Thursday, September 25, 2008

Music Lesson: Time Signature


Rhythm Lesson #6 Time Signatures:

Review:

Review the meters lesson with your child.

Learning Objective:

Your child will be able to tell you what the numbers in a time signature mean.

Instructions:

Show your child the picture below and tell your child that the picture is a time signature (or meter signature). Tell your child that a time signature is made up of a top and bottom number. The top number tells us what the meter in the piece is, and the bottom number tells us what the note value for each pulse is. For example, in the picture below the time signature is ¾. The 3 tells us that the piece is in triple meter (there are three pulses per measure), and the 4 tells us that the quarter note gets the beat.



















Exercise: Write the meter and note value for each time signature below:

Example:

2--duple meter
8--eighth-note pulse

3__________
4__________

2__________
2__________

4__________
8__________

4__________
4__________

3__________
2__________

3__________
8__________

4__________
2__________

2__________
4__________

Answers:

1) triple meter
quarter-note pulse

2) duple meter
half-note pulse

3) quadruple meter
eighth-note pulse

4) quadruple meter
quarter-note pulse

5) triple meter
half-note pulse

6) triple meter
eighth-note pulse

7) quadruple meter
half-note pulse

8) duple meter
quarter-note pulse


Exercise: Tell your child that a whole note/rest gets 4 pulses, a half note/rest gets 2 pulses, a quarter/rest note gets 1 pulse, and an eighth note/rest gets and eighth of the pulse. Review dotted notes with your child also. Now have your child write bar lines in the musical example below:

11 comments:

Jyl @ MommyGossip said...

Sooo... my son started his piano lessons. I think you may have commented on the post all about it. I wrote it earlier this week. Anyway, I woke up the other day, went into the living room where our piano is, and he had completed the entire theory book--IN PEN! A little over achiever that one is. Of course, he got everything wrong, because he had no idea what he was doing, but he just can't get enough. I wanted to scold him, but just laughed :).

I was thinking that was a piccolo. The color threw me off.

Marie N. said...

I often overhear my husband and 6 yo clapping out the beat of our son's new piano pieces together. He is getting better at it all the time.

Lyndsie Miles said...

This is a great review for me!

Leah said...

um... yeah, totally failed that quiz. lol I tried learning to read music when I was in choir in 9th grade, but I swear, there's something wrong with my brain or something. It never clicked.

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

You have so much talent! I totally am not musically inclined. :(

Breanne said...

Love the post but you lost me on this one. Over my head although I wish it was not.

AutoSysGene said...

Wow, I wonder if I started now if I could teach my 6 year old to read music...I guess I would have to learn first, huh? :)

carrhop said...

Another great lesson! Just love, love, love your site! I play the flute, piano, piccolo and oboe and sing--and I still seem tongue-tied when it comes to explaining written music signatures to the kids--I read music, but I'm such an auditory player....

Glad you liked the MiMi and twins pic--she is pretty ooeey-gooey about those babies!
Blessings!

Munchkins and Music said...

Sorry if there was any confusion in today's lesson. I try really hard to make the lessons easy to understand for the kids, so it is nice to get your feedback. Thanks! :)

Helen Ruth said...

I can't afford a piano teacher at this time, but is there such a thing as a good PIANO CD tutorial? Or is this a pipe dream and NOBODY can learn through a CD?

By the way, great blog!

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