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Rhythm Reading
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Lesson 11 Eighth notes in 2/4

  • Practice
  • 2/4
  • 60 bpm
  • 8 bars
  • 19 claps
60 bpm

About this exercise

The eighth notes leave 4/4 and enter 2/4 time, with only two beats. Each bar is short: "1 & 2 &" and it is already time to start again. The exercise alternates eighth notes on beat 1, on beat 2 and on both beats (bar 5), and each four-bar phrase ends on a half note.

In 2/4 beat 1 comes back very quickly, and that helps you feel the accent at the start of the bar. Use the half notes in bars 4 and 8 to breathe: hands together for two beats, the whole phrase at rest.

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How to play it

  1. Count-in: the site counts 1 bar before starting ("1 2"). Clap the first note on beat 1 of bar 1.
  2. Reading: read the line on the yellow strip and look ahead to the next one: that's how you read ahead.
  3. Hands together: on notes longer than 1 beat (half note) clap and keep your hands together until the end of the note: hands together = the sound keeps going.
  4. Eighth notes: count "1 & 2 &"; the "&" falls exactly in the middle of the beat.

How to practice

  1. Say the count out loud, without clapping, looking at the Bar by bar table.
  2. In Together mode, count and clap at the same time as the character.
  3. In Your turn mode, clap on your own. If it's hard, slow down and then come back.

Goal: ★★★ three times in a row at 60 bpm. Then the lesson is completed.

The full practice method →

Bar by bar

Bold = clap · (n) = don't clap, the sound keeps going (hands together) · [n] = rest, hands open.

Bar Notes Count
1 2 quarter notes 1 2
2 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2
3 quarter note, 2 eighth notes 1 2 &
4 half note 1 (2)
5 4 eighth notes 1 & 2 &
6 2 quarter notes 1 2
7 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2
8 half note 1 (2)

Notes used: half note, quarter note, eighth note.