WELCOME MR. RHYTHM!

Unit 2.

I.E.S. Profesor Tierno GalvánLa Rambla

• It is the inner pulse of Music. • It is like the rhythm of our heart.

• Think of the way your heart beats and try to find the rhythm of this piece of music by clapping!

• This is the speed of the music.

• Musicians use Italian terms for the different tempos.

TEMPOS• LARGO: Largo is the slowest tempo.

• ADAGIO: It means slow.

• ANDANTE: It means a walking pace.

• MODERATO: It is medium. It’s not too fast or too slow.

• ALLEGRO: It’s fast. It means cheerful in Italian.

• VIVACE: It’s quick.

• PRESTO: It’s very fast.

This drawings can help you to remember:

LARGO ADAGIO ANDANTE MODERATO

ALLEGRO VIVACE PRESTO

AND…WHAT’S RHYTHM?

Combining the beat and the tempo we obtain RHYTHM!

• A note’s shape tells you how long it will be played.

• LET’S MEET THE NOTES AND THEIR RESTS!

♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪ ♩

♪ ♫ ♬ ♩

• This great big note takes up fourbeats.

● ● ● ●

• It needs twobeats. That is half the duration of the whole note.

● ●

• It takes up just one beat.

●

• It usually shares the beat with another eighth note or rest. So, it takes half a beat.

●

So, the musical notes’ values are:

• 4/4 This is not a fraction.

It is a time signature and it tells you about the beat.You know that the staff is divided into smaller parts called

Measures make it easier to read music. The time signature helps us organizing beats in music.

The TOP NUMBER says how many beats are there in

each measure. E.g.

2/4

The BOTTOM NUMBER tells you what kind of note gets one

beat, according to the following table:

♩ ♩

So, the main time signatures will

be:

2/4

3/4

4/4

♩ ♩

♩ ♩ ♩

♩ ♩♩♩

And remember this:• A BEAT is not the same thing as a

NOTE!

Notes can have more or less than a beat.

The only note that gets a beat is the quarter note: ♩=