Basic Music Theory - 1st Post - Notes, Rests, and Note Particulars

          It is really important for a singer, even an amazingly gifted singer, to understand basic Music Theory.   That doesn’t mean you have to be any kind of virtuoso or study music theory for dozens of years but it does mean you need to study some fundamental or elemental aspects of theoretical concepts.  Your first “basic” lesson is below.  Stay tuned for more “installments” in the future.  Here goes:

•            NOTES AND RESTS - Melodies in music are represented through patterns of “Notes” and “Rests”.  Here is a chart of the most common types of Notes and Rests:

The Quarter Note is, by far, the most common type of Note and Rest but each of these notes and rests are important, universal, and frequently-occurring.  You DO need to know, however, that the values you see here CAN change, depending on the Time Signature (see the next post that covers Time Signatures) of the entire song.  The values shown here are applicable for any Time Signature with a “4” in the bottom, such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, or 6/4.  However, when the bottom number changes to an “8:, the other values (Quarter, Half, and Whole Notes) would be DOUBLED, such as 3/8 or 6/8.  This means an Eighth Note will get 1 count.  When the signature’s bottom number is a “2”, a half note gets one count, and the values shown here would be cut by half.  A “16” on the bottom means a Sixteenth Note gets one count and all other values listed above will be QUADRUPLED or multiplied by 4.  The “Dotted” Notes in the lower chart do NOT have corresponding Rests.  The “dot” added to a note causes the note’s value to increase by half again, such as a Dotted Quarter Not equaling 1 1/2 counts; a Dotted Half Note equaling 3 counts; a Dotted Eighth Note equaling 3/4 of a count.  The combination of the pitch of the notes, and the rhythmic value of each note and rest, creates a musical melody.

NOTE BEAMING - A “beam” is a horizontal connecting line over the top of or below a group of notes that is to be played as a rhythmic set.  The beam does not change the value of each individual note.  The Beam replaces the Flag found on individual Notes.  One Beam is used for Eighth Notes; Two Beams are used for Sixteenth Notes.  Beams are used to avoid the “clutter” of all the Flags when a group of Notes are involved.  See below:

First Row - Eighth Notes; Second Row - Sixteenth Notes; Third Row - Eighth & Sixteenth Notes

NOTE STEM DIRECTION - Another helpful “clerical” detail in Music Theory/Composition is the direction of the Notes on a Staff.  You might notice that some of the Note Stems point upward and some point down.  The main reason for this is to allow more space on any given page for more music.  Stems on Notes that occur ON or BELOW the middle line of the Staff are drawn upward.  Notes written ABOVE the middle line will have stems pointing downward.

Okay, so this is already a lot of information to digest and we want to take our time going through all these massively huge sections of Music Theory.  Notes and Rests are an important brick in the foundation of understanding reading music.  Thanks for going on this adventure with me.  Please send me any questions, comments, or suggestions for future blog posts.  Thanks again for reading!  For any questions about my lessons, or me check out my website at www.SingitForward.net.  See you next post!  Sing it forward!