Rhythm Counting
Lesson 3

The Dotted Quarter Note

3.1 The Dotted Quarter Note

The dotted quarter note looks like a quarter note with a dot after it. It gets a total of 1 ½ beats of music.

The dotted quarter note is also one of the most misplayed rhythms. The thing that will easily fix this is to subdivide while you are playing the rhythm.

The dotted quarter note is equal to three 8th notes, so if you pulse the note three times while playing it, there is a better chance you will count it correctly.

If you remember from the dotted half note, adding a dot to a note multiplies the original value of that note by 1.5. A quarter note normally gets 1 beat in common time, so:

1 x 1.5 = 1.5

It is the same duration as a quarter note and eighth note combined.

3.2 The Dotted Quarter note/8th note combination

This is one of the most common combinations that occur with a dotted quarter note. When you see this rhythm, you should pulse the dotted quarter three times (subdividing into 3 8th notes).

When we are counting dotted quarter notes, I highly suggest to subdivide and pulse out the eighth notes in your head. The dotted quarter note is one of the most incorrectly played rhythms.

We would indicate this pulse of the eighth notes when we count out our rhythms. I want you to write a 1-+-2 if the note occurs on beat one.

When we write the dotted quarter note with an eighth note following it, you will write 1-+-2 under the dotted quarter to show that the rhythm takes the down and up of count 1, plus the down of count 2. Then, the eighth note would get the second half of the second beat, giving it a + under for the counts.

The dotted quarter note often appears with an eighth note. If we take a look at the pizza method, or cookie method in this case, you can see that the dotted quarter note takes up one and a half cookies.

Example 1:

Write the counts out for the first two measures. Those are a review from previous lessons.

Measure 3 is the one where you will first encounter a dotted half note. We always begin with the number 1, so go ahead and write that number down.

A dotted half note lasts one and a half beats, so you will have to show this in your counting. After the 1, you are going to write - + - 2. This shows that the dotted quarter note will last all the way through the first part of beat two.

This will leave us with half of a beat left from beat 2, so write + under the eighth note. That completes the first two beats of the measure.

Now, we should be on beat three of the measure. Write a 3 under the second dotted quarter note in the measure. Once again you will have to add - + - 4 to show that it lasts one and a half beats, but this time you are writing a four because we are in a different part of the measure.

Follow up with + under the last eighth note and that should complete the third measure. Finish completing the last measure. Double check your work. Count and clap, then play.

Example 2:

It consists of a dotted quarter note, 8th note and a quarter note.

Let’s write the rhythm for that measure now.
Always start with count one in the measure.

Now, how long does that dotted quarter last? 1 and a half beats. We need to show all those parts in the counting

If we look at beat two, we are still missing half of beat two. So that means that the 8th note will occur on the + of beat 2.

We now have all of beats 1 and 2 done. We are left with a quarter note, which will take up all of beat 3 of the measure.

Try clapping and counting that measure.

Now write the counts in for the remaining measures.

Check your answer here:

Count and clap the exercise above.

RHYTHM PRACTICE SHEET 3.1

Dotted quarter/eighth note combination

3.3 The 8th/Dotted Quarter note combination

Sometimes you will see the 8th note come first in the combination. In that case, you will still have to subdivide the dotted quarter, but that note will now begin with an + instead of a number because it is occurring on the upbeat, not the downbeat.

To count that rhythm, it would be:

Let’s practice:

Take a look at the third measure. You will see that the measure begins with the 8th/dotted quarter rhythm combination.

We will count that measure now.

Begin with count 1 and write it under the 8th note:

That 8th note only takes up ½ of the beat, so we still need to indicate the up part of that beat, or the + of that beat. So write the + under the dotted quarter note.

That dotted quarter takes up more than just that ½ of beat…..it still needs one whole beat more! So go ahead and write the rest of beat two under as we did before.

You can now finish the measure:

Now write the counts in for the remaining measures.

Check your answer with the exercise below:

Let’s practice both kinds of rhythms we learned so far:

RHYTHM PRACTICE SHEET 3.2

Eighth note/Dotted quarter note combination

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