Music Notation Duration

Here's another learning song in our popular musical concepts category. This time, we are singing about the duration of musical notes. "Music Notation Duration" covers the basic five – eighth note, quarter note, half note, dotted half note, and whole note, or in counting terms – half, one, two, three, and four beats.

The beginning of the song lets your singers know that every note has its own duration and that, by following the music notation, you'll always be able to tell what that duration is. In the second part of the song, they get to sing each note name and then speak the value of each note after that. With this piece, singing the notes and seeing them on paper will be equally beneficial.

The song has a fun, folksy feel to it with acoustic guitars, upright bass, piano, and a banjo. But when it's time for the counting of each note value, a brass ensemble comes in to help show how each duration "sounds." Between the explanation in the lyrics, the counting of the beats, and the illustration in the accompaniment, your students should really have a good understanding of note duration. This song also helps demonstrate the mathematical side of music theory, which could lead into some other cross curricular discussions.