Skip to content
Rhythm Reading
EN

Lesson 37 Reading in 2/4 with eighth notes

  • Practice
  • 2/4
  • 80 bpm
  • 12 bars
  • 29 claps
80 bpm

About this exercise

Twelve bars of 2/4 at 80 bpm, the fastest tempo of the block. Eighth notes appear on beat 1, on beat 2 and on both beats, with quarter rests in bars 5 and 10. Each four-bar phrase ends on a half note.

At 80 bpm a 2/4 bar lasts only a second and a half. There is no time to decode: you need to recognize the shapes at once, like words. If you are still spelling them out, practice at 66 bpm looking one bar ahead.

View Details

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. Rests: hands open, no clapping, and keep counting in silence.
  5. 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 80 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 1 & 2
2 4 eighth notes 1 & 2 &
3 quarter note, 2 eighth notes 1 2 &
4 half note 1 (2)
5 2 eighth notes, quarter rest 1 & [2]
6 2 quarter notes 1 2
7 4 eighth notes 1 & 2 &
8 half note 1 (2)
9 quarter note, 2 eighth notes 1 2 &
10 quarter rest, 2 eighth notes [1] 2 &
11 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2
12 half note 1 (2)

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