•AOS1: Rhythm and Metre
Lesson One
Lesson One
•Pulse
•The pulse of a piece of music is related to the tempo.
•It is the part of the music that you tap your foot to, and is the overall feel of the music.
•Often the pulse is steady and regular but it can sometimes be irregular.
•The pulse in a piece of music can change.
•It can be described using an Italian term for tempo or by using the description below:
•This means beats per minute (bpm)
•Pulse continued…
•Listen to these pieces of music.
•Describe the tempo using English, Italian and BPM.
•How many beats in 10 seconds x 6 = bpm
•Time Signatures
•Time signatures are found at the start of a piece of music and states how many beats are in a bar.
•They are often referred to as being either simple or compound time.
•A time signature is made up of TWO numbers.
•The top one states how many of a type of note.
•The bottom states what kind of note it is.
•Time Signatures Continued…
•2 at the bottom refers to minims which are two beat notes.
•4 at the bottom refers to crochets which are one beat notes.
•8 at the bottom refers to quavers which are half beat notes.
•SO A PIECE WITH A ¾ TIME SIGNATURE HAS THREE CROCHET BEATS PER BAR.
•Time Signatures Continued…
•Listen to these pieces of music and work out what their time signatures are.
•TOP TIP: TRY TO COUNT THE NOTES IN GROUPS AND LISTEN FOR THE STRONG BEATS
•Rhythm and Metre
•Dotted rhythms and Triplets
•A dotted rhythm is a rhythm which uses notes which are worth an odd amount of beats.
•REMEMBER when you add a dot after the note, it adds half the value onto the note.
•A triplet is a group of three notes which are equally split into one or two beats.
•Augmentation and Diminution
•When a rhythm is augmented (augmentation) it means the notes become longer but are still all equal to each other.
•When a rhythm is diminished (diminution) it means the notes become shorter but are still equal to each other.
•Cross Rhythms, Polyrhythms and Bi-rhythms
•Cross rhythm – two or more rhythms that overlap.
•Polyrhythm – two or more rhythms that overlap but are in different time signatures.
•Bi-rhythm – a rhythm of two overlapping with a rhythm of three.
•Hemiola
•A hemiola is when a piece of music feels like it goes into a different time signature but still remains in the original time signature. This is done by regrouping the notes:
•xxx xxx xxx xxx
•xx xx xx xx xx xx
•Can you hear this? What is the time signature and what does it feel like it has gone into?
•Rhythm and Metre
•Hemiola
•Groups of 3 and 2:
•xxx xxx xxx xxx = xx xx xx xx xx xx
•WRITE OUT:
•Groups of 5 and 3
•Groups of 4 and 3
•Groups of 6 and 8
•Time Signatures
•Name the time signatures of the following pieces of music:
•BRUCIE BONUS: What piece uses a hemiola?
•Dotted Rhythms, Triplets and Syncopation
•Syncopation is when a rhythm is played off the beat.
•Tempo
•Listen to these pieces of music and write out the descriptions of the tempo using English, Italian and BPM.
