How do we make sense of those black dots and lines of music? How do we translate those scratchings into music? Particularly rhythm?
Using a one-measure rhythm pattern from a student’s duet, I’ll show you what we musicians mean when we say, “You’ve got to feel the subdivision.”
Here is the rhythm example:
To understand it, we need to go back to its beginnings.
That rhythm began life here, as eighth notes. We can clap this pattern easily. All notes have the same value or length. Clap 1-and-2-and-3-and. OR evenly, piz-za piz-za piz-za.
Now tie together the 2nd and 3rd notes, and also the 4th and 5th notes. We can still feel the eighth notes pulsing evenly inside the new notes that are tied together.
Another way to notate that same rhythm is to replace the tied eighths with quarter notes.
Now take the final step and replace the first eighth note with an eighth rest. The eighth rest has the same value or length as the eighth note.
Voilá! Here is the final rhythm pattern from Izzy’s duet.
