How To Count Rhythm, Part 2 - TWO MINUTE MUSIC THEORY #7

If a measure has the quarter note as its beat, but has a different number of beats than 4/4, it still follows the same rules. Such is the case with 2/4, 3/4, or even 6/4.

If the 8th note gets the beat, we count the number of 8th notes. Note, we don’t call the 8th notes “and” in this case. For example, a measure of 8th notes in 6/8 is counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Or, perhaps the quarter note gets the beat, but we have a triplet. Which is 3 notes in the space of 2. We count this as “trip-o-let”, one syllable for each 8th note in the triplet (or, quarter or 16th, whatever the triplet is made of). For example, this measure:

Some complex meters are counted with different rules. For example, a measure of 7/8 can be counted using combinations of 2s and 3s, which will tell us where the strong beats are. One of the most common ways is to divide the measure up like this:

You can also do this with 8/8. It has the same number of 8th notes as 4/4, but the strong beats are divided differently. It’s a less commonly used meter, but the most common way to divide it is 3+3+2.

Of course, there are a lot of different meters, and an infinite number of rhythms that are counted all sort of different ways - but those are the basics.

Maybe next time we can count hamburgers, or….donuts….or maybe calories.