adapted by Gary Garner, Professor Emeritus, West Texas A&M University
The following page is based on a handout provided to music education majors by the West Texas A&M University Band Department. The handout summarizes the Eastman Counting System1 in five simple rules and explains two commonly encountered exceptional cases.
Rules
1. A note that comes on a beat is called by the number of that beat in the measure.
2. A note on the second half of a simple beat is called “te” (tay).
3. A note on the second third of a compound beat is called “la.”
4. A note on the last third of a compound beat is called “li” (lee).
5. A note that occurs anywhere else is called “ta” (tah).
Special Cases
In asymmetrical meter, all eighth notes not on a beat are called “te.”2
In quarter-note triplets, the second note comes on the last third of the beat and is therefore called “li” while the third note comes on the second third of a beat and is called “la.”
In half-note triplets, the syllables revert to their original order since the second note comes on the second third of a beat and the third note on the last third of a beat.3
- Allen Irvine McHose and Ruth Northup Tibbs, Sight-Singing Manual, 2nd ed. (New York: F.S. Crofts & Co, 1945). ↩︎
- McHose and Tibbs do not address asymmetrical meter. This method is proposed by Garner. ↩︎
- McHose and Tibbs (1945, 59). The method presented here by Garner differs from that of McHose, who names this phenomenon “superimposed meter.” McHose employs the syllables associated with the implied meter. ↩︎