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    The document provides guidance on writing rhythmic answers in a Grade One Music Theory exam. It explains that the answer must be two bars long and in the same time signature as the question. Students should check the time signature, look at the note values used in the question, and reuse some of the rhythmic elements but not copy directly. The answer should connect to the question and end on a longer note for completion. Sample answers are provided with feedback.

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    The document provides guidance on writing rhythmic answers in a Grade One Music Theory exam. It explains that the answer must be two bars long and in the same time signature as the question. Students should check the time signature, look at the note values used in the question, and reuse some of the rhythmic elements but not copy directly. The answer should connect to the question and end on a longer note for completion. Sample answers are provided with feedback.

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    113 views9 pages

    Rhythms

    Uploaded by

    lephammydung
    The document provides guidance on writing rhythmic answers in a Grade One Music Theory exam. It explains that the answer must be two bars long and in the same time signature as the question. Students should check the time signature, look at the note values used in the question, and reuse some of the rhythmic elements but not copy directly. The answer should connect to the question and end on a longer note for completion. Sample answers are provided with feedback.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 9

    1

    Rhythms
    In the Grade One Music Theory exam, you will probably have to
    write two bars of rhythm as an answer to two given bars.
    The question could look something like this:
    Write a two-bar rhythm as an answer to the given rhythm.

    Check the Time Signature


    The first thing you need to do is look at the time signature. This tells
    you how many beats you will need to write in each bar, so it's very
    important.
    In the above question, the time signature is 2/4, so we will need to
    write note values which add up to two crotchet (quarter note) beats
    in each bar. Always double-check your finished rhythm to make sure
    you have the right number of beats.
    When you beam (join) notes together, make sure that you beam
    each group correctly. See lesson "Lesson 8 Beaming" for more
    details about this.
    For grade 1, the rhythm will be in 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4 time, with no
    upbeat.

    Look at the Existing Rhythms


    The next thing you should do is look at the kinds of rhythm which
    have already been used in the first two bars. What note values
    were used, and which values weren't used?
    In our question, we've got crotchets (quarter notes), quavers (eighth
    notes) and semiquavers (sixteenth notes). We don't have any dotted

    notes, and we don't have any ties. You should use similar kinds of
    rhythms in your answering phrase as you have in the given phrase each bar must have a connection.

    Re-use Rhythms
    To write an answering rhythm, you should re-use some parts of the
    given rhythm, but don't just copy it exactly, of course!
    Look at the "blocks" of rhythm which occur on each beat. We could
    describe the above rhythm as three different blocks like this:
    1. crotchet (quarter note)
    2. two quavers (eighth notes)
    3. four semiquavers (sixteenth notes).

    You could use the same blocks of rhythm but change their order.
    Make sure that no two bars are identical though!

    Or you could keep a couple of the simpler blocks the same, but swap
    the others. You will get a maximum 7/10 for simply reversing the
    rhythm like this:

    Or, you can even invent something completely new, but only for one
    or two beats' worth. For 10/10, you need to "reference the given
    material", which means reuse a bit of it, and then create something
    else which is new and interesting. This makes a balanced rhythm.

    But watch out! It's not a good idea to invent completely new
    rhythms for the whole of the answering phrase - you are being
    marked on your sense of balance, not on how wildly creative you
    can be! Also, don't use too many rests. The examiner wants to see a
    rhythm, not bars of silence!

    Finishing correctly
    You should end your phrase with a reasonably long note. Usually this
    means a crotchet (quarter note) or a minim (half note). Phrases
    which end on quavers (eighth notes) or semiquavers (sixteenth
    notes) sound too abrupt.

    Don't write a melody!


    Don't forget that you only need to write a rhythm in Grade One
    Music Theory! Use the same notes as given in the example. Don't
    start writing notes of other pitches!

    Sample Answers
    Here are some example answers, with comments:

    Comment: The semiquavers (16th notes) from the original have


    been reused, with some other imaginative material (e.g. the dotted
    rhythm). (10/10)

    Comment: There is hardly any connection between the given and


    the answering phrase. There's no good reason for the rest at the end
    either. (8/10)

    Comment: This is just an exact copy of the given bars. (7/10)

    Comment: The number of beats in the third bar is wrong, bar 4 is a


    copy of bar 2. (5/10)

    Comment: Nothing much of the given phrase has been used, both
    bars (3 &4) contain the wrong number of beats, and it's not a good
    idea to write exactly the same rhythm in each bar. (4/10)
    Rhythm Review

    Composing a rhythm in Grade Two


    Music Theory is just a little bit harder than for Grade One.

    You may find it useful to review the Grade One lesson first, to get
    the general idea, then return to this page to see what's new for
    Grade Two.
    What's New
    In Grade Two, you're only given one bar of rhythm, and you have to
    compose three more.
    The rhythms you are given (and those you are supposed to write)
    will be a little bit more complicated than in grade one. They'll often
    include dotted rhythms or triplets, for example.

    Example Question
    Here's a question for us to work through together:
    Write a four-bar rhythm using the given opening.

    How do we start? The first thing to learn is that your 4-bar rhythm
    must be made up of two phrases - we'll call them A and B.
    Phrase A is the first two bars, and phrase B is the last two.
    We can think of phrase A as a "question", and phrase B as the
    "answer".

    Question Phrases
    As you can see, in grade two we are actually only given half a
    question phrase (whereas in grade one you're given a complete 2-

    bar question). The same kind of thing in words could be something


    like why do you.....?" or "have you ever......?"
    There are probably millions of ways to finish these questions in a
    sensible way, and even more ways to finish them with something
    meaningless!
    We could ask

    Have you ever been to France?


    Why do you get up at 7 o'clock?
    But it wouldn't make much sense if we asked

    Have you ever yesterday afternoon?


    Why do you rabbit mountains?

    In music, the question must also make sense - musical sense. This
    means that you need to write something which fits with the first bar,
    and not something that is totally unconnected to it. Let's take a look
    at some examples.

    This is ok, but not very interesting. We didn't create anything new,
    so we shouldn't expect many points for this! You won't normally get
    more than 7/10 if you copy the given opening exactly.

    This doesn't fit very well because none of the note values in bar 2
    appear in bar 1, so there's no connection.

    This one is good - bar two uses some old material from bar one (the
    triplet), and some new material (the minim (half note)).

    This one is also good - the note values all appear in the first bar, but
    we've changed the order of them. So, there is a strong connection,
    but it's not an exact copy.

    Again, this is good because it re-uses some, but not all, of the
    rhythms from bar 1.

    Not such a good choice - the only note value which appears in both
    bars is the crotchet (quarter note), but everything else is completely
    different. It's probably best not to include rests in your rhythm,
    unless they are part of the rhythm given in bar 1.

    Answering Phrases
    Before we think about answering the question phrase, we need to
    choose a completed question phrase. Let's say we finish our
    question phrase like this:

    Look at the types of rhythm we've used on each beat.


    We've got three types: a plain crotchet (quarter note), a triplet
    quaver (8th note) group and a dotted quaver/semiquaver (dotted
    8th/16th) pair.
    We should use mostly these same types of rhythm in our answering
    phrase.
    The very last note of the phrase should be a reasonably long one (at
    least a crotchet (quarter note)), so that the rhythm sounds properly
    finished.
    Let's take a look at some answering phrases and see which ones are
    any good, and why.

    This sounds fine. We re-used some of the important rhythms, but not
    in the same order, and we finished on a nice long minim (half note).

    This doesn't sound very good. Because we forgot about the triplets,
    the last two bars don't match the first two very well.

    Here we forgot to re-use the dotted rhythm, and the last bar is
    certainly not very interesting!

    This one is good - the rhythms are re-used in a different order and
    the final note value is a nice long end note.

    This is also a good answer. The rhythms are linked, and the last note
    is a long enough ending note.

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