The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Part 2:
Rhythms
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Taking the Measure of Things
Rhythm is about counting. Listen to your favorite pop song, and feel the beat.
(Go ahead, tap your foot—it’s okay!) You’ll likely feel the beats fall into groups
of four—one, two, three, four; one, two, three, four …. It’s easy to hear because
it’s very natural.
Let’s use a specific example—“Mary Had a Little Lamb.” The notes of the
song fall into groups of four; just replace the words “Ma-ry had a” with “one
two three four” and you see how it works.
In this song, and other songs based around groups of four, each group of four
beats is called a 
measure,
a container that holds a specific number of beats. In
standard 4/4 time, a measure holds the equivalent of four quarter notes. The
beginning and end of a measure are signified by bar lines, like this:
The first beat in a measure is counted as one. The second beat is counted as
two. The third beat is counted as three, and the last beat is counted as four.
There is no five; if you count out five you’ve counted too far! Whenever you hit
four, the next beat is always one.
Every time four beats go by—one, two, three, four—another measure is com-
pleted. If you put enough measures together—one, two, three, four; one, two,
three, four—you have a song.
Taking Note—of Notes
Every time you sing or play a tone, you’re also singing or playing a note value.
There are different types of note values, with each note value signifying a spe-
cific length of time—as measured by parts of a measure.
To better explain, we have to get into a little math. (Don’t worry—there won’t
be any story problems!) You see, each note value lasts a specific duration, and
each duration reflects a ratio to duration. As you can see from the following fig-
ure, each shorter note is precisely half the duration of the previous note. So if
you can divide and multiply by two, this should be fairly easy for you.
A group of measures on a staff; each measure is separated by left and right bar lines.

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Chapter 5:
Note Values and Basic Notation
The most common rhythmic notes—each smaller note is exactly half the previous note.
Whole Notes
The most basic note is called the 
whole note, 
which is called a whole note
because, in 4/4 time (we’ll get to this soon—I promise!), it lasts a whole meas-
ure. Because 4/4 time has four beats in a measure, this means a whole note lasts
four beats. A whole note looks like a big empty oval, nice and whole.
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Whole notes, at different places on the staff.
When you put a whole note in a measure of 4/4 time, that’s the only note that
goes in that measure; no other notes will fit. When you play a whole note, you
play your instrument once at the very beginning of the measure (on beat one),
and then you hold that tone through the entire measure. In other words, one
whole note should last a whole measure.
Half Notes
Because the whole note is the largest note, let’s go down one size and look at the
next smallest note. Remember that I said each shorter note is exactly half the
previous note? Let’s apply a little math and divide a whole note by two to see
what we get.
The next smallest note is called a 
half note.
(It’s half of a whole note—pretty
simple, eh?) Because a whole note lasts a whole measure (in 4/4, anyway), a half
note lasts a half measure. This means a half note lasts 
two beats,
which is half of

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