Counting Eighth Notes and Exercises

Counting Eighth Notes, 2/4 Time Signatures, Rhythm Lesson and Exercises No.13-19. This lesson covers three ways to count eighth notes (British: quaver) and 2/4 time signatures. Exercise No.13 is provided for free on the screen. If you want to practice all 60 rhythm exercises check out my Classical Guitar Method Volume 2. Here’s the YouTube Lesson Link if you want to watch it there.

Times and Sections

  • 0:00 – Introduction
  • 0:58 – Three Ways to Count Eighth Notes (Exercise No.13)
  • 6:22 – Exercise No.14
  • 7:13 – Exercise No.15
  • 8:16 – Exercise No.16
  • 8:48 – Exercise No.17
  • 9:12 – Exercise No.18
  • 9:38 – Exercise No.19
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Bradford Werner
Bradford Werner

Bradford Werner is a classical guitarist and publisher from Victoria, BC, Canada. He originally created this site for his students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music but now shares content with guitarists worldwide. Curating guitar content helps students absorb the culture, ideas, and technique of the classical guitar. Bradford also has a YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers and 14 million views. He taught classical guitar at the Victoria Conservatory for 16 years and has freelanced in Greater Victoria for 25 years. See more at his personal website.

4 Comments

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  1. Thank you for this valuable section. I have been learning for about 2 years but I struggle with dotted quarter notes and 1/8 note timing. I find it easiest to do exactly what you recommended against, counting eg 1 & 2 3 & 4 for say the second measure of exercise 18.

    I hear your point that feeling the time signature is paramount and uneven counting could reduce accuracy. If I use a metronome set to the time signature and really concentrate on hitting the beat from the metronome, is my 1 & 2 3 & 4 counting method a bad habit? Is it OK to use it to learn, with the goal of weaning off it?

    You do a great job here of emphasizing the feel for the beat and filling in with 1/8 notes. It’s a great section. I do recognize everything you say here is right. I just cannot get there from here. Thank you again for your wonderful material.

    • Yes, it’s ok to subdivide if you are having trouble but the end-goal should be to just feel the time signature. One thing to make sure to do is to hear rhythms as characters rather than mathematical equations. When I teach in person I just have the student imitate me until they can play the rhythm correctly and THEN show them what it looks like in notation. It just “this thing” rather than trying to figure it out. But you can do that in practice too, just get it into your ear and play around with it away from the music notation.

  2. Thank you for this. Can you recommend how to count/practice for groups of bars that have 1/8, triplets, and 1/16 notes. For example Ejercicio in E Minor bars 26-30: transitioning from 1/8 or 1/16 to triplets then back to 1/8 or 1/16 notes.

    • You want to say focused on the main beat and feeling it and then playing the individual rhythms on top of that beat. Are you talking about Ejercicio No.2 by Ferrer from my grade 3 book? There are no triplets in that work as it’s in 3/8 time so it’s playing normal eight notes and sixteenths.

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