#Music bar line software#

Rather than use the term chunk, I use the terms one-beat, two-beat, and four-beat patterns. This idea can be applied to all rhythmic values, but the smallest rhythmic value I use here is primarily the eighth note. The One-, Two-, and Four-Beat Rhythmic VocabularyĪlthough the design principles explored here are applicable to all meters, this discussion is limited to the most common of all time signatures: 4/4. The graphics of music notation are structured to make these chunks of information easily accessible to the music reader. Adept music sight readers perceive groups of characters and not the individual characters. We don’t see individual letters rather, we group letters into chunks of information and see words. There are parallels between reading music and reading words. I also realized that the distribution of these patterns was consistent with current studies of human perception: we perceive information in chunks rather than in small bits. (For a demonstration of this principle, see the last bar of example 7.) Because of the limitations of the imaginary bar line concept, I supplemented it with two aspects of music notation: a definition of the essential one-, two-, and four-beat rhythmic vocabulary and the five layout patterns that are discussed below. In effect, we need three imaginary bar lines.

With sixteenths, we need to show the beginning of each beat. In addition, the imaginary bar line concept is incomplete for the notation of sixteenth-note patterns. These patterns are shown in examples 1, 2, and 3. This led to defining all one- and two-beat patterns as well. Eventually I abandoned this approach and defined them as acceptable four-beat patterns. At first, I identified these rhythmic patterns as exceptions to the imaginary bar line concept. My first observation was that there were quite a few commonly used patterns that do not follow the imaginary bar line rule. This makes the music easier to understand for those reading it. The principle of the imaginary bar line is that one should be able to draw a bar line in the middle of a measure of 4/4 meter that divides it into two bars of 2/4. I went back to square one and re-examined rhythmic notational practices-especially the imaginary or invisible bar line concept. In 1999, when I first taught Berklee’s Writing Skills course, I was forced to examine the structure of rhythmic notation so that I could teach it. His approach inspired me to look at rhythms in a new way. In his book A Theory of Evolving Tonality, Joseph Yasser offers a fresh, unique, and valuable perspective on the relationships in tonal music. I admire music theorists who can step back from what they have learned and examine music from a fresh perspective that is separate from the system they have been taught.

#Music bar line software#

He has written the MusicGamesOne software program that teaches music fundamentals in a video-game format. Scott McCormick is a professor in Berklee’s Harmony Department.