Duration
Introduction
Duration refers to long and short notes as well as silence.
The concept of duration includes rhythms, beat, metre and tempo.
When music has a regular pulse, it is like a heart beat that keeps the tempo steady. This is called a beat. You might tap your foot to the beat.
When there is no obvious beat it is difficult to describe the tempo. Without beat, the music might be unpredictable and make dancing difficult.
These graphs show how beats can be grouped together to create metre.
The first graph represents 3 beats per bar.
The second graph represents 2 beats per bar.
Suggested activities
Teaching notes
Formative assessment
Engagement with the concept of duration might be observed and assessed through activities that encourage students to:
tap, clap or play simple rhythms accurately (including the beat)
invent a visual way to represent simple rhythm/s
compose and rehearse a rhythmic trio, using notation or drawings to represent rhythms
create a rhythm then add pitch, demonstrating an understanding of the difference between duration and pitch.
Syllabus outcomes
The student:
demonstrates an understanding of musical concepts through exploring, experimenting, improvising, organising, arranging and composing (4.4)
demonstrates an understanding of the musical concepts through listening, observing, responding, discriminating, analysing, discussing and recording musical ideas (4.7)
demonstrates an understanding of musical concepts through aural identification and discussion of the features of a range of repertoire (4.8)
demonstrates musical literacy through the use of notation, terminology, and the reading and interpreting of scores used in the music selected for study (4.9).
Music 7-10 Syllabus © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2003, accessed 04/04/22.