Counting With Other Notes

So far we have really just looked at the straight beat and worked with time signature beat notes that line up with every beat in our measure.
 
Let’s explore 6/8 time in our rhythm counting beats effort. Here an eighth note will get one beat and quarter notes will get two beats. Where it says hold keep your hands together.
Did you catch the change in clapping in the second measure? Remember that a quarter note gets twice as many counts because it takes two eighth notes to make a quarter note. Therefore we clap and hold. 

We say hold here because if we where playing a keyboard we would play the quarter note and hold it through two beats (counts 1 & 2 of the second measure).

Adding A Variety Of Notes

Let’s move it up a notch. Here try it again with dotted notes and half notes.
The → is used to indicate continue to hold.

Eighth note gets one clap per beat

The half note (4  notes) gets one clap for four beats
(count 3 4 5 & 6)

The dotted quarter note (3  notes) gets one clap for 3 beats (2nd measure counts 1 2 & 3)

The quarter note (2  notes) gets one clap for 2 beats (count 5 & 6)

Practice this a few times to get the feel of it.

Download this practice sheet to help you master the basic rhythm counting.

That's the basic idea behind counting rhythm and how the rhythm counting beats is held for different note types and values, This takes a bit of practice, but you can take sheet music with the basic beat counts and count note rhythm by labeling with the count.

Drilling Rhythm a Peferred Partner Resource:

If you would like a few additional resources to drill your rhythmic note values then head over to MakingMusicFun.net.  This music education website features a fun time at the Music Press Distress Game.

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