# reading music/ timing question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 26, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926 "2005-10-26T01:12:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zydecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@zydecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zydecat)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926/1 "2005-10-26T01:12:40Z")

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I’m a beginning piano player. I am having trouble with dotted quarter note timing. I know they are a beat and a half but I have trouble making that happen at the keyboard when I haven’t heard the piece before.

I remember reading somewhere word phrases that equate the timing of the syllables in the phrase to the timing of music phrases.

Are there any tricks for nailing the timing of a music phrase?

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926/2 "2005-10-26T01:16:55Z")

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Try thinking of the phrase in (tied) eighth notes. It’s a lot easier to imagine a dotted quarter as three eighth notes than it is “one and a half beats.” (What’s half a beat? Tap it out for me. See?)

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**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926/3 "2005-10-26T01:22:05Z")

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Heh. I’m another one who can’t count…what I usually resort to is shouting ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and-FOUR-and while vigorously slamming my foot into the floor. 🙂

Or you could get a metronome…let’s say your piece is in 4/4. So then you set it to twice as fast as you want to go, so it gives you eight beats per measure, and do what **Doug** suggests about counting eighth notes.

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926/4 "2005-10-26T01:25:23Z")

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Yeah, Llarona said; that’s what the “and-a” is for.

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**Author:** ![zydecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@zydecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zydecat)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926/5 "2005-10-26T02:43:08Z")

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Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I usually tap the foot fairly slow and loud until I work it out. I haven’t thought about double timing the metronome. Maybe that will help. I thought there was a word trick that helped. For example say the word Misssss-i-siiiiiip-iiiii and it has a certain rythym that equates to a musical phrase so that you can see the notation on paper and immediately work it out in your brain without all the foot tapping.

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**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-music-timing-question/327926/6 "2005-10-26T03:05:45Z")

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I remember being taught “CHO-co-late” as a way to play triplets. It’s been ~25 years since I learned how to play triplets, so I don’t remember how effective it was, but it’s stayed in my head all these years!