The beat and the bar

A beat is the steady tick you would tap your foot to. A bar is a short group of beats, with the first one strongest. This lesson is only those two things: keep the beat, then count it in a bar.

From theory: Western theory: note values · time signatures · Eastern theory: laya

A beat

A beat is not a rhythm yet. It is the even tick that rhythms are measured against, so it has to be steady before anything else works. Press play on the grid: every dot is one beat.

In notation: each tick is a quarter note, a filled dot on a stick, because it is a quarter of a four-beat bar. The 4/4 at the start says there are four beats in every bar, and the vertical line closes the bar. The note-value chart is on the front page.

How to read it: the numbers along the top are the beats and the dots are the ticks you hear. Nothing is stronger than anything else, so there is no > (accent) yet. A > over a dot would mean “play this one harder”.

1. Press play and tap your knee (or the floor with your foot) on every dot, counting 1 2 3 4 out loud. Here the dots are the beat.
2. Now clap on every dot too, so your tap and your clap land together. From the next lesson on they will not: you tap the count while you clap the rhythm.
3. Tap with your eyes closed. Open them and see whether you were with it (the tap lab in Labs scores this).
4. Stop the sound and keep tapping for four beats, then listen again. How far did you drift?

Strong and weak beats

Listen to any song and some beats feel stronger than others. Count the beats in a loop, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4: the 1 is the strong beat and the rest are weak. One loop of counts is a bar. Bars are usually 2, 3 or 4 beats long.

How to read it: a > above a dot is an accent, as on sheet music. It means play that beat harder, and you will hear it louder and a little higher. A dot with no > is a weak beat.

In notation: the three bars are the same quarter notes. The only things that differ are the top number of the time signature (2, 3 or 4 beats to the bar) and where the barline falls. The > on the first note of each bar is the accent you can hear.

1. Press play on Four, tap the count 1 2 3 4 on your knee and say it aloud. Say the 1 louder than the rest.
2. Clap along: clap hard on 1 and softly on 2, 3 and 4, while you keep tapping.
3. Do the same with Waltz (hard-soft-soft) and March (hard-soft).
4. Turn the sound off and keep counting. The strong beat is now in you, not in the click.