Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Having trouble with this rhythm. Counting dotted 8th note

How do you count dotted notes? I'm working on a song that's in 6/8 time. And the part I'm on consist of a dotted 8th note followed by what I think is a 16th note (has a small, disconnected flag, yet is a part of the beam) then an 8th note. I'm having trouble getting the timing down because I don't know how to count it. Any help is greatly appreciated

You are correct. It's a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth. What you are doing is delaying the second note until the second half of the beat or the upbeat. People usually count that as "and" as in 1 and 2 and 3 and...

Since you are in 6/8, the eighth note is the driving beat. So the first 3 notes would be ONE and two AND THREE and, with the capitalized words being where the notes fall.

It's highly beneficial to try and feel the difference between playing downbeats and upbeats. Downbeats are easier. Playing the upbeats, the "and"s, is a little trickier, but once you get the feel down, it's easier to place the notes in time.

You just helped so much. Thank you