Music Theory – Grade 3, pt 1.

Welcome back everyone, hopefully the grade 2 material came together for you and you got a good result in the test last time around. If you didn't do so well please feel free to PM me with any questions, and it would probably be good for everyone to look back over the rest of the series as we go to make sure all of this hangs together.

I've indexed all the parts here.


So on to grade 3...

Demisemiquavers (32nd Notes)

Up until now, the shortest note we have looked at is the semiquaver, or 16th note. In grade 3 we introduce the demisemiquaver, which as the name suggests is half the length of a semiquaver. To write a demisemiquaver we add another line to a semiquaver, as below:



Typical grade 3 exercises will require that you rewrite (or transpose) a piece of music in the other clef, without altering the pitch. Not as difficult as it sounds once you realise that one ledger line above the bass clef is middle C and any subsequent lines are actually the treble clef. Likewise, 1 ledger line below the treble clef is middle C, and any further lines are the bass clef.

And that brings grade 3 part one to a close. Next time, I'll be bringing you more on transposition as well as compound time and some new minor keys... until then, take time to go over the material above, and review the rest of the articles here. As always, PM me if you have any questions...