Measures can be of different lengths

Measures can be of different lengths to accommodate different rhythms. The initial measure length is specified at the beginning of the piece. It takes the form of a fraction, the upper number expressing how many beats in each measure, and the lower one the length of each beat. Here’s how it looks:

This indicates four beats to the measure (the upper number). The lower number specifies that each beat has a duration of a quarter note. We call this “four four time.” This is the most common time in music, so is often shown by the abbreviation

The three on top indicates that there will be three beats. The eight below shows that each beat will last an eighth note. We would refer to this as “three eight time.”

How to Count Time
Knowledge of the mathematical lengths of the notes is only useful upto a point. More important is how to relate these to the onward flow ofthe music, and this is done by counting the beats. It is the same asbeating time to music that you hear—you respond to the beats and tapyour foot accordingly. But when you become the player, you have toestablish your own beat to set the time.

Here are some examples to put this into practice:

First count these measures evenly as shown, with a slight extra stress onthe first beat of each one.

Now try these measures with varying note lengths. See if you can tap out the notes while
keeping an even count., i.e.:

Here is an example in 3/4 time. Notice the dot after the half note which increases its time by half again. Thus, it gets three counts instead of two:

Now let’s try this with the guitar, playing the tablature notes instead of just tapping. Use alternating rest strokes for the melody (counting practice #1):

It is very important to try to count at the same time as you play. It seems a lot to remember at this stage, but if you try it a few times you will find it becomes quite natural. This will help tremendously later, when you start reading regular music notation. Now here is an example in 3/4 time (counting practice #2):


Be careful in the second to last measure, where the rhythm is a little different.

Tags: beats, music, notes, indicates

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Rhythm and Counting

The length of individual notes is easy to express simply by having a different symbol for each length. Also, it is necessary to specify periods of silence when required between notes. These silences are called rests, and they have symbols corresponding to the duration of the notes. Here are the common ones.


As previously mentioned, music is conventionally divided off into measures or bars. We usually prefer to use the term measure, because, as we shall see later, bar has an alternative meaning in guitar music.

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How Guitar Music Is Written

Written music can serve many purposes. It can help us remember what we have heard oncebefore. But it can also help us learn something we’ve never heard—and thus expand ourmusical horizons.

Luckily, guitar tablature—the easiest way of writing down music for the guitar—is simple tounderstand, once you know the basics. It can be your doorway to an entirely new world ofmusic. So let’s spend a few minutes familiarizing ourselves with the basics of tablature.

Guitar Tablature
In the earliest days, music for the guitar was written in a form known as tablature. Thissystem indicates exactly where the fingers are to be placed by showing the strings as six lines,with numbers (or letters) representing the frets. Here is an example:

• The word TAB is conventionally placed at the beginning of the line to distinguish these lines from those of the musical staff. Here, the lines represent the six strings, the first string being the top line.


• “0” stands for open string. Play the first string with the right hand; do nothing with the left.


• “1” stands for the first fret. Place a finger behind the first fret on the same string. Play the note.


• “3” stands for the third fret. Finger the third fret, play the note.


• The vertical line marks off the measures, as in conventional notation.

Note that the numbers have nothing to do with the fingers. In this example they happen to coincide, but they refer only to the frets.

Now try playing these examples in succession:

If something sounds familiar, you’re doing well!

The rhythm can be expressed in various ways in tablature, but before discussing this we need to learn some basics in this area.

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