Rhythms and Time signatures

For this unit, I will look at pitches and intervals, chords and chord progressions, rhythms (simple and complex) and tonality. I will also incorporate this knowledge into scores.

Rhythms

Here is me practising my theory knowledge by going through the grade 6 Trinity Guildhall theory book.
Swung quavers. Here I had to write down the way the music should be played. The first page was adding the correct time signatures to the extracts of music. The second is adding the correct duplets in the marked places. The 3rd, I had to place brackets on the main beats to show where they change to create a hemiola effect. A hemiola means ratio of 3:2. The next page I did was writing key signatures. Here I had to write out one octave scales in rhythm to fit the given time signatures.

Here is the tree of notes so you can identify the note values:

Semibreve Notes (on the top of the tree diagram):

It has the longest note value of all the notes and is a hollow oval as you can see on the left. In 4/4 time, a semibreve lasts an entire 4 beats. You can also get a double semibreve note called a breve. These hold the value of 2 semibreves which means they last 8 beats in 4/4 time.

Minim Notes: (Half notes) These have half the note value of a semibreve. This means they are held for 2 beats in common 4/4 time. 2 minims=1semibreve.

Crotchet Notes: (Quarter notes) This is equal to 1/4th of a semibreve or 1/2 of a minim. It has a note value of 1 beat.

Quaver note: (Eighth note) Has he note value of half a crotchet. Lasts for half a beat in 4/4 time.

Semiquaver: (Sixteenth note) This has half the note value of a quaver note so lasts for quarter of a beat in 4/4 time.

Demisemiquavers: (32nd note) This has half the value of a semiquaver which means there are 8 in 1 beat. These are fairly rare.

Extending Notes with Dots and Ties:

Using dots to increase a note's value:
These dots are called augmentation dots and it indicates that the note value is increased by one half of its original value. The most common use of it is when a minim is made into 3 crotchets instead of 2.

Double dotted notes increase the time note by another quarter of the original note, on top of the half incresed as well. This is less common. A minim with a double dot = 3 and a half beats.

Using ties:
Tying to another note which connects notes of the same pitch together to create one sustained note instead of 2 seperate notes. For this, you just add the 2 note values together. E.g a crotchet tied to another crotchet is equal to 2 beats in common time.

Slurs are different, they are similar, except they connect 2 different notes of different pitches.

Rests:

These have all the same value as the notes do going down from semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver and semiquaver rests.

Time signatures:

This is the pair of numbers at the beginning of the staff. It tells you 2 things:

The number of beats in each bar- The top number number tells you this.
Which note gets a beat- The bottom number tells you which type of note value equals one beat.

You can get 2 types of time signatures:

Simple: The beat can be broken down into 2-part rhythms. E.g. 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/8, 2/2.

Compound: The beat is broken down into 3-part rhythms. Any time signature with a top nu,ber of 6, 9, 12, 15...

Irregular rhythms: Triplets and Duplets:

This involves dividing the beat differently from what is allowed by the time signature.
Triplets- 3 notes joined together played within the time of a crotchet.
Duplet- 2 notes which have the same value as 3. Duplets are the reverse of triplets.

Here is me analysing rhythms for the Czardas. The semiquavers in this piece give it a feel of great urgency when it gets into the allegro vivo and gives the piece of music contrast to the Con tenerozza, which is slower and the use of more rhythms like quavers and minims. This use of "rhythm and speed" change the feel of the different sections in this piece dramatically. Its written for xylophone. The xylophone I play on at home has a range of 3 and a half octaves. From the F an octave an a half below middle C to a C which is 2 octaves above middle C. This is a standard sized xylophone as they tend to have 3 and a half or 4 octaves.

Here is the other score I have studied to identify rhythms in. The piece is Tuxedo junction and is a jazz standard which contrasts with my other classical piece above. I choose a contrasting style as it is scored completely different and I also picked it as it had multiple parts compared to my other score which just for 1 part- xylophone.

Instrumentation
The parts/instruments in this piece is for a typical big/swing band. Wind section- 4 saxophones consisting of 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, and a baritone saxophone. Then the brass section which has 4 trumpets, and 4 trombones (the bassier of the brass). It then has the rhythm section which consists of guitar and piano which act as the chordal instruments. Then there is the bass and the drums and also auxiliary percussion, which is vibraphone.

There are many dotted rhythms so that the next beat lands off the beat for syncopation which is very common in jazz music. Another thing about this piece is that there are also many tied notes. This is often the case with quavers tied to crotchets with the quaver off the beat being accented to emphasis syncopation. This is a very commonly used rhythmic device and leaves the next note to land on the beat. This propels the music forward as accented anticipation and delay of the main beats of the bar are used. For example, on the score you see on the second page, in bar 14, where I have circled. The emphasis is on 2+ and then the next emphasised note is on beat 4. The bass part is a walking bass line, which is very common and gives the crotchet beat clearly throughout the whole piece of music.

"Swing style"- means swung quavers are used in this jazz piece. This means the beat is subdivided, not into 2 even quavers, which is common in classical music, like my other piece I have looked at (Czardas), but into long-short groupings called swung quavers. They are hard to write in notation form on a score, so instead, it is written as straight quavers, but you play it as swung instead in performance.