Now that you know how thirty-seconds operate, let’s discuss a counting system for them. Notice that there are eight thirty-seconds to each quarter, four thirty-seconds to each eighth, and two thirty-seconds to each sixteenth note. Take a look at example 1 and you’ll see how thirty-second notes (the stems-up notes with three beams) relate to the other types of values that you already know. In effect, you were playing the same rhythm of thirty-seconds (eight equal divisions of each count) even though the notes themselves were written as sixteenths. The sixteenth notes that were in the exercise forced you to play two strokes for each of those syllables. In cut time, eighth notes get the syllables of “1 e + a” as they divide each of the two main counts into four equal parts. If you played the last WebRhythm exercise in cut time, you’ve actually got a jump on understanding thirty-seconds. Congratulations! See, that wasn’t so hard. If you did this correctly, you’ve just played eight notes between counts one and two, and you’ve performed a set of thirty-second notes. Now, place a left hand stroke in between each one of those syllables. Just count a group of four sixteenth notes (1 e + a) and play those syllables with your right hand. Performing a full count’s worth of thirty-second notes is truly easy. And since there are two thirty-seconds to each sixteenth, there will be eight thirty-seconds in a single count. To look at this in another way, remember that in common time there are four sixteenth notes to each quarter. What do thirty-second notes do? Just as eighth notes divide quarters into two equal parts and sixteenth notes divide eighths into two equal parts, thirty-seconds divide each sixteenth into two equal parts. Similar to the way that sixteenths are grouped, thirty-seconds are beamed together into groupings that visually indicate the counts. ![]() Free-standing thirty-second notes are rare. ![]() Most often though, you’ll see thirty-seconds that have three beams instead of three flags. Thirty-second notes have three flags whenever they aren’t connected to any other notes. First, let’s talk about what thirty-second notes look like and what they do. More often than not, music that makes use of thirty-second notes moves at a slower pace than music using longer note values. But relax, additional beams don’t necessarily mean you’re going to have to play so fast that your sticks turn into kindling. Okay, okay, I know that for some players, looking at a page full of beams can be a pretty scary experience. ![]() Look out! Here come those notes with lots of beams.
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