If you need to write 8 eighth notes on 1 measure of 4/4, how would you accomplish this?

There are plenty of wrong ways to do this.

But there is only one right way.

Why is the 2 groups of 4 eighth notes correct?

Every time signature has an implied grouping for eighth notes. We can see what each implied grouping is by looking at where the IMAGINARY BARLINE falls.

Bars for grouping flags together never cross this line.

Notes don’t cross over it either.

When we have a note value that crosses over the imaginary barline, we use a tie to connect smaller note values together.

Other groupings for different time signatures are listed below.

8th NOTES

16th NOTES

if you need to write 16 sixteenth notes on 1 measure of 4/4, how would you do this?

There are plenty of wrong ways to do this as well.

But again, there is only one right way.

We bar 16th notes in groups of 4. Why? Because 4 16th notes is 1 quarter note. It allows us to clearly see where the pulses (beats) are.

If I want to indicate 2 sixteenth notes, 1 eighth note, 3 sixteenth notes, 2 eighth notes, 1 quarter note, and 1 sixteenth note, how would I signify this?

We can bar sixteenth notes to eighth notes in any fashion. we even have a dotted eighth attached to a single sixteenth note. All you need to do is make sure we have a second barline dash showing to signify that it is a sixteenth note. You should also take note of how we can represent those quarter notes and 8th notes which occur in between pulses with ties.

You can even put rests in these 16th note groupings, as long as we clearly show each beat.

3/8 is the only example of a time signature where we have groups of 6 sixteenth notes.

Contact

Lessons