![]() ![]() The bar lines are important because they help you to understand the underlying heartbeat of a piece of music. The bar lines divide the music into measures, but what to call a measure in laymen’s terms to help a new learner wrap their head around the idea? I may come back in the future and update the post to use the word measure instead of section. But I couldn’t think of a better word to use. It's like the word pizza: the first syllable is accented, the second syllable is not.Įxcellent point, Chris! Your observation reminds me of the Benjamin Zander TED Talk, where he demonstrates that a musician’s ability to express music improves drastically as they learn to focus less on the impulses and more on the phrasing.Īnd yes, I hesitated using the word “section” because to my mind, a section is a larger thing in a piece of music, like an exposition or even a theme within an exposition, or a section as indicated with a double bar line. You also have to know that these beats follow a pattern of a STRONG beat followed by a weak beat. It's not enough to know that 2/4 time means 2 beats to a measure. My favourite examples (that I use with my students all the time) are: pizza, strawberry, and watermelon. The easiest way to get a handle on meter is to relate it to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the language you speak every day. Yes, 2/4 time and 4/4 actually do sound different! It's a part of the time signature that you're expected to understand.Įvery time signature has a unique meter, and this is what makes the time signatures sound different from each other. You're expected to know about the meter and play the music accordingly, but you won't find any explicit instructions about it on your piece of music. It's like the “secret” message hidden inside every time signature. The term meter refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed beats in a measure of music. (You're not likely to come across this in the pieces of music you'll be learning as a beginner.) Meter The only time you'll ever see a time signature outside the first measure of a piece of music is if the music changes to a new time signature. The complexity of the music is not intimidating for them, and it is so easy for me to insert into lessons.On the first measure of every subsequent line, you'll find the clef and the key signature repeated, but the time signature will not be repeated. I see a difference in my students' comfort level approaching new piano pieces. now they have a reason to pay attention to where a sharp actually goes. Then, the following week, it was D, D, A, A, B, B, A. We have been writing out "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are." No timing - just plain whole notes.įirst we all started with C, C, G, G, A, A, G. I like to give them a familiar tune, and make them write out just the first phrase. We'll keep drawing those treble clefs until they can make them better than me! What good is this for older players? Mostly they will get it, and then we expand outward from there. ![]() ![]() Where do you think it will be?" and I ask them to draw the F. What is the note below G, touching G?" (It is F, of course.) Then I say, "So F has to touch the G line. This is for the beginners who are having trouble seeing higher and lower notes, line or space notes. None of the cursive letters REALLY look like the treble clef, of course but after a bit of guessing, I'll mention how in the OLDEN DAYS, cursive writing was very fancy, and that treble clef really did look like the letter G. I'll draw line note G on the second line and ask them, "What is the note on that line?" and then we go through the musical alphabet, with me drawing a cursive alphabet, if they don't remember what that landmark note is. swoop up and over to the middle line, then down and swirl around the second line!" That second line is "G", of course now make a big backwards capital 'D', landing on the bottom line. up to the top and over a little bit - make a small capital 'D'. it is a challenge just to make the loops and swirls in the right directions, and then to land them on the target lines takes real attention!įor an all-in-one line, I direct them (as I am also drawing), "Umbrella handle - start at the bottom. They all LOVE to practice drawing notes and musical symbols! I start with drawing the treble clef Lately, every lesson, all of my students spend about 3 minutes with one of these staffs.
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