Dotted Rhythm

What is a dotted rhythm and why should you care? There are a few different rhythms when it comes to playing the piano. Another major rhythm is the syncopated rhythm. However today we are going to focus on dots. If people who wrote music, were only allowed a set number of notes to write, well let’s just say piano would be very boring in terms of musical selection. To get around this boring issue, we have to introduce dots. A dot over a note will double that notes value.

What Does Dotted Rhythm Have To Do With Piano?

We always add half the value of a note if a dot is present, so if your note was one beat long, we would add a half to that, thereby giving us a note worthy of 1.5 beats. Does this make sense? The dotted rhythm is very common in modern music. It wasn’t so prevalent in the earlier days though. This could be due in part to a number of reasons. The earlier music played had a somewhat consistent beat whereas a lot of songs today, use a melody beat you simply cannot “follow”.

Do not get so caught up in trying to master each individual piano rhythm and when and where it should be played. Just know and become familiar with each one, so you will be able to recognize it if it does happen to show on the piece you are playing. Once more a dotted rhythm is an uneven rhythm. They are the opposite of old classical pieces which have a set beat throughout the entire piece. A simple clue or tip to a dotted rhythm is normally a long note followed by a short note. This long / short pattern typically depicts the dotted style. To help yourself learn this rhythm, consider playing some broken chords. They are fairly easy to learn and you can teach yourself some long to short methods. All you do for broken chords is well, break up chords.

There are normally three notes in a chord. What you want to do is play each note on its own, but still play the entire chord. Sound easy enough? Try playing the C major chord all at once. Now split it into three fast notes. Now hold the first note twice as long as the next two notes. You have yourself a dotted rhythm.