4. Note and Rest Values

Published by Jason Yang on

Note and Rest Values - Jason Yang Pianist

Note Values

The musical notes we see come in different shapes which represent the lengths of the notes. Here is a chart of the different types of notes we can have.

Note and Rest Values - Jason Yang Pianist

Depending on where you are in the world you may call the notes different names. The second column is what European countries tend to call them while the third column is how the American countries refer to the notes.

The ‘American’ way of naming the notes is a handy way to remember the relationships between the note values. However, when we get into time signatures it gets pretty confusing.

So, to make things simpler, we’ll just stick to the European way and remember how they relate to each other.

Exercise 1 : Set your metronome to 40, clap crotchets, minims, semibreves, quavers, and repeat at faster speeds.

Make sure you can see these shapes and automatically know their beat value. This is very important in the long run.

Having a strong sense of rhythm is very important so feel free to upload a video on Youtube and share with me. I’d be happy to check it out and give you some advice.

Rest Values

For every note value we have the same rest value. The rests correspond as follows.

Note and Rest Values - Jason Yang Pianist

Exercise 2: Draw out random note values on a sheet of paper. Memorize the rest values and without looking at the above chart, draw in the corresponding rest values.

 

Exercise 3: Draw out random rest values on a sheet of paper. Without looking at the above chart, draw in the corresponding note values.

When you’re done the above exercises, check them with the above chart and move onto the next post!

 

 

 

Categories: Music Theory

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