THE IMPORTANCE
OF COUNTING
SUMMARY
1) Rhythm is a mixture of sounds and silences referred to as “notes” and “rests”.
2) Each note and rest has a value, denoting how long it should be held for.
3) How long a note or rest lasts for is described in "beats".
WHY COUNT?
Counting is the most important part of understanding and using rhythm. It's often the most neglected! It may seem obvious but counting the notes and their values makes sure your rhythms are in time and being able to play in time, is super important for every instrument.
IT's ACTUALLy very simple
In music, you'll count in exactly the same way you've been doing since you were little. We simply add notes up, depending on how long they last and count up to that number.
In the example above, we have four Crotchets - four one beat notes. We start on beat one and play for one beat. Because our next note is another Crotchet, we add another one beat and play again on beat two. Then the same for beat three and four.
ALWAYS START ON THE ONE
When counting in music, we always start on the one! Whatever the first note or rest is, you'll always treat that as "the first beat" - never zero.
ADDING NEW NOTES
We've only explored Crotchets so far. In the next section, we'll look at adding new, longer notes.