About This Chapter: In Chapter 1, simple meters were defined as meters in which the beat typically divides into two equal parts. We’ve focused so far on simple meters with the quarter note as the beat and the eighth note as the division of the beat. But we can actually further divide the division into even smaller note values (a concept we’ll return to in Chapter 15). Here, we’ll focus on what happens when we divide the eighth note divisions into two equal parts. These different metrical levels—the quarter note beat, the eighth note division, and the sixteenth note subdivision—are creating a metrical grid.

Rhythmic Syllables: Since we’re adding a new metrical level, we’ll need some new rhythmic syllables. Check out the figure below to see the syllables we’ll use. Notice that we still want any note that’s on a beat to be spoken as a number. We also still want the off-beat eighth notes to be performed as “&” (“and”). For the sixteenth notes that fall between, we’ve added some new syllables: “e” (pronounced like the letter “e”) and “a” (pronounced like “uh”).