Each of these ticks is a half note beat, which means youвЂ™d play two quarter notes to a beat like this. HereвЂ™s an example of that вЂ“ this time weвЂ™re switching it up and changing the tempo to 120. So if youвЂ™re playing a bunch of quarter notes, youвЂ™ll be able to fit two quarter notes inside of each half beat. This means the metronome should be set to 120 beats, and each of those ticks equals 1 half note. Cut timeДЇinally, another common tempo is the half note beat in cut time. With each tick of the metronome, I think вЂњ1-2-3, 1-2-3,вЂќ and count until I feel comfortable with the rhythm. 3 of these quarter notes fit inside each tick, like so.ДЇor this example (and others like it), I like to get a three-count in my head before starting to play. In the example we were just looking at, we have left hand quarter notes. HereвЂ™s our 60 BPM metronome ticking away again. Each tick of the metronome represents one dotted half note. That means that, with each tick of the metronome, three quarter beats will pass by. How many beats does a dotted half note receive? We still have our number marking as 60 BPM, but this time we have a dotted half note in front of it. Make sense? Tempo markings in music: Dotted notesДotted notes present us a different challenge. HereвЂ™s the sixteenth note pattern we were just looking at. Our metronome is set to 60 still, but this time, instead of ticking quarter notes, itвЂ™s ticking eighth notes. LetвЂ™s hop to the keyboard and try it out. Take a look at this left hand sixteenth note pattern вЂ“ this means we would play two sixteenth notes per tick. When you set the metronome to 60 with this example, 1 eighth note equals 1 tick. This is telling us that there are 60 eighth beats per minute. Here we have the same tempo number вЂ“ 60 beats per minute вЂ“ except this time thereвЂ™s an eighth note in front of the number. ThatвЂ™s pretty simple so far, right? Where it can get a little confusing is when the note in front of the number isnвЂ™t a quarter beat. If I were to play eighth notes along with this quarter note beat, there would be two notes for every tick вЂ“ like this.

So if I were to play quarter notes with this beat, the keys I press would match the ticking, like so. Each of these ticks represents a quarter note beat. The quarter note in front of it is simply saying that there are 60 quarter-note beats per minute in this particular piece. So if a piece is marked вЂњ60 BPMвЂќ, it means itвЂ™s as fast as a clock ticks (60 beats per minute). This number tells you how many beats per minute a piece is. This is really simple вЂ“ Justin B correctly assumed itвЂ™s the metronome number. LetвЂ™s start by talking about what the number means. Here in North America, we use the words вЂњquarter noteвЂќ and вЂњhalf noteвЂќ, but in Britain and elsewhere, they use вЂњcrotchetвЂќ and вЂњminimвЂќ. Just to clarify, a crotchet is a quarter note, and a minim is a half note вЂ“ the words we use for these notes depend on region. If youвЂ™ve ever been confused by random Italian in your music like allegro, or arenвЂ™t sure what the quarter notes, half notes and so on before the number means, then keep watching! ? ItвЂ™s a pretty straightforward answer so this wonвЂ™t be a hugely long video, but itвЂ™s an important topic that IвЂ™ve yet to discuss on this channel.

In todayвЂ™s video, weвЂ™re going to answer a question about tempo markings in music.

Minim in music