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Rhythm Reading
EN

Lesson 35 Echo: every bar twice

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

About this exercise

A reading-ahead exercise: every bar appears twice in a row. Bars 1 and 2 are the same, as are 3 and 4 and also 5 and 6; the last two (dotted half note with a quarter note, and a whole note) close the phrase.

The repetition gives your eyes some slack. Read the first bar of each pair carefully and, while you clap the second, already look at the next pair. That is how sight-reading works: your hands play the present and your eyes are in the future.

Before you start

Here every bar appears twice in a row. Read the first one carefully and, during the second, already look at the next line: reading ahead is the secret of sight-reading.

View Details

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, dotted 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 quarter note, 2 eighth notes, half note 1 2 & 3 (4)
4 quarter note, 2 eighth notes, half note 1 2 & 3 (4)
5 4 eighth notes, 2 quarter notes 1 & 2 & 3 4
6 4 eighth notes, 2 quarter notes 1 & 2 & 3 4
7 dotted half note, quarter note 1 (2) (3) 4
8 whole note 1 (2) (3) (4)

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