Tazrae was taking furious notes. Xander tapped his diagrams and then turned the journal back over to her. She took notes furiously, her hand cramping even more. Whenever she sat the quill down to shake out the tingles, Xander rolled his eyes and often started in on a sidetrack that lead with 'In my day...' involving people not having journals, quills, or bottles of ink handy. Speaking of bottles of ink, hadn't she gone through a lot of hers already?
Frowning, Tazrae hoped Juli had more of the ink at the Mercantile.
Time signatures can be categorized as follows:
1. According to the sub-division of the beat:
- Simple time - this is when the beat can be subdivided into halves
- Compound time - this is when the beat can be subdivided into thirds - the time signature is written as if the subdivision is the main beat, but in fact the main beat is three times slower
2. According to the number of beats per bar:
- Duple time - two beats per bar - the first is strong, the second weak ("left, right, left, right")
- Triple time - three beats per bar - the first strong, the second and third weak ("Oom pah pah")
- Quadruple time - four beats per bar - the first strong, the third less strong, and second and fourth weak
Combining these two types of categorizations, the following possibilities emerge:
- Simple duple
- 2/2 = 2 minims per bar
- 2/4 = 2 crotchets per bar
- Simple triple
- 3/2 = 3 minims per bar
- 3/4 = 3 crochets per bar
- 3/8 = 3 quavers per bar
- Simple quadruple
- 4/2 = 4 minims per bar
- 4/4 = 4 crotchets per bar
- 4/8 = 4 quavers per bar
- Compound duple
- 6/4 = 2 beats per bar, each of 3 crotchets - unusual nowadays
- 6/8 = 2 beats per bar, each of 3 quavers - quite common today
- Compound triple
- 9/4 = 3 beats per bar, each of 3 crotchets - very rare
- 9/8 = 3 beats per bar, each of 3 quavers - occasionally seen
- Compound quadruple
- 12/4 = 4 beats per bar, each of 3 crotchets - very rare
- 12/8 = 4 beats per bar, each of 3 quavers - very rare
"Ledger Lines are an extension of the staff. They are additional lines both above and below which are parallel to the staff. Each ledger line contains one note... and really it's just a place holder, Tazrae." Xander said, demonstrating by writing a really high note on a base scale.
Next, he reviewed the notes. He wrote them out, starting with a whole note, a half note, a quarter note, an eighth and finally a sixteenth." The bard nodded, having seen these before. "Each note has a specific duration." He conveyed what these durations were to her by tapping for each note. It worked well, and she nodded, translating this to her notes as best she could.
"Also, Silences are also important in music and are specified by a rest which has a certain length. Both notes and rests can be made longer by the addition of a dot, which is then called a dotted note or dotted rest. Another type of dot, a staccato, makes a note shorter than it looks. " With that, Xander showed her rests, dots, and staccatos. She noted what they looked like and nodded her understanding.
"Finally, let's talk meters. A meter is the regular recurring pattern of strong and weak beats of equal duration; also known as time. The meter or time signature in a musical composition is indicated by a fraction and located at the beginning of a piece of music. The lower number of the fraction tells what kind of note receives one beat. The upper number tells how many beats are in a measure." Tazrae nodded as Xander stopped speaking, giving her a chance to catch up on her note-taking.
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