Grade Three Music Theory - Lesson 2. Notes, Symbols and Terms

The Demisemiquaver

The smallest note we’ve come across so far is the semiquaver.
Remember that 4 semiquavers are worth 1 crotchet. A semiquaver has two little tails on the stem, which are always on the right hand side.

The demisemiquaver is worth half a semiquaver. You need 8 demisemiquavers to make up the value of 1 crotchet. A demisemiquaver has three little tails:

Demisemiquavers are usually grouped and beamed in fours:

But because we need eight of them to equal one crotchet, we often put two groups of four together:

To make it easier to see the division of beats, many people prefer to use one long beam at the top, to join all the notes, and then two shorter beams on each group of four:

One semibreve is worth 32 demisemiquavers.
One minim is worth 16 demisemiquavers.
One crotchet is worth 8 demisemiquavers.
One quaver is worth 4 demisemiquavers.
One semiquaver is worth 2 demisemiquavers.

The demisemiquaver rest looks like this:

It has three tails, and each tail sits within a space on the stave.

Metronome Tempo Directions

Although you can use an Italian term for tempo, e.g. allegro or andante, these terms are not very exact. If you want to set an exact tempo, you need to use a metronome marking. This is a traditional metronome:

The rod swings from left to right and makes a loud click each time. The clicks tell you what speed to play at. The square slider on the rod can be moved up and down. If you slide it up, the clicks become slower. If you move it down, they become faster. There is a gauge on the body of the metronome which tells you what speed the rod is clicking at.

You can play with a virtual metronome at the website www.metronomeonline.com. Click the “on” button, then choose a number – that is your tempo in beats per minute. If you choose 60, the clicks will be exactly one second apart, because there are 60 seconds in a minute. Metronomes also show the Italian terms used for a certain range of tempos – you can see that largo is from about 42-50 beats per minute.
At the beginning of a piece you might see something like = 60. This means you need to play one crotchet every second, or 60 crotchets per minute. Set the metronome to 60, and play a crotchet with every click. What if you see = 72? This means the tempo is 72 minims per minute. Set the metronome to 72 and play a minim with each click.

If you get a question in your exam paper which asks you “what does = 72 mean?”, the answer will be “the tempo is 72 minims per minute”.

Symbols

Here are some symbols which you might be tested on in the grade three music theory exam.

The slur. This curvemnd line groups together notes which should be played in a legato (smooth and without breaks between the notes) fashion.

The tie. This curved line looks exactly like a slur, but it joins together two (or more) notes which are the same pitch. It means “add the two note values together”.

The repeat barline. This barline has two lines - one thin and one thick, and two dots. It means “go back to the start/ the last repeat barline and play again”.

Forzato. “Forced” or “sharply accented”.

Foreign Terms