{"id":42432,"date":"2018-01-18T16:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T16:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/?p=42432\/"},"modified":"2024-05-10T10:29:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T10:29:57","slug":"about-grid-notation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-grid-notation\/","title":{"rendered":"About Grid Notation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"postLeadIn\">Though hearing a rhythm in your head or tapping along to the beat comes naturally to many musicians, it can be trickier to understand rhythmic notation and put a beat to paper. Enter Groove Pizza, a simple, interactive tool to help you understand rhythms using a visual grid system that lets you see exactly how the beat is formed. In this episode, we&#8217;re giving you a crash course, forming some common beats with Groove Pizza and tweaking them to see how the sound changes!<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\nListen to the episode:<\/p>\n<div class='mu_podcast_embed'><iframe style='border: none' src='\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/6158310\/height\/90\/width\/640\/theme\/custom\/autonext\/no\/thumbnail\/yes\/autoplay\/no\/preload\/no\/no_addthis\/no\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/59638c\/' height='90' width='640' scrolling='no'  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class='podcast_subscribe_buttons'><p class='subscribe_cta'>Subscribe For Future Episodes!<\/p>\n    <div class='buttons'><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeitunes' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"apple\");'><i class='fa fa-apple' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Apple Podcasts<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeandroid' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"android\");'><i class='fa fa-android' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Android<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeyoutube' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"youtube\");'><i class='fa fa-youtube' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> YouTube<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribegplay' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"gplay\");'><i class='fa fa-google' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Google Play<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribestitcher' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"stitcher\");'><img src='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/themes\/Divi-MU\/img\/Stitcher-icon.png' alt='Stitcher' class='podcast_icon'>Stitcher<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscriberss' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"rss\");'><i class='fa fa-rss' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> RSS<\/a><\/div>\n    <p class='review_cta'>Enjoying the show? Please consider <a href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>rating and reviewing it!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n<h2>Links and Resources<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"shownotes_links\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Interview with Katie Wardrobe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.musedlab.org\/groovepizza\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Groove Pizza<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/hone-sense-rhythm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Honing your sense of rhythm<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/get-rhythm-learn-common-beats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learning common beats<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class='podcast_review_cta'><p class='review_cta'>Enjoying Musicality Now? Please support the show by rating and reviewing it!<\/p>\n    <p class='review_button'><a class='cta_button' href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>Rate and Review!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div><!-- MU Podcast Schema -->\n<div class='mu_podcast_schema' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/PodcastEpisode'>\n <div style='display:none;'>\n  <a itemprop='url' href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/learn\/about-grid-notation\/'>\n       <span itemprop='name'>About Grid Notation<\/span>\n  <\/a>\n  <div itemprop='datePublished' datetime= '2018-01-18T16:00:31+00:00'>2018-01-18T16:00:31+00:00<\/div>\n  <div itemprop='description'>Grid notation is an easy, visual way to understand drum beats and create your own rhythms. Learn the basics of this notation with Groove Pizza!<\/div>\n    <div itemprop='associatedMedia' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/MediaObject'>\n      <div itemprop='image' href= 'https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/TMP039-About-Grid-Notation-FI.jpg'>https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/TMP039-About-Grid-Notation-FI.jpg<\/div>\n   <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<h2>Transcript<\/h2><div class='mu_podcast_transcript'>\n        <div id='mu_podcast_transcript-link-42432' aria-expanded='false' class='sh_link sh_hide'><a class='cta_button mu_podcast_transcript_showhide_link' href='#' onclick=\"showhide_toggle('mu_podcast_transcript',42432,'Show Transcript','Hide Transcript');return false;\"><span id='mu_podcast_transcript-toggle-42432'>Show Transcript<\/span><\/a><\/div><div id='mu_podcast_transcript-content-42432' class='sh-content sh-hide' style='display:none;'>\n        <div itemprop='audio' itemscope itemtype='https:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject'>\n          <div itemprop='transcript'>\n           \n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In our last episode I was talking with Katie Wardrobe of Midnight Music and she mentioned an online tool that&#8217;s a great way to experiment with rhythm patterns called Groove Pizza. I wanted to pick up on this and talk a bit more broadly about the approach it uses: grid notation for rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>One thing that puts a lot of musicians off traditional notation is the rhythm side of things. The idea of each note having a vertical position representing pitch seems sensible enough, and although it&#8217;s not as simple as it could be, the pitch side of things doesn&#8217;t take too long to get the hang off.<\/p>\n<p>But what makes traditional notation seem so complicated is mostly the rhythm aspect. Every note length has a different symbol and there can be added complications with dots and rests and all kinds of things &#8211; which visually don&#8217;t make it obvious what the rhythm pattern is. At least until you&#8217;ve really mastered the notation and learned to sight-read it quickly.<br \/>\nSo for quite some time there&#8217;s been an alternative which is particularly popular among electronic musicians who create music using software tools and often don&#8217;t have any background in learning traditional notation.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to putting notes into a tool like Logic, Ableton or Garageband, traditional notation may be available &#8211; but the default is what&#8217;s called &#8220;piano roll&#8221; notation. It&#8217;s called that because it&#8217;s based on the system that old mechanical player pianos used, in which holes or dots on a rolled-up piece of paper indicated which notes to play when.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a really simple system: it&#8217;s a grid. The vertical position indicates pitch, semitone by semitone. The horizontal position indicates timing, and so the length of a note is represented by how long the note&#8217;s marker is.<\/p>\n<p>This makes it a very natural visual equivalent to the patterns we hear. We&#8217;ll have some examples in the show notes to make this clear.<\/p>\n<p>There are definitely limitations to piano roll notation but one area where it excels is rhythm patterns. If you&#8217;re programming a drum beat for example it can be incredibly helpful to see it in this grid form because percussion parts are often regular, systematic and repeated &#8211; which the grid system is perfect for.<\/p>\n<p>I have to confess: when I first encountered piano roll and grid notation I already knew traditional notation and I thought they were just the &#8220;for dummies&#8221; version. Something you used because the software required you to, but wasn&#8217;t something that &#8220;real&#8221; musicians would find useful.<\/p>\n<p>I was totally wrong. Spending some time with piano roll and putting rhythms into a grid gave me a whole new perspective on how rhythm works in music and it&#8217;s incredibly useful for developing your musicality on the rhythm side of things.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m going to talk through a simple example of using Groove Pizza to build up and then experiment with a drum beat. Since it&#8217;s quite a visual thing we&#8217;re discussing I&#8217;ll put screenshots of each rhythm pattern in grid notation in the shownotes. Or you can follow along yourself using Groove Pizza, we&#8217;ll have the link to that in the shownotes at musicalitynow.com too.<\/p>\n<p>But I think it will be interesting just to listen along too &#8211; because part of why I love grid notation for musicality training is that it helps you build up a mental model of how all the beats and subbeats fit together quite differently to how traditional notation gets you thinking about it.<\/p>\n<p>To me the big difference is this: with traditional notation you naturally think in terms of a sequence of notes. The timing of each note depends on the timing and duration of the notes which have come before. You get a kind of &#8220;reset&#8221; at the start of each bar where you can see a clear &#8220;one&#8221;, but for the rest of the bar you need to go note-by-note to know how it all fits together.<\/p>\n<p>With grid notation you instead look at the whole bar at once, or even several bars. And each note can be placed directly in the position it should occupy &#8211; or if you&#8217;re looking at a pattern, you can see immediately when that note happens &#8211; regardless of what notes have come before.<\/p>\n<p>That makes it perfect for understanding patterns like drum beats because if we say the kick drum falls on beats 1 and 3 we can see that immediately. If we want to see what happens if the snare drum hits are delayed by half a beat we can just move them and it&#8217;s immediately visually clear what&#8217;s going on.<\/p>\n<p>Again I should say: this isn&#8217;t stuff you can&#8217;t do in traditional notation &#8211; it&#8217;s just much more visually obvious in grid notation. And that can make it more easy and fun to experiment with, and it builds up a really useful different way of imagining rhythms in your mind and interpreting them with your ears.<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s dive in to an example.<\/p>\n<p>With Groove Pizza by default you get a pattern of 16 &#8220;slices&#8221;. I should mention this tool gets its name from a fun circular representation of your rhythm it shows you too &#8211; hence &#8220;pizza&#8221; and &#8220;slice&#8221; &#8211; but below that you have the standard grid notation and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ll be talking about.<\/p>\n<p>With 16 possible note timings you might interpret that as a single bar of 16th notes, or if you slow down the tempo it can be two bars of 8th notes or four bars of quarter-note beats.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re going to set the tempo to a slow one, 50 BPM, so that we can play around with 8th note patterns and still have it slow enough to hear what&#8217;s going on.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start out simple with a kick drum on beats 1 and 3 for two bars.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Note: We&#8217;re treating the 16 &#8220;slices&#8221; provided by Groove Pizza as two bars of 8th note subdivisions in 4\/4!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1-kick-1.png\" alt=\"Kick drum on beats 1 and 3\" width=\"800\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1-kick-1.png 982w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1-kick-1-300x76.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1-kick-1-768x194.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-1-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-1-1.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-1-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45199\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-1-kick-drum.png\" alt=\"Kick drum only\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-1-kick-drum.png 971w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-1-kick-drum-300x48.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-1-kick-drum-768x122.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can count that as 1 (2) 3 (4), 1 (2) 3 (4). I&#8217;m emphasising the beats where the kick drum falls and still counting the others out loud just so you can hear the 4\/4 beat.<\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s introduce the snare on 2 and 4 which gives us a pretty standard rock pattern:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42445\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2-kick-and-snare.png\" alt=\"Kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4\" width=\"800\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2-kick-and-snare.png 968w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2-kick-and-snare-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2-kick-and-snare-768x192.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-2.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-2.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-2-kick-and-snare.png\" alt=\"Kick and snare\" width=\"800\" height=\"114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-2-kick-and-snare.png 971w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-2-kick-and-snare-300x43.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-2-kick-and-snare-768x109.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><br \/>\nOne thing I should mention is that this particular tool doesn&#8217;t give you control over each note&#8217;s volume. So normally we&#8217;d be emphasising certain beats here to give a more musical feel but for these examples all the volumes will be the same.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s one part missing from our standard rock beat, and that&#8217;s our hi-hat playing straight 8ths, meaning it plays 8 8th notes each bar: &#8220;1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-42446 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat.png\" alt=\"Standard rock beat, kick drum on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, sixteenth notes on hi-hat\" width=\"800\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat.png 972w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat-768x191.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-3.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-3.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-3.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45201\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat.png\" alt=\"Kick snare hi hat\" width=\"800\" height=\"116\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat.png 973w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat-300x43.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat-768x111.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So this is where it gets interesting. In traditional notation this looks pretty clear and sensible, easy enough. We&#8217;ll put the image of that notation in the shownotes so you can compare.<\/p>\n<p>But now we can start to play around, and each of our three parts is totally independent of what&#8217;s going on in the others.<\/p>\n<p>What if we throw in an extra kick drum hit before the 3?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42447\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/4-extra-kick-pre.png\" alt=\"Extra kick drum added to standard rock beat before the 3\" width=\"800\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/4-extra-kick-pre.png 974w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/4-extra-kick-pre-300x74.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/4-extra-kick-pre-768x189.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-4\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-4.mp3?_=4\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-4.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-4.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45202\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-4-double-kick.png\" alt=\"Double kick\" width=\"800\" height=\"120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-4-double-kick.png 975w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-4-double-kick-300x45.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-4-double-kick-768x115.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Or an extra kick after the 3?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/5-extra-kick-post.png\" alt=\"Extra kick drum added to standard rock beat after the 3\" width=\"800\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/5-extra-kick-post.png 982w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/5-extra-kick-post-300x74.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/5-extra-kick-post-768x189.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-5\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-5.mp3?_=5\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-5.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-5.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45203\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-5-delayed-double-kick.png\" alt=\"Delayed double kick\" width=\"800\" height=\"123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-5-delayed-double-kick.png 972w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-5-delayed-double-kick-300x46.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-5-delayed-double-kick-768x118.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Or we could try delaying the snare hit on 4 half a beat to put it on the &#8220;and&#8221; of 4 instead:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42449\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/6-shifted-snare.png\" alt=\"Standard rock beat with shifted snare\" width=\"800\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/6-shifted-snare.png 982w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/6-shifted-snare-300x76.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/6-shifted-snare-768x196.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-6\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-6.mp3?_=6\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-6.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-6.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45201\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"973\" height=\"141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat.png 973w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat-300x43.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat-768x111.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 973px) 100vw, 973px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>What if instead of filling with hi-hat 8ths we try just putting a few in to give some of those same off-beat effects without moving the kick and the snare at all?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/7-adjusted-hi-hat.png\" alt=\"Standard rock beat with sparse hi-hats\" width=\"800\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/7-adjusted-hi-hat.png 974w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/7-adjusted-hi-hat-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/7-adjusted-hi-hat-768x191.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-7\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-7.mp3?_=7\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-7.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-7.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45205\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-7-intermittent-hi-hat.png\" alt=\"Offbeat hi hats\" width=\"800\" height=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-7-intermittent-hi-hat.png 973w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-7-intermittent-hi-hat-300x47.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-7-intermittent-hi-hat-768x119.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re familiar with traditional score notation then you can probably imagine listening to this how complicated it could get to write down or try to sight-read these slightly less-regular patterns. And we&#8217;re just using 8th notes for now! With sixteenth notes things can really get messy. With grid notation all of these are super simple to create or interpret.<br \/>\nOne of my favourite features of Groove Pizza in particular is how it handles swung rhythms: You can actually see the effect of swinging the beat.<\/p>\n<p>I expect you&#8217;re familiar with the idea of swung rhythms, where things just sound a bit more fluid, cool and jazzy. But literally what it means is that instead of each beat being split into two equal halves to form its two sub-beats, we split it into one long and one short sub-beat. Instead of &#8220;1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and&#8221; we get &#8220;1 and2 and3 and4 and&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>With Groove Pizza as you increase the swing factor you can actually *see* the impact: every other &#8220;slice&#8221; gets shifted right a bit, so that you can see that pattern of long-short long-short. This makes it super intuitive to take a pattern like this one we&#8217;ve been playing around with:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42446\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat.png\" alt=\"Standard rock beat\" width=\"800\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat.png 972w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/3-rock-beat-768x191.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-8\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-3.mp3?_=8\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-3.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-3.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-45201\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat.png\" alt=\"Kick snare hi hat\" width=\"800\" height=\"116\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat.png 973w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat-300x43.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-3-kick-snare-hi-hat-768x111.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>and understand what&#8217;s going on in the swung version:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-42451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8-swung.png\" alt=\"Simple beat swung\" width=\"800\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8-swung.png 970w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8-swung-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8-swung-768x192.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"centerBlock\">\n<div class=\"eetaudio\">\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-42432-9\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source itemprop=\"contentUrl\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-8.mp3?_=9\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-8.mp3\">https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/GroovePizza-8.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45206\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-8-swung-hi-hat.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"972\" height=\"162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-8-swung-hi-hat.png 972w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-8-swung-hi-hat-300x50.png 300w, https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Score-8-swung-hi-hat-768x128.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 972px) 100vw, 972px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s immediately obvious that the kick and snare aren&#8217;t affected at all because they&#8217;re falling on the beat. But every other one of our 8th-note hi-hat hits are off the beat and so they get delayed a little and create that long-short pattern.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully you&#8217;re starting to get a sense of how grid notation can be interesting, different, and useful!<\/p>\n<p>If it&#8217;s new to you then don&#8217;t worry, I wouldn&#8217;t expect you to fully understand it just from this short description! Especially if you haven&#8217;t yet checked out the images in the shownotes. But hopefully it does inspire you to go and play around with a tool like Groove Pizza, GarageBand or another music sequencer.<\/p>\n<p>Piano roll and grid notation are not just an overly-simplified way of entering music into a computer. They&#8217;re a really valuable alternative representation of how rhythmic patterns are constructed, and once you internalise this way of thinking about rhythm you&#8217;re going to have a much better ability to recognise and understand the rhythms you hear, as well as more easily creating your own interesting rhythms. So if you\u2019re looking for a new way to develop your ear for rhythm: give grid notation a try!<\/p>\n<div class='podcast_subscribe_buttons'><p class='subscribe_cta'>Subscribe For Future Episodes!<\/p>\n    <div class='buttons'><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeitunes' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"apple\");'><i class='fa fa-apple' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Apple Podcasts<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeandroid' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"android\");'><i class='fa fa-android' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Android<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribeyoutube' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"youtube\");'><i class='fa fa-youtube' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> YouTube<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribegplay' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"gplay\");'><i class='fa fa-google' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> Google Play<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscribestitcher' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"stitcher\");'><img src='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/wp-content\/themes\/Divi-MU\/img\/Stitcher-icon.png' alt='Stitcher' class='podcast_icon'>Stitcher<\/a><span class='separator'> | <\/span><a href='http:\/\/musicalitynow.com\/subscriberss' target='_blank' class='label' onclick='logPodSubscribe(\"rss\");'><i class='fa fa-rss' aria-hidden='true'><\/i> RSS<\/a><\/div>\n    <p class='review_cta'>Enjoying the show? Please consider <a href='https:\/\/www.musical-u.com\/podcast-review\/' target='_blank' onclick='logPodReview();'>rating and reviewing it!<\/a><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<!-- \/MU Podcast Schema -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grid notation is an easy, visual way to understand drum beats and create your own rhythms. Learn the basics of this notation with Groove Pizza!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":42513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.136,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.6785,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.85,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.2,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.9,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.27,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.02,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.47,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[391,752,385],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-percussion","category-podcast","category-rhythm"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>About Grid Notation - Musical U<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Grid notation is an easy, visual way to understand drum beats and create your own rhythms. 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