Rhythm explained, rhythm exercises by Daniel Laberge

Rhythm explained

including

27 rhythm exercises

by Daniel Laberge

Hi rhythm lovers,
I've devised these exercises in the early seventies while teaching music.
I could not find any existing book that saw rhythm the way I did.
This method is based on "rhythmic figures" or rhythm possibilities.
Each one lasts one beat.
I simply counted the rhythmic possibilities one could encounter for each type of beat divisions.
There are:
•Four rhythmic possibilities if the beat is divided by two
•Eight rhythmic possibilities if the beat is divided by three
•Sixteen rhythmic possibilities if the beat is divided by four

I composed the exercises back then and used them for my teaching, but I only wrote the theory that goes along in 2002.
The book is called "Rhythm explained" and I am gradually placing its content here.

Each exercise is preceded by a lesson, with graphic representations, and includes an audio rendition to help you.
You can choose between three speeds.
For jazz musicians, the binary exercises also have a swing or double swing performance. Go to the bottom of the page for a link to the swing version.

Choose among the following exercises:

Beat exercises

Rhythm exercise 1-1

Featured figures

Rhythm exercise 1-2

Featured figures

Rhythm exercise 1-3

Featured figures

Binary beat division

The binary family is large as it includes:
•Division by two
•Division by four
•Part of division by six
•Division by eight.
This section is concerned with the simple division by two.
Any binary beat has two alternating parts: the downbeat and the upbeat.

Binary beat

As you can see, there are only two places in a beat
where events or notes can be positioned or played::
•The downbeat
•The upbeat

How
rhythmic
possibilities
work

This means that for any given beat you can have
any of the four following possibilities:
1•Only one event on the downbeat.
2•Events on both the downbeat and the upbeat
3•No event at all
4•Only one event on the upbeat.

The rhythmic figure used to represent a binary beat is called:
TWO EIGHTH NOTES

Binary
master
rhythmic
figure

Simple binary rhythmic figures

4 possibilities:
•2 Primary
•2 Secondary

Secondary rhythmic figures lack the event that falls on the beat.
There is a secondary figure for each primary one.
Because the beat is so important, secondary figures have appeared after the primary ones had been well established.
The absence of event falling on the beat can be due to a silence or a sound that is held over from the preceding beat.
Because of this, there are two ways to notate secondary figures:
•With a rest
•With a tie

Primary
and
secondary
rhythmic
figures

Choose among the following exercises:

Binary exercises

PRIMARY

Rhythm exercise 2-1

Featured figure

Rhythm exercise 2-2

Featured figures

SECONDARY

Rhythm exercise 2-3

Featured figure

Rhythm exercise 2-4

Featured figure

Rhythm exercise 2-5

Featured figure

MULTIPLE SYNCOPATIONS

Rhythm exercise 2-6

Featured figure

Ternary beat division

The ternary family is small as it includes:
•Division by three
•Part of division by six
Everything goes in thirds in ternary music.
Any ternary beat has one downbeat and two upbeats.

Ternary beat

The rhythmic figure used to represent a ternary beat is called:
THREE EIGHTH NOTES

Ternary
master
rhythmic
figure

Writing
ternary
rhythm

In ternary music writing, each eighth note is worth one third of a beat.
Since two eighth notes always equal one quarter note, these now equal two thirds of a beat.
It takes a dotted quarter note to represent one beat.