LESSON THREE: Notation

In this lesson you are going to learn this musical vocabulary:

Dotted notes

A dot beside a note increases its duration by half its original value and the same occurs to the rests.

Note	Duration
·	4 + 2 beats
·	2 + 1 beats
·	1 and a half beats

Activity 1

Place the dots that have been removed in this tune. Teachers' guide

Auld Lang Syne

 

 

Time signature

At the beginning of a piece of music you will notice a time signature represented by two numbers:

 

The top number tells you how many beats will be in a measure. The bottom number show the duration of each beat.

Here you are the duration equivalence in numbers of each beat.

Number	Note
2
4
8

Activity 2

Fill the gaps with right equivalences

Two four time (2/4) =   ......  or  ......  ......   or  ......  ......  ......   or   ......  ......  ......  ......

Two two time (2/2) =   ......  ......   or  ......  ......  ......   or   ......  ......  ......  ......   or  ......  ......  ......  ......   ......  ...... 

Three four time (4/4) = ......   or  ......  ......   or  ......  ......  ......   or   ......  ......  ......  ......   or   ......  ......  ......  ......

Activity 3

Write the time signature of the following tune and the bar lines that have been removed.

 

My Love is Like Red Rose

 

Activity 4

Listen to Scotland the Brave and say in which time signature is it written. Remember that at the beginning of each measure there is a musical accent.

- Two four time
- Three four time
- Four four time

Activity 5

Now write each of the time signatures above at the beginning of the three staves below and complete four measures using different combination of notes lengths. Don't forget the Treble clef

Activity 6

Teachers' guide

Listen to The Bluebells of Scotland and ask you partner:

How many , , , or are there in this piece?
Use this pattern below

 

Before you ask the question be sure you can be able to answer.
For you doing this task follow these instructions below.

1. Tap the beatings
2. Notice the accents
3. Sort out the time signature
4. Decide which length note you want to ask your partner.
5. Count how many times it appears in that tune.

Activity 7

Fill in the blanks using these words. There are two left.

__________ is the notation written at the beginning of a music staff.
__________ are the vertical lines which divides the staff into __________.

 

 

 

Activity 8

Unscramble the letters to form music words

Activity 9

Teachers' guide
Now, try to write at least 5 sentences with musical words but with no musical meaning. Use these words:

 

Rest

Measure

Staff

Whole

Beat

Dot

Half

 

 

1. _______________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________

4. _______________________________________________________________

5. _______________________________________________________________

 

Activity 10 Teachers' guide 

Go to this web site http://www.quia.com/shared/music/ and follow your teacher´s instructions

Activity 11 Teachers' guide 

Now write down all new words you have learnt. Classify them into music words and non music words.

 

Music words	Translation		Non music words	Translation