#4 Music theory: Note values and time signatures

A music theory tutorial on time signatures and Note values.

When I started this channel in 2006, I decided NOT to teach song tutorials, since there was no viable way for me to teach every possible piece by myself and still be sane. My approach to this channel is to teach you the skills and concepts of piano so you can grow as a musician and learn any piece you wish. But both you and I know that the main reason we put so much hard work into learning the concepts of piano is so that we can play pieces for ourselves and possibly others.

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http://www.howtoplaypiano.ca

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Closed Caption:

welcome to be an awesome number four
so I hope you guys have been practicing
lots
so this lesson is going to be about some
theory behind music because we need to
know how to counter balance and you guys
are gonna have to learn how to read
sheet music
so before you can learn how to read the
notes off the page
first you have to be able to read what
the notes even mean so I've taught you
guys a little bit about the piano and i
will be getting back to the piano and it
may be two or three videos from now but
we have to swear to catch up with a
little bit of the theory behind all
those and don't wear theory is just a
scary word for like reading so if you
guys want to learn how to read music so
that you guys can write your own song
this is what this is all for so today
I'm going to be teaching you guys about
something called time signatures which
are simple they're very easy i'm going
to be showing you the 44 signature and
the 34 signature and maybe the 24
signature as well so i'll go over those
and it's not gonna be that complicated
and then i'm going to show you what
different types of note values are so
stay tuned
or keep watching if that interests you
ok let's get right so here we go
so the first thing i want to show you
guys is what the different notes are
called now these are pretty easy
like I mean we're starting out with
something called a whole note and what
basically these do is every time you
have to play a key
it has an assigned time or value for how
long it has to be help for when you have
the key
it has to go for certain like the time
so that's we use notes to figure out how
long they go for
so we have different kinds of notes so
the first note we have here is the
biggest cut type of value of a note
it's called a whole note and it
basically is a circle
that's a lot of the circle it's a circle
on the music that's all of it is bound
right there
pull out on sheet music it looks more
like a no ball
it's an oval shape but it's still the
circle ok so that's a whole nother is a
circle now it is represented by the
number one because it's one hole
ok so whole life is a circle now how
much writers are going to get to go to
the half note
well it is it because you've got a
circle with a stick
that's how easy it is a half note looks
like a circle of the stick with the same
oval shape a note with a step going up
and down so all you need to change hold
up to a half known as you have the step
on it or it's called the stem
that's the actual technical definition
of stone
ok now whenever you see these half notes
or other notes they're going to have
stones and sometimes they're going to be
going up some
like us and sometimes they're going to
be going down and I wouldn't worry about
it too much because all that means it
has to do with the placement of the note
on staff
it's just so that the stem doesn't get
in the way of their music and later on
it has to do with voice ladies and stuff
like that but you don't have to worry
about that
not wasted invoices ok so this is a half
note
it's got a circle of the step and it's
usually represented by the number two
so that's sort of like its signature -
because a half can be split into two
parts pretty simple way
ok so hopefully following me right now
so whole life is a circle is a circle
the stick
ok according to know we can't have
another stick onto it
so what we have to do let's build a
circle and so the quarter note is a
circle with a stick
let's fill down pretty high so it's a
signal stick fill them and this is
called a quarter note and it is usually
represented by the number four that's a
signature
okay so according to notice for happens
to all known as one
so half note are starting a whole note a
circle circle the step according to
circle the stick
let's fill them that's a quarter turn
out ok
don't worry about all the values and
everything yet
I'll get on to explain how that all
works ok now the next thing is an eighth
notes so an eighth note is a circle with
the step
that's well then what we're going to do
let's add something that goes down on
the side
now this isn't exactly true
representation of how it looks and
real estate drawing us but it's sort of
an approximation so it has kind of like
a little stem or flag tail
they usually call it its own stuff would
be a flag or a tail
lets you do what they call it so how's
this little thing coming down now you've
probably seen notes like this before
like that right now with those what that
actually is just 28 notes by 28 notes
together and they're joining the stomach
drops so without this if you take this
away
that is two quarter notes because it's a
circle with a stem or step
let's felt them then you add the thing
on top which is the flag or whatever
so say you have your flag right there
yeah - coordinates and then say you took
this one right in this little Bobby flag
it's a blue and goes down and just walks
down like that because it does nothing
to prop it up
so that's the way you can think of those
eighth notes
ok so those are the names of them
that's what they look like so I want you
to make sure you got that in your head
now
each one of these notes has a specific
value and how they about how you get the
value is actually pretty simple
it's sort of like a game of cops you
know when they have those
cops're you know they've got like the
big circular the balls or whatever and
then there's like this huge ball and
then inside the huge ball is like a
smaller ball and smaller and smaller and
smaller right so we have a sort of a way
to do this basically all know is twice
the size of a half not so two half notes
have to make up one moment
that's how it work and two coordinates
equals one half note
so two quarter notes or one-half not now
so if there's two quarter notes in this
one half note and then we have two half
notes
how many do we have I mean how many
quarters turn left well not for because
if you cut say you have an orange right
and you cut it into four quarters
this would be very very obvious to you
so if you cut into four quarters right
this moment could represent an orange
so according to i'm just going to take
four spaces of that moment
that's why it's corner ok now eight now
you might have gas is twice twice the
value or you know there's 28 notes and
one-quarter up
so that's pretty much how it works so
there's 88 notes and one moment and it
goes it keeps doubling it actually goes
on and on
you all you do after that is you don't
you just keep adding more flags honors
whatever
and you'll have another one i'll be
sixteen another one of 30 second or
another
Oh 64
then you've got 120 not but you're
probably not going to have to worry
about that
and up until like the more advanced
grades you won't see anything past 16
now and we're not going to get into that
because you don't see that for a while
so it's already
these are the basic rhythms you probably
won't even see an eighth note for quite
a while too
ok so that's them
now there is a little chart here that
I've drawn out and I have a pyramid and
back here where I have a holdup at the
top and then i have two lines going down
and a half and half so that shows that
these two half have to go into this one
and then through this whole interior i
have two things going up
I have a quarter-on-quarter not so these
two quarter notes going to this one half
months and then these this happened to
coordinate is coming out of it
so if we take so it's showing basically
how many coordinates whole record
answering this happened
so in this hole there's one two three
four
according to the captain has to be too
hard on
so can sort of boggle the mind a little
bit when you're first starting out I
have some students that when i first see
this
but then once you get to this one
exercise all start to make sense once
you do it you'll understand that care
and then down at the bottom we have you
know Kate announced and I wasn't going
to go to the trouble of driving
sixteenth notes or whatever because if
he injured
make sure you want all the way down to
128 notes you would literally have to
draw 128 21 and 22 not all across here
to fill up the pyramid and ya know
that's not gonna happen
you get the point I'm not so hold on to
that okay so um now what actually what I
might do is it might take a picture of
this little diagram and then put it in a
still frame in between these segments so
you can take a closer look at this
ok alright so that's it for now these no
values next
now it's going to the next stop
ok guys now the next thing we're going
to learn is something called a time
signature
now this is sort of like the law that
governs what are you doing
so it's like the the time law that
governs the peace
so just like a piece time is always
moving forward like the
now time stopped to be like that yeah
great time has to keep going to the
piece up to keep going
so they needed a way to basically figure
out how to keep the beat steady so
people come in at the right times and
you can come in properly so you have to
do acts as you actually have to count
yeah so a time signature is there to
tell you what number to count up to and
which note is going to get the one beat
so because if you count one two three
four five whatever at you're counting
so what you need to do is you have to
know
well what number am I going to be coming
up to like what's the field apiece
I'll explain it later on and what note
am I going to count 14 am I going to
kind of hold up for one
I make it every time we see a little
more going to go one right or is that
going to be for half note or corner or
whatever
ok so a time signature as you can see
right here hopefully looks like this
it's time signature and we have a top
number and the bottom number
ok the top number i want you guys to ask
yourself this question how many beats
prayer bar if you can I ask yourself
this question the answer is right in
front of you
that's how simple it how many beats per
bar for a simplified version would be
how many for so this is how many beans
for bar or how many there's four four
beads per bar
whatever the top number is whatever it's
going to be so that can be this change
is quite a bit that top never change
quite often the bottom number is a
little bit different and it tells you
what I know is going to be one beat
now the most common thing pretty much
probably about ninety percent of the
time you're going to see for on the
bottom so 4 is almost always on the
bottom and you probably won't see
anything but for for a long time you
might see eight once or twice and you
might see - once or twice but you
probably want to see anything else other
than that
so the bottom number is almost always
for so it's telling you what i know is
one beat
ok so for now do you remember when i was
talking about whole notes half notes and
quarter ounce
I said for was the number that we
associate with a quarter not because
it's into four quarters right so because
we see for hear what note should we
assume is going to be one beat it
actually according out what about you
guys probably guessed
it's pretty simple I'm so according to
is basically one beat
so whenever we see a quarter note we're
going to count one
so if there's two quarter notes and one
half note that means we have to count 12
because there's two quarter notes inside
that happen and if there's four quarter
notes inside a whole note we have to
count one two three four it's not a
whole lot because there's those little
for things think of them living inside
the whole not there
you have to count each or it's like a
big house with family and for all
ok so my little example down here
this is the example that we're going to
use so it's written in four-four time so
it has to go to four beats now bar
watching products virus a bar is
basically a set amount of time
it's sort of like you go up to certain
bar length and then you have to start a
new bar a new bar a new bar
it's sort of a way of dividing up the
piece into small sections so that you
can be like okay go to bar for three and
play bar 46
so it's a way of being able to point to
a certain piece of music and it instead
of just being like ok start from that
note on line something of page five
it's a really precise way of saying
where to start and also helps you keep
track of how many beats you've gone so
that things can be written back here
drum like drum beats go don't don't
don't don't don't don't don't don't
don't don't don't
right or don't don't don't
dun dun dun dun and then you hear you
know harder more complex
drumbeats umm actually I've heard a lot
of complex drum beats but they're all
based off a repeating pattern and that
repeating pattern is inside a bar
so a bar repeats itself like with
rhythmic pattern like that so it's a way
of keeping track of a small group so far
looks like this it's one line
sort of like a jail cell are you guys
ever been to jail happened and i hope i
never go to jail
all right ok so this is a bar and it
shows you that this is the end of that
that the bar or the suction
so the time signatures are the start
because it has to tell you what time
signatures and it's sort of like laying
down the law
so there's four beats per bar and
according to receives one beat
so lucky you have drawn for coordinates
so one bored enough to where we are now
four corners so high
clock this would be like that go one
the collapse happened on the nose
I'm counting up steadily so that's the
first bar go so you can try that as well
ok now this bar is finished so tap
typically play the bar once and you go
to the next bar with seamlessly there's
no stopping at the bar on
yeah you a shiny bar and touch you
polish you off and everything now you
just keep going
ok so you go past the barn to the next
bar
sometimes they are also referred as
measures
so this could be one measure that could
be the second measure so far one bar to
measure to measure one better too
it's interchangeable so don't get mixed
up when someone says hey play measure
one
or clay bar three for me it's the exact
same thing that they're just referring
to a different terminology it actually
makes absolutely no difference
ok alright so now we're going to buy two
or measure to and we have drawn a half
notes here so the half note is going to
sort of show you how you lost that
differently
so a half has to be held for two beads
because it has to happen again cited
twice that's why
so this is going to sound like one too
so one two three four
so this happens to count so let's start
from here and all the way to the end
so I'm going to go to and that's how you
got that so if you find that on the
piano and it's like this but three one
two three
and that's how you get rid of that is
how rhythm is broken down it's a very
simple basic analysis on now what I'm
going to do is I'm going to erase this
one to stop this and we read it a couple
of more exercises using different time
signatures and we can clap through them
together and you can use that hard to
sort of get your groove on with three
alone
ok so just give me a second
alright guys so I
dramatic more exercises from the top
here we have four for now the other ones
are we
the main one so we're going to use that
you'll probably be seen
that's four 4 3 four and two for now
don't get all confused about this it's
not that big of a deal really
because I cheer him up with the top
number just tells you how many beats so
you're just going to have lost beats in
the bar so this this bar has three beats
and this is two beads so we're going to
go over these and the first one up here
it has a quarter on quarter half not so
this is going to get clock like this for
for for a faster
ok so that's the bar now this bar here
this one's a little bit tricky so as you
remember we had eight notes now you need
to eight
no and 28 notes to equal one corner
so I'm fitting 28 notes in this one
space here so we have to do is we have
to clock twice on three here so we're
going to lock this like this one two
three four
like that's one
ok let's try that again there goes one
ok and has to sound study you don't want
that
one two three because that isn't even
that has to be it has to be very study
now if you can't get it steady this is
something you can do to make more study
you can add add these little markers
because all these at all
all the things you're saying they're
just little checkpoints to keep you on
track
so let's add these on
so these are the halfway check marks of
that be so if you do that
the little pluses are and so I go one
two and three four
that's how the thing is working that so
the three goes with the first dates note
and the animals with the second
now these ones are just getting all over
so it's sort of like it's invisible
it's just you just keep holding it
through the clock so that's how that
works
now you can switch to that at any time
it's really a few choice but if you're
not doing a lot of eighth notes is
really not going to put it out there
just going to slow down
more to say ok so then the next bar one
big hole up there and that takes up four
counts
so we have to go one two three four
so that's the spot here and then we have
a half here and half from here so each
one of those gets to two counts
so we go one two three four and that's
how that goes
so from here let's hear one and two and
three and four two three four two and
four
notice i put the ends into the whole
line
I did that because it's really awkward
to switch in the ads in the middle of
something
and since i was going to do here i
decided to just do it through the whole
thing I could have done it like us 14 2
3 4 24
that would be another
going to do it ok so that's the 441 now
with three four hits three beats per bar
so we just count up to three
that's it now I've got a little funky
thing here and explain that one to get
there but ok so this we have a quarter
of a half not so just go three
what's up now when you're 34 time you
have to give it more every different
feel it's called compound time I'll
explain it later
it has a sort of moving forward feel
like a walls like dat done to get to
come to the fun so yeah that's a wall
square
I can't waltz but I know what it it's
supposed to
it goes of the wall pattern so the
downbeat is on the one and next to our
week be so goes dad dumped down
don't duh not like that that's the one .
them down to go three two one two three
that little walls and going on
the breath is not side
it's sort of late and I'm tired from the
world ok so I thought to this
now you're probably wondering okay what
is this it's a half but there's some
weird little thing here now
these are not two notes this and this
are not separate these are actually
together this half note and this dog go
together and then create what's called
up
ready dotted half now wasn't that
original so a dotted half now
I didn't tell you about this before
because it wasn't I guess I kind of got
it didn't you
let's just throw you off a dotted half
note whenever you had adopted something
you can a doctor
any note and when you add a . it's like
taking the note value and then adding
fifty percent of the volume to it
so the the note that originally would be
there is one hundred fifty percent of
its life so one of the app so easy terms
think of it like that there's one
coordinate up another quarter note in
here
so what's half of two quarter notes one
quarter and so we're going to add
another quarter note into those two
quarter notes
so we have fifty percent to that so one
corner in one quarter plus another
quarter note is three-quarter ounce and
that equals 1 2 3 3 beats and that goes
with the whole bar
okay so you just Glock 23
just like that now later on you get into
. 8 quarter ounce and everywhere
one and a half beads but don't what
ok so now the last one we have is to
four so I have a half note here and we
just go to the next one goes
you just count up to 20 just 12 pretty
easy
so those are lows I'll take a picture of
it and i'll stop it
I'll put it in the video and then you
can get a nice clear picture what it's
all going to look like
ok ok so i hope you enjoyed that
i'll probably do an update on more
advanced rhythms and maybe your video to
the next video is going to deal on music
theory
so somewhat more music through on how to
read notice that because now you have
the notes of how they how you're
supposed to play them in rhythm now and
you already know what the notes are on
the piano so now that you have those too
now we can finally put them together an
assignment to some sheet music
cool huh so those are the steps that we
have to do so you well on your way to
being able to play sheet music off the
page
so this is a good foundation okay so
take care keep practicing
I do lots of this clapping you need to
get your rhythm down
rhythm is the most important thing in
the
so you have a steady beat the steadiness
comes from the mouth and not from the
clapping clapping falls on this where
you say so this is what you're saying is
those numbers so those numbers have to
be study
ok so one two three four one that has to
be studying the collapse just fall on
the numbers cap
well take care see you guys later