Music Theory Crash Course
Beats, Rhythm & Timing
September 12, 2022
MUSIC THEORY | BEATS RHYTHM AND TIMING
BEATS RHYTHM AND TIMING:
Most popular music is composed using a 4/4 time signature. That means that each measure is subdivided into 4 beats.
These four beats are called quarter notes and can be counted as "1, 2, 3, 4" to make one measure. If we add a beat in between each of these, we’d count it like "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &". These are called 8th notes because we’ve subdivided the measure into 8 even divisions of time. We can subdivide the measure even further by adding 16th note sub-divisions. These can be counted as "1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a". In Ableton Live we can subdivide a measure as much as 1/16384, but that’s ridiculous. The smallest division of time you’ll typically use will be the 16th notes.
A note that spans an entire measure is called a whole note and looks like this in Ableton Live. A half note, which divides the measure in half looks like this
Then the quarter note, 8th, 16th, and 32nd.
It is possible to divide the measure in other ways, such as using Triplets, but we’ll cover those in action later on in the CORE production course!
A typical musical verse or chorus usually contains 4-8 measures. Those can be counted as "1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4," and so on. Using this counting technique can assist you with mapping the structure of a song by ear.
During the CORE Ableton Live course, you’ll learn how to utilize this information to compose your own unique rhythms, polyrhythms, and percussion patterns!
Now that you’ve completed this Music Theory Crash course, I encourage you to rest up, and then watch this content again as soon as you possibly can!