LadyDpiano: Meter

Good morning, musicians!

I'm back to giving piano lessons to children and adults this year. I have some amazing students who really enjoy playing songs from Disney movies. Then there are music games to be enjoyed within the half an hour lesson. Lots of theory is covered in a 45-minute lesson as well.

I thought I would cover a great subject today, like music components in three parts. Here we go!

The Components Of Music

Rhythm

What is it that causes you to tap your feet or sway as you listen to some kinds of music? All music has rhythm. The rhythms of music consist of sounds and silences of various lengths. One component of rhythm is a strong pulse or regular accent.

The strong pulse of music helps people move together. For example, the LEFT-right, LEFT-right feeling of a march is created by a regular accent.

Sight Reading & Rhythm Every day

Meter in Music

Meter is the pattern of beats by which a piece of music is measured. The meter signature is merely a way of showing this pattern. 2/4 meter signature is an example of a duple meter (2 beats to a measure with the quarter note receiving 1 beat).

Strong pulse in music divides beats into groups of 2's and 3's, and combinations of such groups. This grouping of beats is called meter. In written music, a bar line is placed before normally strong beats. Bar lines group beats into measures. A meter signature shows what the grouping in each measure will be.

2/4 = 2 beats per measure. A quarter note gets 1 count.
3/4 = 3 beats per measure. A quarter note gets 1 count.
4/4 = 4 beats per measure. A quarter note gets 1 count.

2/4 is an example of duple meter. If the meter signature were 3/8 it would be a triple meter (3 beats per measure with the eighth note receiving 1 count). In the case of 5/4, it would be an irregular meter (5 beats to a measure). In order to mark off these metric groupings, bar lines are used.

Changing Meter

A changing meter can make a melody seem to have more freedom.

Irregular Meter

Most of the music you hear has a regular meter throughout the whole piece.

4/4 2/2 3/4

But sometimes music has an irregular meter. Irregular meter adds interest to music.

One of the most familiar meters in music is 3/4, or triple meter. This means that there are three metric beats in each measure. This meter is often referred to as "waltz time," because the waltz step is danced in triple meter.

Syncopated Rhythm

Some music has a syncopated rhythm. This means that accents in the music fall on notes that are not normally accented. Syncopation helps to make music more exciting. Syncopation is usually not identified by accent marks. The music is arranged so that the accents will fall in unusual places.

When the normal pulse of meter and rhythm is deliberately changed, syncopation occurs. Syncopation can be created in a number of ways: by shifting the accent to what are normally weak beats of a measure; by holding on over strong beats; by using rests on strong beats. In normal usage, syncopation occurs in one part only while the other parts stress the normal pulse of the meter. So, ties, short-long note patterns, and rests are ways of creating syncopation.

Triplets

The small 3 above a group of notes tells that the three notes are played in the same amount of time that two of the same notes normally receive. These groups of three notes are called triplets.

Music without Meter

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" is an example of early church music. This was the most important type of music during the early Middle Ages (600 - 1000 A.D.). At that time, the written music contained a little indication of rhythm. It is a thought that the melodies took their rhythm from the rhythm of the words. In this kind of music, there is no metric beat.

Piano teachers and homeschool moms may want to purchase Music for Little Mozarts--Rhythm Speller. It's a fun book for beginners at the piano. For more intermediate to advanced players, you may want to look at Easy Latin Standards.

It feels so good to be back writing and sharing with you. May you be encouraged to share your musical, creative gifts right where you are.

Blessings,

-- LadyD

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

photo credit: throb via photopin (license)

Musician's Vocabulary

Rhythm

1. Meaning

Rhythm means the way sounds and silences relate to each other IN TIME to make a flow of musical ideas. The sounds can be long and short. The silences can be long and short.

2. How The Word Is Used

"I love that drum solo because its rhythm is so powerful and driving. It makes me want to get up and dance in time with it."

"The rhythm of Chopin's Nocturne is so gentle. It seems to flow along like a lullaby."

3. Rhythm Words

regular gentle abrupt
even flowing broken
strict smooth nervous
metronomic graceful uneven
"on the beat" unbroken stop-and-start

Meter

1. Meaning

Meter means the way beats are grouped.
It is something we feel when we listen to music;
we feel that this Strauss waltz is "in a 3 -beat meter"; we feel that this Joplin rag is "in a 2-beat meter"; we feel that this rock piece is "in a 4-beat meter."

2. How The Word Is Used

Don't confuse "meter" with "measure" or "time signature." METER is something we feel when we play or listen to music; it is a beat feeling. A MEASURE and a TIME SIGNATURE are things we see when we read a piece of music. They are visual aids for the performer, helping us to understand the music better by dividing notes and rests (rhythms!) into visual groups on the music page.

3. Meter Words

Musicians use different terms to express "meter." They may say that a piece is "in a 2-beat meter" or, more simply, that it is "in 2." We can apply this description to any meter: "in One"... "in 2"... "in 3"... "in 4"... "in 5"... etc., etc.

The adjective for "meter" is "metrical."

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So, when we're talking about time classification, patterns of stress are known as METER. Meter is the patterns produced by beats of varying degrees of stress. The pattern which results from beats of varying degrees of stress is called the meter. The most common meters are four, three, or two beats per measure.

In music, meter is the systematic grouping of beats and their divisions in regularly recurring patterns of pulsations. Meter is described as being duple, triple, or quadruple according to the grouping of beats, and simple or compound according to the division of each beat.

Meter Designations

1. duple simple
2. triple simple
3. quadruple simple
4. duple compound
5. triple compound
6. quadruple compound

Rhythm that you hear are patterns formed by the succession of long and short notes.

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Blessings,