Photo: Ivan Samkov

How do you count notes?

You would count the beat 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, and so on. In-between you would fill in the word 'and' for the eighth note subdivisions of each beat. A measure of eighth notes would be counted aloud, “1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and.” Since this is how most people learn it, it's a good idea to know it that way, too.

studybass.com - How to Count Rhythms - StudyBass

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Early on in your rhythmic development you will find it very helpful to count rhythms aloud. You might feel silly doing it, but something about the physical act of vocalizing rhythms really helps you absorb them and play them accurately. Don’t be shy about counting rhythms out loud. You won't have to do it forever, but in the beginning it really helps. Nearly every time I have a student struggling with a rhythm it clears up as soon as they count the rhythm out loud. Until they've absorbed it, often it falls apart as soon as they stop counting. Count the rhythm, absorb and master it, then set it free in your subconcious.

Traditional Rhythm Counting

Traditionally teachers teach you to count rhythms using numbers along with some other words or sounds. You would count the beat 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, and so on. In-between you would fill in the word ‘and’ for the eighth note subdivisions of each beat. A measure of eighth notes would be counted aloud, “1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and.” Since this is how most people learn it, it’s a good idea to know it that way, too. A musician might communicate to you, “Play that B-flat on the and of 2.” That would mean to play it on the eighth note falling between beats 2 and 3. Similarly, 16th notes are traditionally counted “1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-3-e-and-a-4-e-and-a” and so on dividing each beat into 4 syllables. You might discover counting rhythms this way is a little awkward. You might run out of breath. Many people teach rhythm counting another (in my opinion better) way that is less awkward.

Counting Rhythms with Nonsense Syllables

To make vocalizing rhythms more comfortable, you can assign some simpler-to-say nonsense syllables to each of the 1-e-and-a’s. I like to teach students to divide each beat into 4 syllables I made up: doom-ba-tek-ah. Naturally, you can make up your own syllables. Just be consistent and use ones that are rhythmic and easy to vocalize. “Doom” is the beat where you'd be counting 1, 2, 3, 4. Just vocalizing the beat you’d say, “Doom-doom-doom-doom.” “Tek” is the “and”, or eighth note, between each beat. To count all eighth notes you’d say, “Doom-tek-doom-tek-doom-tek-doom-tek.” Finally, you can add “ba” and “ah” for the 16th notes between the “dooms” and “teks”. To count sixteenths you’d say, “Doom-ba-tek-ah-doom-ba-tek-ah-doom-ba-tek-ah-doom-ba-tek-ah.”

Practice Counting Rhythms

Find any music notation you can and count the rhythm out loud using the appropriate nonsense syllables. Don't concern yourself with speed. Focus on accuracy first. Use a metronome to pace yourself. As you study more rhythms you’ll start to recognize their sound and feel from the nonsense syllables you learned to vocalize. You'll see this really helps with complicated and syncopated rhythms.

Count and vocalize those rhythms out loud!

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How many keys on piano?

88 keys As piano music developed and evolved, the keyboard compass was gradually expanded in response to requests from composers who sought a broader potential for expression. By the 1890s, today's modern keyboard had become established with 88 keys spanning 7¼ octaves (from 2A to C5; 27.5 Hz to 4,186 Hz*).

yamaha.com - Trivia:Why Can't There Be More Than 88 Keys on a Piano?

The piano that Bartolomeo Cristofori first invented in Italy had only 54 keys. As piano music developed and evolved, the keyboard compass was gradually expanded in response to requests from composers who sought a broader potential for expression. By the 1890s, today's modern keyboard had become established with 88 keys spanning 7¼ octaves (from 2A to C5; 27.5 Hz to 4,186 Hz*). The human ear can hear sounds in the range from approximately 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, but the upper limit of frequencies that the human brain can discriminate is at the very most around 4,000 Hz. Even if the compass were to be expanded by increasing the number of keys on the piano, to the human ear, the extra notes at the bass end would become nothing more than a rumbling noise, and the added treble notes would be heard as an unpleasant dissonant noise with no sense of being in a tonal range, and thus, musically, would be almost meaningless. Boesendorfer is making 97-key pianos with nine additional keys in the bass segment of the keyboard (2C to C5). However, the strings for these nine keys in the lowest bass segment are really only there to provide a richer sound when other keys are played by resonating with them. In reality, the extra keys themselves are almost never played directly. * When A is tuned to 440 Hz. The pitch of the individual keys will vary depending on the tuning method.

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