The course › Unit 1: Discovering the piano
Lesson 4 of 72 · The heartbeat of music: the quarter note and the half note
All music has a steady beat, like a heartbeat or footsteps: that’s the pulse. When you tap your foot to a song, you’re keeping the beat.
A metronome is a musical clock that goes “tick” on every beat. It helps you play evenly.
One note on every beat: steady as a clock.
Why this way: The teacher Émile Jaques-Dalcroze showed that we feel rhythm with the whole body before we play it. Before the exercise, march in place or clap your hands while you listen to the metronome.
Listen to the count-in (4 ticks), then tap on every beat, together with the metronome.
A quarter note lasts one beat: say “ta”. Its head is filled in black, with a vertical line called the stem.
A half note lasts two beats: say “ta-a” and hold the note for both beats. Its head is hollow (white).
Say the syllables out loud as you listen: ta, ta, ta-a…
Tip: On a half note, keep the key down until the next beat: “ta-a” is a sound that lasts.
Tap the rhythm while saying the syllables. On the half notes, hold the key down for two beats.
The same exercise, but this time in rhythm: the music moves along at its tempo, and you follow it. The falling notes show you how long each note lasts: a long bar is a half note, so hold it.