Four-beat rhythms
🎯 Try it
How many quavers fit into one crotchet beat?
Tap 1–2–3–4 at a steady pace. Keep the beat while the clapped rhythm changes.
🔎 Worked example
Performance strips — tap your foot on every numbered beat; clap only where written.
Each “clap-clap” is two evenly spaced half-beat sounds. Say “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” throughout, including rests.
In this 4/4 lesson, each bar has four crotchet (quarter-note) beats. A crotchet lasts one beat; two quavers (eighth notes) share one beat; a crotchet rest lasts one silent beat. Model a bar: clap on 1, clap twice on 2-and, stay silent on 3, clap on 4. Count through the rest. Its total is 1 + 0.5 + 0.5 + 1 + 1 = 4 beats.
✏️ Practice
💭 Your answer
A bar contains two crotchets and two quavers. How many beats remain in 4/4?
✅ Quick check
What should happen to the counting during a rest?
🔑 Answers
🔑 Practice answers
💡 Hint and challenge
💡 Hint: Speak rhythm words over a constant four-count before clapping.
⭐ Challenge: Compose two contrasting bars with identical total duration, then perform them without a pause.
🔎 Challenge answer
Perform B then C: eight steady beats across two bars. The rhythm changes, but each bar lasts four quarter-note beats. Keep counting through both rests.