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Beyond E Major | |
Article from One Two Testing, March 1985 |
is written music rock'n'roll?
Go further with the rhythm method — Billy Jenkins continues to show how you can work it out on paper.
And the beat goes on...
Continuing last month's diatribe on rhythm and tempo, it would be a good idea to see if you could recognise well known patterns in order to help you understand how rhythm is written.
Here's the rhythm of the opening vocal line of an all time Elvis the Pelvis rock and roll classic. Tap it out with an empty medicine phial:
The first full bar also contains a rest on the fourth beat... a silence, a pause, a moment for contemplation. There are rests for all occasions and rests to match all types and lengths of notes. "Hardest things to play" says trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. And how right he is — when attempting to straddle a run of super fast demi-semi-quavers (remember, they're 32nd notes) only to hit a gap about 19/32nd of a way through a bar. You can't bluff it — you've got to be quiet.
The diagram shows the seven types of notes with the names and symbols of their equivalent rests.
When writing rhythm it is good manners to divide a bar into exactly half with an invisible line, and try not to cross it e.g.
What is this symbol?
This has two names, and two functions. As a tie it is used to join one note to another of the same name. It is the chief way of producing syncopation, which is the moving or displacing of the usual accent.
(Another way of shifting the accent is by the placing of a sideways "vee" shape over or under notes. In these examples the "vee' sign accented notes would be louder than the first beat of the bar.)
Well by now, if you've studied this and last month's articles thoroughly, you should have some picture of understanding, writing, and reading chord and rhythm charts, but let me leave you with a few tips...
Use of rhythm patterns on a chord chart will help to refine the information needed to either write your own music, or for others to play it.
Always use the time signature and bar lines. Spread the bars over one line and always have four bars per line. This assists sightreading. Write the chord names above or below the stave (if you're using one).
Rhythm chart shorthand varies from person to person. Some, like myself, make use of the minim and semi-breve. Others will just use the stem of the crotchet and quaver, and simply tie these together using the bowed symbol when more than one beat is to be played by one note or chord.
When reading a chart someone has given you, it may help to slow the tempo down, and divide the number of beats in the bar so that the shortest note has a value of one count. So say the shortest note is a semi-quaver — break the bar up into 16 counts.
I bet you never knew music was so mathematical!
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