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What is with the different terminologies in music?

By kevin | April 10, 2010

This is a question that is actually hardly ever asked by music students, but perhaps it should be…

Why does this book say “quarter note”… when this other one says “crotchet?”

I think the fact that there are two whole systems for the naming of the rhythm notations in music can be extremely confusing to students at times.

There are those who are extremely passionate that it should be a “quarter note” and that anything calling it a “crotchet” deserves to be in a museum! Certainly in North America and Canada the European terminology is quite uncommon.

Ive been researching and writing a number of articles on the Differences between European and American terminologies and the pros and cons of teaching both systems.

I’m not passionate one way or the other, but if you read the article suggested above you may find out more about it.

In creating our music theory worksheets at the Fun Music Company this is something that we always have to be well aware of, that there are so many different people in the world, and they all have a different way of teaching, and terminology is one of those things that is different.

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Topics: Classroom Percussion, Music Education | No Comments »

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