Music Theory: Writing Rhythms
Writing rhythms correctly is as important as any other area of writing music. Bottom line, music is read by musicians. Even the BEST sight readers (those who can play any piece of music on site) in the business can be stopped dead in their tracks when they come across a rhythmic phrase that has not been written correctly. Therefore, proper Rhythmic Notation is an important step in having your music played correctly.
Over the centuries music has been noted in a variety of ways. While some of the examples labeled as "incorrect" do appear in classical music scores, we are concerned only with the way music is noted in modern times. Beats are dictated by the time signature.
Middle of the Bar: Musicians like to see where the middle of the bar is. The first example clearly shows where the middle of the bar (beat 3) is in the "Correct" example. The middle of the bar is not so easy to see in the "Incorrect" example.
Quarter Rests: Quarter note rests should only appear on a downbeat. The "Incorrect" example shows a quarter rest that starts on the "and" of "one", which is NOT a downbeat. Downbeat is either 1,2,3 or 4.
Half Rests: Half note rests should only appear where they show the middle of the bar. "Correct" shows the middle of the bar (beat 3), "Incorrect" does not.
Complex Rhythms: When writing more complex rhythms, you want to show each beat such as below.
Full Measure Rests: Regardless of the time signature in use, when you have an entire measure with no notes, you always want to use a Whole Measure Rest.
Writing rhythms could be a course of study all by itself. Here we are giving you the basic ideas so you can examine rhythms in printed music and apply these principles to your own music.