to the common units of time.
    • What, in your opinion, is beat?
      • A regular, rhythmic sound or movement.
    • Where can you hear or feel beat in your daily life?
      • Heartbeat;
      • Footsteps;
      • Clock ticking;
      • Sea waves etc.

🕐 5 min - Introduction

  • Shortly introduce the concepts of beat, bar and time signature.

 

Practice

🕐 30 min - Learn basics of time in music notation with chatbot guidance

  • Lead students to the Classes section in Solfeg.io;
Capture.PNG
  • Show them where the “Basics of Time in Music Notation” class is located;
  • Tell them to take the class to learn more about staff, treble clef, measures (bars), notes and ledger lines.

 

Reflection

Check if your students understood the material by testing their knowledge at the start of the next lesson!

🕐 4 min - Exercise 1

  • Show a musical score of a song to students;
  • Ask them to identify the time signature;
  • Ask them about the differences between 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.

🕐 4 min - Exercise 2

  • Play a song excerpt;
  • Ask students to play the beat, using body percussion;
  • Ask them to use different types of body percussion on strong and weak beats.

🕐 4 min - Exercise 3

  • Listen to musical excerpts with different simple time signatures;
  • Ask students to describe the difference between the excerpts.
    • For example, such qualities as dancing/flowing vs. marching/square could be mentioned.

 

Beyond the Lesson

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...

  • Exploring the Song Library and finding songs with different time signatures;
  • Playing the beat to other songs.

 

Summary

In this lesson, students will explore the concept of musical time. They will learn about its divisions - beats, as well as about the basic time signatures - 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. The class will listen to song excerpts in these meters and practice playing a steady pulse along a song, using different types of body percussion.

 

⏰ Time: 45 min

🎓 Grades: 5-12

🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will be able to...

  • Understand different musical elements and building blocks;
  • Understand what beat, pulse and time signature is;
  • Play a steady beat;
  • Play one drop rhythm;
  • Reflect on the difference of time signatures.

💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:

  • Basic rhythm.

💻 Materials:

  • Solfeg.io app best used with Chrome browser
  • Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi
  • Simple percussion instruments (optional)

 

Visual presentation

 

Song suggestions:

 

Inspiration

🕐 10 min - Time in music

  • Talk about musical time.
    • What makes music different from such art forms as painting and sculpture?
      • Obviously, there's no sound in painting or sculpture! Point students' attention to the fact that music requires no material substance and occurs over time.
    • How could musical time be measured?
      • Seconds? Minutes? Years? Hmm, sure, there are some extreme cases, for example, the piece 'As Slow As Possible' by the American composer John Cage which is supposed to last for 639 years and is played on a church organ in the German town of Halberstadt.
      • Usually, though, the basic units of music don't correspond to the common units of time.
    • What, in your opinion, is beat?
      • A regular, rhythmic sound or movement.
    • Where can you hear or feel beat in your daily life?
      • Heartbeat;
      • Footsteps;
      • Clock ticking;
      • Sea waves etc.

 

Warm-Up

🕐 5 min - Feel the beat!

  • Shortly explain what beat is in music.
    • Basic rhythmic unit;
    • A division of musical time;
    • Regularly recurring articulations in the flow of musical time;
    • Often used interchangeably with 'pulse'.
  • In music, the beats are organized in measures.
  • There are accented and unaccented beats (called downbeats and upbeats). The strongest accent usually falls on the first beat after the bar-line.
  • The number of beats to the measure is indicated by the time signature at the beginning of a piece.

 

Practice

🕐 10 min - Exercise 1 - 4/4

  • Open the song 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' by The Proclaimers or explore the Song Library and find another song in 4/4 time signature.
    • 4/4 is the most common time signature in popular music, so most of the songs in the Song Library are in this time signature.
    • 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' is suggested because of the simple rhythm in Chorus.
  • Show students where the time signature is located: after the clef and the key signature.
  • The lower number of the time signature indicates the unit of measurement (here: a quarter note), the upper indicates the number of units in each measure (here: four). It means there are four quarter notes in each measure.
  • Listen to Chorus 1 and invite students to do the beat - play quarter notes using the body percussion of choice and/or simple percussion instruments, if available.
  • When students have achieved a steady pulse of quarter notes, ask them to count from 1 to 4 and accent the beat 'one'.
    • Imagine a rolling square!
    • They can either simply try to play the first beat louder or use a different body percussion type.

🕐 5 min - Exercise 2 - 3/4

  • Explain that the beat can be organized in twos or threes - it's called duple or triple meter.
  • Open the song 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica.
  • Ask students what is the time signature of this song (3/4).
  • Play and excerpt of the song and repeat the previous exercise:
    • Do the beat - play quarter notes using the body percussion of choice and/or simple percussion instruments, if available;
    • Count from 1 to 3;
    • Accent the first beat - imagine a rolling triangle!

🕐 10 min - Exercise 3 - 2/4

  • Open the song 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley.
  • Ask students what is the time signature of this song (2/4).
  • Play and excerpt of the song and repeat the previous exercise:
    • Do the beat - play quarter notes using the body percussion of choice and/or simple percussion instruments, if available;
    • Count from 1 to 2;
    • Accent the first beat.
    • You spoke about a rolling square and triangle previously. Ask the class:
      • What shape could now illustrate the movement?
        • Instead of geometric forms, you could let yourself be inspired by the title of the song: think of a bird moving its wings up and down!
  • Discuss with the class:
    • Was this task more challenging than the ones in other time signatures?
    • Why?
      • This song features 'one drop rhythm' - characteristic of reggae. In the rhythm section, the hit on beat one is omitted.
  • Under the menu 'Controls' - 'Volume' mute all the tracks, except the vocal line and the first rhythm line.
  • Invite students to snap their fingers (or do a different suitable body percussion) along the rhythm.
    • A challenge: can they sing along too?
  • When they have achieved a steady pulse, gradually unmute the other tracks: start with the other two rhythm lines, then add the second keyboard part, then all the rest.
    • Students should try to keep on playing the rhythm!

 

Reflection

🕐 5 min - Discussion

  • How would you describe the difference between music in 4/4 and music in 3/4?
    • Since 3/4 is usually associated with waltz and 4/4 with march or disco, such qualities as dancing/flowing vs. marching/square could be mentioned.
  • How would you describe music with one drop rhythm? (Cheerful, moving forward, jumping, relaxed etc.)

 

Beyond the Lesson

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...

  • Exploring the Song Library and playing the beat to other songs;
Capture.PNG
  • Assigning the chatbot class 'Master the Rhythm I' as homework.

 

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