FREE ONILNE LESSONS (Your First Song - Step 4)
Now if you try to sing the tune, you realize you will pause for a little while when you sing until "row", "go", "glide", "ride" and "tide". Question is how long exactly do you have to pause at those places? To answer this question, let us try clapping our hands while singing the tune.
Clapping your hands is a simple way to ensure your timing (musically called "rhythm") is correct. Here is the score that tells you exactly where you should clap.
Just a note: Singing and clapping really helps. If you are embarrassed, do that when no one is around!
Notice that when we reach "row", "go", "glide", "ride", we clap our hands twice.
From this, we can conclude that every "bar" consists of 4 "claps". In music, the "claps" are what we call "beats". So we say "there are 4 beats in every bar". (As a matter of fact, you will play a song of "3 beats" in lesson 3. So press on!)
Notice that the "E" (row) holds for 2 beats and the "D" (row) holds for 2 beats, and the last note "C" holds (tide) for 4 beats. Different notes might possess a different time value. Some notes are shorter whereas some are longer.
Now try playing the song again (of course, with your right hand). This time, try tapping your foot if you can (instead of clapping, and follow the beats as accurately as you can!
