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

Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson on the basics of music notation. Integrate solfeg.io in teaching such concepts as the beat, pulse and time signature.

🎲 What's included in the activities:

• Learning about the meaning and importance of time in music;
• Learning about beats;
• Clapping along the beat;
• Learning about time signatures;
• Clapping along a 4/4 time signature;
• Differentiating between a duple and triple meter;
• Clapping along a 3/4 time signature;
• Clapping along a 2/4 time signature;
• Reflecting
• Ideas for homework & further lessons (Beyond the lesson)

💻 Materials:

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

Time in music

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Reflect on the characteristics of music as a temporal art;
• Notice the rhythm in daily life.

🎲 Activity:

-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 a 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.

Feel the beat!

🕐 Time: 7 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Understand what beat, measure and time signature is;
• Notice the beat in a song.

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• 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.
• Open a song of choice, play a section of it and ask the class to focus on the beat. Play along using a type of body percussion they find the most suitable for the song!

4/4

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn how beats are organized in 4/4 time signature;
• Learn what the most common time signature in music is;
• Play the beat of a song.

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Open the song 'drivers license' by Olivia Rodrigo 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.

• 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 Bridge 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.

3/4

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn how beats are organized in 3/4 time signature;
• Learn the difference between duple and triple meters;
• Play the beat of a song.

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• 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 the time signature of this song is (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!

2/4

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn how beats are organized in 2/4 time signature;
• Play the beat of a song.

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

-Open the song 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley.

-Ask students what the time signature of this song is (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!

Discussion

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Consolidate the knowledge on the different time signatures;
• Describe the characteristics of music in different time signatures.

🎲 Activity:

• 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.)

Quiz

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Test students' knowledge of the basics of time in music notation;
• Recap the topics, as needed for each individual student.

🎲 Activity:

• Give the quiz “Basics of time in music notation” to students as an individual activity at the end of the lesson or as homework.