Music is written with notes that indicate a sound of a given pitch and duration. Some note names are: whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note. The names of notes indicate the relative duration or length of the sounds they represent. For example, if a whole note has a duration of 2 seconds, then a half note has a duration of 1 second, and a quarter note has a duration of 1/2 second.

The absolute length of a note depends on the tempo of the music and the time signature. The time signature defines the beat and the tempo marking tells you how fast or slow the beats are. Sometimes you will see metronome marks to indicate the tempo, and sometimes you will see words such as andante, allegro, adagio or largo, which are all Italian words. You could also see German or English words.

Suppose that you have a time signature of 3/4. The 3/4 is a fraction whose top number, 3, tells you that there are 3 beats in a measure. The bottom number, 4, tells you that a quarter note gets one beat. When you count, count 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 etc. If your time signature is 4/4, then there are 4 beats in a measure and a quarter note gets one beat. You would count 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4 etc.

In any time signature where a quarter note gets one beat, such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, etc., an eighth note gets 1/2 beat and a sixteenth note gets 1/4 beat. This means that it takes two eighth notes to make a beat and four sixteenth notes to make a beat. So if you were counting eighth notes in 3/4 time, you would count 1-and-2-and-3-and 1-and-2-and-3-and 1-and-2-and-3-and … If you were counting eighth notes in 4/4 time then you would count 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and … To count sixteenth notes we divide each beat into fourths by counting 1-e-an-a. So counting sixteenth notes in 3/4 time gives us 1-e-an-a-2-e-an-a-3-e-an-a 1-e-an-a-2-e-an-a-3-e-an-a 1-e-an-a-2-e-an-a-3-e-an-a …

Aside from notes, music also contains rests. There is a corresponding rest for each note: whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth. Where a note indicates a sound, a rest indicates silence. Count rests the same way that you count notes, but don’t play or sing on a rest.

Composers create music using various combinations of notes and rests, and some of it can be very difficult to count. Practice counting your music and it will become easier for as you will begin to recognize certain rhythmic patterns. When you are listening to music, try to figure out the number of beats in a measure to help develop your rhythmic feel. Don’t limit yourself to one kind of music in your listening, for modern music borrows from all genres. Visit mikesmusicpages.com for more details and actual music examples for how to count music.

Michael McBride is a singer living in metro Atlanta, GA. He writes mikesmusicpages.com. Mikesmusicpages.com contains more detail and music examples for how to count music.

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