Meter Notation

This lesson is part of the Fundamentals of Twelve-Tone Equal Temperament category.

Objectives

• Students will be able to describe and perform a meter from a given time signature.
• Students will be able to describe the meter of a piece by ear and give a specific time signature.
• Students will be able to conduct with the appropriate pattern given the time signature of a musical excerpt.
• Students will be able to notate musical rhythms within different metrical scaffoldings.

Resources

Readings

• Handout on Meter Terminology
• Teoria.com on time signature, beat units, simple and compound meters
• Musictheory.net on measures and time signature
• R. Hutchinson. "Meter." (Music Theory for the 21st Century Classroom).
• "Grouping Beats: Meter." (Music Crash Courses).
• F. Tobey. "Standard and Less Common Rhythms." (A Feeling for Harmony).
• T. Rush. "Meter Notation." (Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People).
• T. Rush. "Metrical Beaming." (Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People).
• T. Rush. "Complex Meters." (Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People).
• "Rhythm & Meter Cheat Sheet." (WVU Music Theory Vault).

Class Activities

• Discussion of the classification of meters and symbology of time signatures
• Matching of heard metrical to written metrical structures
• Performance of basic identifying rhythms in different meters
• Meter identification of music from different genres and time periods

Assignments

• Matching recorded examples to written meters
• Meter classification based on identification of beat and division