music rhythms

Ties- These symbols connect one note to another. Ties connect notes from one measure to another and tie notes together within a measure. Ties are lines that are placed above the notes. They shouldn’t be confused with slurs which are lines that are placed under the notes

Slurs are lines placed under notes. They serve as an instruction to play passages of notes in a long and connected (legato) manner. These symbols sometimes come in the form of straight lines under each note.

A beam is a horizontal or diagonal line used to connect multiple consecutive notes, indicating a rhythmic grouping. The number of beams is the same as the number of flags on a note

A simple meter does not have to be limited to beats easily divided by two. It is possible to write and play three notes in a beat in simple meter. This is called a triplet. A triplet is a rhythm in which three notes are played in the space of two. The most common example is the eighth note triplet, pictured above. An eighth note triplet rhythm is three evenly-spaced notes played in the space of one beat (or two eighth notes). It is written with a single beam and the number three above or below the beam. You will only see this notation in simple meter. In compound meter the beat naturally divides into three equal parts, so it is not necessary to write the ‘3’ above the grouping.