How To: Understand music accents

Join David Yzhaki as he makes learning piano music fundamentals fast and easy. In classical music, a measure that is in four four time (four quarter notes get the pulse) the first beat and third beat are naturally more accented than the second and fourth. Jazz, reggae, and pop music are entirely opposite because the natural accents occur on the second and fourth beat of each measure. Another type of accent is called a melodic accent. This happens when a note is accented because of its higher pitch placement. In music notation, a horizontal accent mark can be placed over a note in order to instruct the player to accent or articulate that specific note more than the others. When there is a vertical accent mark (^) it means that the player must accent that note even more than they would with a horizontal accent marking, but the sustain of the note tends to be shorter. This short instructional video makes learning musical notation easy and fun!