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Rhythm Reading
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Lesson 31 Eighth notes on beats 1 and 3

  • Practice
  • 4/4
  • 72 bpm
  • 8 bars
  • 33 claps
72 bpm

About this exercise

Block D organizes the eighth notes into patterns, and the first is the most regular: eighth notes on beats 1 and 3, quarter notes on beats 2 and 4. The shape "1 & 2 3 & 4" appears in four of the eight bars, at 72 bpm, and creates a swing that repeats like a groove.

Since the pattern is always the same, the risk is playing on autopilot and getting lost when it changes: in bar 3 the second half becomes a half note, and in bar 6 the whole bar is quarter notes and a half note. Read every bar, even the repeated ones.

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How to play it

  1. Count-in: the site counts 1 bar before starting ("1 2 3 4"). 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 and whole 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 72 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 eighth notes, quarter note, 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2 3 & 4
2 2 eighth notes, quarter note, 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2 3 & 4
3 2 eighth notes, quarter note, half note 1 & 2 3 (4)
4 whole note 1 (2) (3) (4)
5 2 eighth notes, quarter note, 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2 3 & 4
6 2 quarter notes, half note 1 2 3 (4)
7 2 eighth notes, quarter note, 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2 3 & 4
8 whole note 1 (2) (3) (4)

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