Goal: to always be aware of every 1st beat of a bar
Learn: from this web guide, videos, and in-person sessions
Practice: with Scoreless Music apps
Discuss: in Scoreless Music’s Discord Learning Channel
Being aware of the 1st beat of every bar in a song is essential for every musician, especially for one that wants to play by ear. Many advanced musical skills are built on top of this foundational ability.
This guide incorporates a learning phase through videos from various sources that seek to break down this topic as simply as possible. When you are ready to put some time into practising, there are instructions on how to download and use a Scoreless Music app to exercise your awareness with your favorite songs.
Learning
In the following video, learn to find the 1st beat by counting for dance. Dancers typically count from 1 to 8, but it is essentially on the same regular beat. “5-6-7-8” is really just the 2nd bar of “1-2-3-4”, so if you are counting dance style, your “5” is also a 1st beat of a bar.
This next video demonstrates finding the beat like a DJ.
Practice
As with any skill or ability, you get better the more you use it. Like building a muscle. To help you with this, we use the Tempo Mapper app.
Download for free at https://xanthia.itch.io/tempomapper
To use Tempo Mapper to exercise listening for the 1st beats, these are the steps:
Drop your song file (in .mp3, .ogg, .wav or .flac format) into the Tempo Mapper window to load it.
Use the “S” key to start and stop playback. “A” and “D” to go back or forward by 2 seconds. As the song is playing, listen out for the musical phrases and clues that help you find the 1st beat.
When you are ready, as the music is playing, press “SPACEBAR” to mark the 1st beat of a bar.
Once you start tapping to the 1st beats, keep going as regularly as you can. You will see a steady tempo appear. Think of it like slicing up the song into equal pieces (each piece is called a Bar, or Measure).
That’s it! Being able to map the 1st beats of any song you hear is a superpower in the music realm so build up that muscle!
Scoreless Music 