Week 2 — Readings & Resources · Pulse and Page

Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 2 of 16 (Week 2) · two sessions per week
Your primary reading is the Week 2 chapter (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the way you'd open any link a friend sent you. Nothing to buy, download, or sign into.

The load is light on purpose: six links, grouped by the unit's three big ideas. One item per group is plenty; all six is thorough. If a link disagrees with the course on a convention (a few sites teach different counting syllables, or introduce compound meter immediately — we hold that for next unit), the course convention in the Week 2 chapter wins — not because the site is wrong, but because the field has dialects, and this course speaks one dialect consistently.

① Note values, rests, and proportions

Maps to the chapter's value family section and Session 1's Segment 3.

• Time: Note Lengths, Rests, and Time Signatures — EarMaster Music Theory (ch. 1.2) — the whole value family with clear notation tables: how each value halves into the next, what every rest looks like, plus dots and ties in the same visual language the course uses. (reading, ~12 min)
• Note Duration — musictheory.net — the same ground as an animated click-through: watch the whole note split into halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths at your own pace. A good first stop if you'd rather see the family assemble itself than read about it. (interactive lesson, ~5 min)

② Meter, time signatures, and measures

Maps to the chapter's meter and counting sections and Session 1's Segments 4–5.

• Simple Meter and Time Signatures — Open Music Theory — duple, triple, and quadruple grouping, what each number of the signature promises, and counting in simple meters. Heads-up: their counting syllables differ slightly from ours in places; where they differ, the course tables win. (reading, ~12 min)
• Measures and Time Signature — musictheory.net — barlines, measures, and the two numbers, animated step by step. Short and exactly on target for this week's quiz material. (interactive lesson, ~5 min)

③ Dots, ties, and the bigger picture of rhythm

Maps to the chapter's dot and tie section — and to why any of this matters.

• Dots and Ties — musictheory.net — the augmentation dot as "half the note's own value" and the tie as one unbroken sound, animated. Five minutes here locks down the two ideas this week's assignment leans on hardest. (interactive lesson, ~5 min)
• A different way to visualize rhythm — John Varney, TED-Ed — rhythm drawn as a wheel instead of a timeline: five minutes that make "the grid keeps cycling" physically visible, with musical traditions from several continents as the examples. Watch it after you can count "1 e & a" and the wheel will click. (video, ~5 min, captioned)

Pick-one quick path (≈15 min total)

Short on time this week? You've read the chapter — then do exactly these two:

1. Click through Dots and Ties in group ③ — the assignment's two most-missed ideas, animated.
2. Watch A different way to visualize rhythm (TED-Ed) in group ③.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move pages. If a link fails, tell Professor Hemsworth and lean on the chapter in the meantime — it covers everything the quiz covers.