Skip to content
Rhythm Reading
EN

Lesson 38 Reading in 3/4 with eighth notes

  • Practice
  • 3/4
  • 80 bpm
  • 12 bars
  • 38 claps
80 bpm

About this exercise

Twelve bars of 3/4 at 80 bpm, with eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes and dotted half notes. The dotted half note appears three times (bars 3, 9 and 12) and works as a breather; bar 7 has six eighth notes filling the bar, and bar 5 starts in silence.

Bar 11 ends on a rest, and the last bar is a dotted half note: after the silence of beat 3, come in firmly on 1 and hold until the end. Read the phrases four bars at a time.

View Details

How to play it

  1. Count-in: the site counts 1 bar before starting ("1 2 3"). 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 dotted 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 4 eighth notes, quarter note 1 & 2 & 3
2 quarter note, 2 eighth notes, quarter note 1 2 & 3
3 dotted half note 1 (2) (3)
4 2 eighth notes, 2 quarter notes 1 & 2 3
5 quarter rest, 2 eighth notes, quarter note [1] 2 & 3
6 half note, quarter note 1 (2) 3
7 6 eighth notes 1 & 2 & 3 &
8 3 quarter notes 1 2 3
9 dotted half note 1 (2) (3)
10 quarter note, 4 eighth notes 1 2 & 3 &
11 2 eighth notes, quarter note, quarter rest 1 & 2 [3]
12 dotted half note 1 (2) (3)

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