Exercises to learn and practice rhythm, from the value of each note to the time signature of a whole measure. They are grouped in four blocks that follow a sensible order. Answers are checked right away, and most exercises have printable worksheets with answers.
The four blocks
Note Values
Identify notes and rests, their equivalences, how long each lasts in a time signature, adding up a measure, ties and slurs, and why a dot is a tie. Six exercises.
Start Note ValuesTime Signatures
Analyze a time signature, complete a measure, recognize the time signature from the rhythm, and find syncopation and off-beat notes.
Start Time SignaturesTuplets
What simple note value each triplet, duplet, quadruplet and sextuplet equals, in three levels, and then which time signature a measure of tuplets is in.
Start TupletsPhrase Beginnings and Endings
Two exercises that look at the first and last measures of a melody: how it starts (on the downbeat, on a pickup or after a rest) and how it ends (on a strong or a weak beat).
Start Phrase BeginningsA sensible order
- Note values. First recognize the notes and rests, then their equivalences (which do not depend on the time signature) and then their value in beats, which does.
- Time signatures. With the note values clear, analyze time signatures, complete measures and recognize the time signature from the rhythm. Syncopation and off-beat notes come last, because they need a good sense of strong and weak beats.
- Tuplets. Triplets, duplets, quadruplets and sextuplets. They need the value of notes in beats, and they lead to a harder exercise: naming the time signature of a measure made of tuplets.
- Phrase beginnings and endings. These use everything above: you have to know which beat is the strong one before you can say where a melody starts and ends.
The theory is in the dictionary: note values, time signatures, tuplets and the musical phrase. To feel the pulse of each meter, use the online metronome. To recognize a time signature by ear, there is the ear-training exercise.