Music Theory Course

This post is to announce the start of a complete theory course that will cover grades 1-5 of most of the Music Examining boards such as ABRSM or Trinity College. It will be an ongoing process so please be patient as I add material. Links to the individual lessons will appear on the page "Music Theory" which can be found on the main menu.

Here is an example of what is to come - but please note that each lesson will not be posted here on the blog, but rather on the "Music Theory" page.

Time Values, Bar Lines and Time Signatures

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1 semibreve is equal to

2 minims, which are equal to

4 crotchets, which are equal to

8 quavers, which are equal to

16 semiquavers.

The above stave contains three Bars separated by Bar Lines.

At the end of the line there is a "Double Bar Line"

At the beginning of each bar there is a Time Signature.

The top number of a time signature tells you how many beats are in a bar, and the bottom number tells you "what type of beat it is".

For example, in the first bar there is a time signature of 2/4.

This means that there are two beats in a bar and the beats are crotchets, or put more simply there are "two crotchet beats in bar".

The second bar has a time signature of 3/4 meaning "three crotchet beats in a bar". Notice that this doesn't necessarily mean three crotchets in that bar - it could be, as above, a minim and a crotchet which adds up to the same as three crotchet beats.

In the final bar there is a letter "C" which stands for "common time". Common time is just another way of writing 4/4 (i.e. four crotchet beats in a bar).

N.B. In Grade 1 you will only see time signatures with crotchet beats. In other words the bottom number of the time signature will always be 4 (or it's marked as common time which means 4/4).