(music theory help)Whats the difference between counting beats and counting note value?
Posted by adminDec 26
Im confused im new to music theory and at first i thought i understood. Im having trouble with time signatures its weird because i understand how to count not value so their must be something im missing. anyone kno of anything that can help me. website or video maybe? i recently got music theory for dummies and im stuck.
4 comments
Comment by chelseythebagel on December 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I agree with Curous.
Counting Beats:
This is the number of beats in the measure and it could be the different ways to count the time in a measure.
In 4/4 time; 1 2 3 4 (or could be counted like this) 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & (or like this) 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a …
Counting Note Value:
This has more to do with whole notes, half notes, quarter notes. The note value of a whole note would be 4 counts (in 4/4 time). The note value of a quarter note is 1 count (in 4/4 time).
Comment by curious georgette on December 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Counting beats is how many beats are in a measure. Note value is a whole note is 4 counts. a half note is two counts etc…
I hope that makes sense to you. maybe someone else can explain it a little better
Comment by Catqueen on December 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm
The beat is continuous, while a note value has a set number of beats
If the time signature is
4
4
then the quarter note get the beat
The easiest way to explain is by clapping. If you are clapping and counting the beats in a melody, you would count 1 2 3 4 the whole time you are clapping, but your hand would stop clapping at the start of each new beat
For example, if you have a whole note, then you would clap one time, but count four beats
Comment by Tyler S on December 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm
well note walue is how many notes in a beat. so if the time signiture is say 4/4, and you have an 8th note, then there will be 2 notes in that certian beat. its hard to explain but…hope i helped