Rock-A-Bye, Baby

4. We will start with a simple tune, Rock-A-Bye, Baby.

Rock-a-bye, ba-by, in a tree top,
When the wind blows, The cra-dle will rock.

The first step

(a) At the smallest level (beating all the shortest notes), the feet will beat quite fast.
     You will soon see that beating binary (with your feet) is most uncomfortable -
          starting on the L(eft) foot will make you end on the R(ight) foot, but
               the words Rock-a-bye, ba-by and cra-dle (normally accented at the beginning)
               come out Rock-a-bye, ba-by, and cra-dle.
     Try it yourself (beating ternary) before looking at the answer.
          As you sing the melody, on the very first note,
               Start on R, L, or T and see if you end on R.

Once you have found on which foot to start, check by looking at the Animation
     - as you see, this level starts on R.
This is a ternary level, and
     you will have the feeling of Beats and Off-beats at this smallest level.
Repeat it several times to get this feeling into the feet .
     Notice how the Melody and the Words fit with the feet.
     Notice that, on the fourth and thirteenth notes, there were two beats, and
          on the ninth and eigtheenth notes, there were three beats.
          These notes are proportionally longer than the others.
     Notice also that, on these longer notes,
          the feet were R-L, or R-L-T, as they should be in a subdivision.

Since this level started on R, it will not produce a pick-up.

The second step

(b) At the next larger level, the feet will beat three times as slowly.
     As you sing the melody, on the very first note,
          start on either R, L, or possibly T, and see if you end on R.
               Remember that the level might be binary or ternary but always try binary first.

Once you have found on which foot to start, check by looking at the Animation
     as you see, this level starts on L.
This is a binary level and
     you will have the feeling of Beats and Off-beats at this larger level.
Repeat it several times to get this feeling into the feet.
     Notice how the Melody and the Words fit with the feet.
     Notice that the longest note of the melody is
          not longer than the Beats of this level.
We have found Level 0,
     and there is no point in seeing Level +1, Level +2 ... which are all binary.
We now know that the smallest level was what we will call Level -2-1,
     because a ternary level occupies the space of 2 binary levels.
  

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Those browsing might like to try something a little more complicated, Oh, Where, Oh, Where.