Rhythm is written as notes whose shapes tell you how long to hold them, measured against a steady beat. This page starts from that beat, adds the note values one at a time, then puts them together into time signatures, triplets, syncopation and swing — and ends with the drum beats most songs are built on. Every example plays: press Play, count along out loud, then clap or tap it yourself.
Each example loops until you stop it. It counts you in for one bar, the metronome clicks the beat, and the note sounding now lights up together with its count. Slow it down until you can clap it without thinking, then speed it up.
Under every song is a steady pulse — the beat you tap your foot to. Written music groups the beats into bars (the vertical lines mark where one ends) and counts them from 1 at the start of each bar. In most music a bar holds four beats: 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.
A note’s shape says how long it lasts, measured in beats. Each value is half the one above it: one whole note lasts as long as two halves, four quarters, eight eighths or sixteen sixteenths. Play the rows one after another — the metronome keeps the same beat while the notes get faster.
| Note | Also called | Beats in 4/4 | How it looks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole | semibreve | 4 | hollow head, no stem |
| Half | minim | 2 | hollow head with a stem |
| Quarter | crotchet | 1 | filled head with a stem |
| Eighth | quaver | ½ | one flag, or one beam |
| Sixteenth | semiquaver | ¼ | two flags, or two beams |
Eighths and sixteenths next to each other are joined by beams instead of flags — one beam for eighths, two for sixteenths — grouped one beat at a time, so you can see where each beat starts. Between the beats, count “&” halfway and “e” and “a” for the quarters in between: 1 e & a 2 e & a.
Every note value has a rest of the same length: a silence you count through. Keep counting during rests — they are as much part of the rhythm as the notes. A whole rest hangs below the line; a half rest sits on top of it.
A dot after a note makes it half as long again: a dotted half lasts 2 + 1 = 3 beats, a dotted quarter 1 + ½ = 1½. A tie — a curve joining two notes — makes them one longer sound: play the first and hold it through the second. Ties make lengths a single note can’t, and carry a note across a bar line.
The two numbers at the start are the time signature. The top number says how many beats are in a bar; the bottom one says which note gets one beat — 4 for a quarter note, 8 for an eighth, 2 for a half.
In 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 each beat splits in two — that’s simple time. In 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 each beat splits in three — compound time: the beat is a dotted quarter, eighths are beamed in threes, and the tempo counts dotted quarters.
A triplet squeezes three notes into the time of two, marked with a 3. Eighth-note triplets split one beat into three even parts, counted “1 trip let 2 trip let”. Quarter-note triplets spread three notes evenly over two beats — they float against the beat, so count it carefully.
Syncopation puts notes between the beats, or holds them through a beat, so the accent lands where you don’t expect it. The trick is to keep the beat steady in your head — count it out loud — and place the notes against it.
In jazz, blues and shuffles, pairs of eighths aren’t played evenly: the first is long and the second short, like the first and last notes of a triplet. Music usually writes plain eighths and marks the piece “swing”. These two look the same and sound different.
Drum music uses the staff differently: each line or space is a drum, not a pitch. The hands play the hi-hat (an × above the staff) and the snare (the middle space) with stems up; the right foot plays the bass drum (the bottom space) with stems down. Almost every beat here puts the snare on 2 and 4 — the backbeat.
Hear each one:
A little every day beats a lot once a week. Work down the list; each step builds on the one before.