Grammar of Music

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What to study before Irregular and changing meters

Meters of five or seven beats, heard as groups of twos and threes, and meters that change from bar to bar. Below, the concepts that come before, in the order in which one explains the next. Signed in, you see the same path minus what you already hold: your path.

  1. Properties of sound

    The four properties every musical sound has at once: duration, intensity, pitch and timbre.

    Level 0

  2. Note

    The seven pitch names, and the sign that puts one of them on the page.

    Level 1

  3. Note values and rests

    The figures that say how long a sound lasts, and the rests that say the same about silence.

    Level 1has practicelesson Counting time (First steps in theory)

  4. The measure

    Music divided into small parts of equal or variable duration, separated by barlines.

    Level 1lesson Counting time (First steps in theory)

  5. Simple and compound meter

    Whether the beat is an undotted value that divides in two, or a dotted one that divides in three.

    Level 1has practicelesson Counting time (First steps in theory)

  6. Time signature

    Two numbers that name the beat unit and how many of them fill a measure.

    Level 1lesson Counting time (Reading music)

  7. Metric accent

    Why the first beat is strong, and how the strength runs down through the parts of each beat.

    Level 1

  8. Irregular and changing meters

    Meters of five or seven beats, heard as groups of twos and threes, and meters that change from bar to bar.

    Level 2