Learning Rhythm Notation and Dynamics

Saturday, March 10, 2007

The past week we were discussing how understanding chords on sheet music, now let's review the basics of rhythm notation, which is no other thing that the duration of a note every time you play the piano.

Every notation has different duration that is translated into a difference in beat for each piano key. However, you need to use your learning material to identify every notation and play accordingly. Notations are marked as those symbols that all people identify as musical notes.

Rhythm notation includes semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, and semiquaver notes, each of them identified by a musical symbol. Their position and number on the stave creating a graphic notation define the pitch of the notes.

Notation is complemented with dynamics, which are the alterations in the volume of a melody. Dynamics are displayed as symbols on the stave, near the key signature or wherever in a piece of music a change of dynamics takes place.

Dynamics are defined as crescendo or diminuendo; piano and pianissimo; forte and fortissimo, mezzo forte, mezzo piano and sforzando. There is another dynamic called accent, which is marked near a note head.

Crescendo is the dynamic that marks when a melody begins to get louder using a large symbol similar to this symbol; <. Diminuendo is the opposite action indicating that music is getting quieter by using the opposite large symbol >.

Piano is noted as "p" and reflects a quiet interpretation, while pianissimo (pp) is playing very quiet. Forte is noted as "f", meaning that notes have to be played loud, and fortissimo (ff) is playing very loud.

Mezzo forte (mf) and mezzo piano (mp) are opposite to each other meaning that notes are played fairly loud and fairly quiet respectively, while sforzando (sf) is a sudden quick accent that falls into the note which is marked with this dynamic.

With this knowledge you can start the following training phase: articulation of the notes, that indicates how high pitched or smoothly is the music played, either staccato (sharp and shortly) or legato (smoothly).