Rhythmic Notation

I've tried to relay the importance of rhythmic notation a few times. I seriously believe learning it is more important than scales and chords. One thing that sets it apart, is the ability to learn rhythmic notation without any instruments. When I was in band I played percussion, and started out playing snare lines. A technique I learned to follow, was to never to play the same hand twice. You always wanna alternate the notes between the right and left hands, so I used to practice this in class. I would come up with a snare line from the notes I was learning to play with, and practice that.

You need to learn the actual values of each note. Whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth. Common time is the standard time signature of Western music. It's built around the number 4, and so is presented as 4/4. Time signatures indicate the amount of beats in one bar, and their value. So in a bar of 4/4 you can fit 1 whole note, 2 half notes, 4 quarter notes, 8 eighth notes, and 16 sixteenth notes. Now, circle back to the technique I learned on snare. You don't actually need to play a snare to alternate hands, just tap with your fingers.

A whole note is worth 4 beats but unless it's marked as a roll I would hit once with my right hand on 1 and then count 2 3 4.

A half note is worth 2 beats, there are two halves in a whole so 2 half notes across one bar of 4/4. You hit on 1 with your right hand and count 2, then hit on 3 with your left hand and count 4.

A quarter note is worth one beat, 4 quarters make a whole. You hit 1 with your right hand, 2 with your left, 3 right, 4 left.

An eighth note is half of one beat. Rather than just counting the notes and alternating, you need to focus on accenting with your right hand. This is because you will now be playing all the down beats on right, and the upbeats on left. Prior to this, with whole/half/quarter, you didn't need to accent because each note fell on a down beat. An eighth note splits a quarter note into two, the first part is the upbeat and the second part is the downbeat. There needs to be a pulse in your rhythm on each quarter note. So, start slow and hit right hand on 1, left on and, right 2 left and, right 3 left and, right 4 left and. Progressively speed up, with the right hand accenting each note it plays. If you don't do this it'll feel like you're playing quarter notes fast.

Sixteenth notes follow the same process just split again. With eighth notes the right hand was playing 1 2 3 4 and the left was playing the ands (+). With sixteenth notes the right hand plays 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +, while the left hand plays e & a. Again you need to accent the down beats, so the beat has a pulse. This time it isn't every hit of the right hand, but every other hit. So it looks like,

RIGHT left right left RIGHT left right left RIGHT left right left RIGHT left right left

1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a

It's not about speed, it's about accenting the correct notes to create a pulse. Search up a basic snare music sheet and learn to practice it slow. Tap with your right and left hands, you don't need drum sticks and a practice pad.

I hope this makes some sense. Thank you for reading!