Rhythmic NotationMrs. Warren

McDonough Elementary School

Music is made up of two main components, pitch and rhythm. The pitch is how high or low a note sounds. Rhythm is the duration or length of the note.

In this lesson you will be focusing on rhythm. You will learn about various rhythmic symbols and how many beats each rhythm gets.

A whole note gets 4 beats.

The whole note just has a note head that is not colored in.

w

A half note gets half of the value of a whole

note. Think of it like a pizza.

If the whole pizza has

4 slices and you are told

you can eat half of it

how many slices can you

eat?

Answer: Half of the pizza would be 2 slices.

1/2 1/2

A half note equals two beats.

hA half note has a stem and a note head that is not

colored in.

Stemnote head

It takes two half notes to equal the same number of beats as one whole note.

w= 4

h+ h=

4 2 + 2

A quarter note gets ¼ value of the whole note.

Use the pizza again. If you

are told you can eat ¼ of a

a pizza that has 4 slices

how many slices can

you eat?

Answer: 1 slice

1/41/41/4

1/4

1/4 1/4

A quarter note gets 1 beat

q

A quarter note has a stem and a colored in note head.

It takes four quarter notes to equal the same amount of beats as a whole note.

w= 4

q+ q+ q+ q=

4

An eighth note gets 1/8 of the value of a whole note.

Use the pizza again. This

equation is a little more

difficult! If you are

told you can eat an 1/8 of a

pizza that has 4 slices how

many slices can you eat?

Answer: ½ a slice.

1/8 1/8

1/8

1/8

1/81/8

1/8

1/8

An eighth note equals ½ a beat.

One eighth note by itself has a flag.

eWhen two eighth notes are together they are joined by 1 bar across the top.

ryflag

bar

It takes eight eighth notes to equal the same amount of beats as one whole note.

w= 4

e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e=

4½ + ½ + ½ + ½ + ½ + ½ + ½ + ½

WholeNote

4 beats

wHalfNote

2beats h h

QuarterNote

1beat q q q q

EighthNote

½beat e e e e ry ry

Music is made up of both sound and silence.

For every symbol that represents an amount of sound there is a corresponding rest that represents an equal amount of silence.

A whole note rest equals 4 beats of silence

WA whole note rest is a rectangle that hangs under a line on the staff.

A half note rest equals 2 beats of silence.

HA half note rest is a rectangle that hangs above a line on the staff. It almost looks like a top hat!

A quarter note rest equals 1 beat of silence.

Q

An eighth note rest equals ½ a beat of silence.

E

Whole Note

4 beats

wWholeNote Rest

4 beats ofsilence W

Half Note 2 beats

h hHalf Note Rest

2 beats ofsilence H H

Quarter Note

1 beat

q q q qQuarterNote Rest

1 beat ofsilence Q Q Q Q

Eighth Note

½ beat e e e e ry ryEighthNote Rest

½ beat ofsilence E E E E E E E E

Use what you have learned to figure out these rhythm addition problems.

1).q+ q=

2

h+q=3

Q+ry=

2)

3) 2

4) w+h= 6

5) ry+ h=

3

6) H+ h=

4

7) w+Q=

5

8) ry+ry= 2