Beat and meter
Feel a steady beat, tell strong beats from weak ones, and read 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 time.
The beat
Music makes you want to clap or tap your foot, evenly, like a clock ticking. Those equal taps are beats, and their chain is the pulse. How fast the beats go is the tempo: the closer together they are, the faster the music.
Some beats are strong and some are weak. A strong beat feels heavier: it is where you want to lean. The pattern of strong and weak beats is called meter.
Eight even beats. Press play and clap along
Turn on the metronome and clap on every click until your claps land on it without effort. A steady beat is the base of every rhythm.
Practice: Tap a rhythm in 2/4
Bars and time signatures
Music is divided into bars (measures): spans from one strong beat to the next, separated by vertical bar lines. The strong beat is always the first of the bar.
The time signature is the pair of numbers after the clef. The top one says how many beats are in a bar, the bottom one which note value counts as a beat. In 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 the beat is a quarter note.
2/4: "one-two", strong then weak. This is how a march goes
3/4: "one-two-three", strong, weak, weak. This is how a waltz goes
4/4: "one-two-three-four". The third beat is stronger than the second and fourth, but weaker than the first
Count the beats aloud and lean on "one": it keeps you on track when a bar mixes note values. A half note in 3/4 takes two of the three beats: hold it through "one-two", and a new note comes on "three".