← All lessonsModule 10 · Read Music Fast

Note Values and Time Signatures

Dots, flags, beams and two stacked numbers: learn the family tree of note values and their rests, decode any time signature, from common time and cut time to 3/4, 2/4 and 6/8, and count every rhythm out loud, one e and a.

In this lesson you'll

  • Read whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes, their rests, dots (plus half the value) and beams.
  • Decode a time signature: the top number counts the beats per bar, the bottom number names the note that gets one beat (4/4 = C, 2/2 = cut time, 3/4, 2/4, 6/8).
  • Count and clap written rhythms with "1 e & a", keep counting through rests, and play a rhythm on one note.

Music in this lesson

  • The Blue DanubeJohann Strauss II · 1866–67
  • The Stars and Stripes ForeverJohn Philip Sousa · 1896
  • Take FiveThe Dave Brubeck Quartet · 1959
  • MoneyPink Floyd · 1973

Remember

Each note value is half the one above: one whole = two halves = four quarters = eight eighths = sixteen sixteenths; a dot adds half, and every note has a matching rest.

The top number counts the beats in each bar, the bottom number says which note gets one beat; beat 1 of each bar gets the weight, and the C of common time comes from medieval notation, not from "common".

Count out loud: numbers on the beats, & between them, e and a for sixteenths, and keep counting through the rests.