Let's look at how music notation shows the length of most notes. Here is a chart showing the most common types:

Notice that the name of each note corresponds to how many of that note fit in a four beat measure. Each measure has twice as many notes than the measure before it.

How notes in music notation look tell us how long they lasts. Whole notes and half notes are not filled in, while eighth notes, quarter notes, etc. are solid black. All of the notes except whole notes have lines or “stems” attached. Some are just lines and some are connected by “beams” on the top or bottom. Usually the stems go either up or down depending on which line of the staff the note is on. The lower lines go down and upper ones go up. This is done solely to make the music easier to read. Tablature uses these stems and beams to indicate the length of notes just like music notation, but usually the beams only go up.

Let's go back to the sample of tablature and music notation on the last page. In the music notation all of the notes are eighth notes. We know this because they are all black, have a line sticking up that is connected to the next note with a single bar. Since the time signature tells us that a quarter note is one beat we then know that each eighth note is half of one beat. It's easiest to think in terms of tapping your foot.

If we count each tap as one beat we get four taps to a measure. These are counted as one, two, three, four. With eighth notes we count them as one and two and three and four and. Each and is the point your foot is at the top of the tapping motion. Another name for these are up and down beats. Downbeats come when your foot hits the floor and up beats are the point on top of the tap. This may sound confusing now but it really helps to keep track of the beat and to be able to figure out how long one note should last compared to another.

We can break down the notes we have so far using foot taps:

When you start reading more advanced tablature you will find many songs or tune with notes that don't fall exactly on the up or down beat. The most common of these are written using a period or “dot” after the note. For example, a dotted quarter note lasts one and a half beats or a dotted half note that lasts three beats. Another way of writing these notes is by using two different length notes and “tying” them together with a curved line.

The last type of unusual rhythm notation you will probably see is called a triplet. This is written as three notes that are connected with a “3” over the top. Triplets last as long as two normal notes of whatever type is being used. In other words, if the triplet is made from eighth notes, you play three of them in the space of two or in our example, one whole beat.

I'm a firm believer in using foot tapping to learn about rhythm. I particularly recommend it for learning things from tablature. Many tabs try to duplicate a particular solo or banjo player's style. This especially true when it comes to playing melody using traditional Scruggs's style technique or learning one of Earl's own tunes or solos. Much of the time the melody is brought out using slides, hammer-ons, or notes that are either left out entirely or are only played lightly in passing. Unless you have a recording the specific solo you have the tab for it's very difficult to capture the real feel of the rhythm of how the melody is being played.

The main tool I use is tapping my foot. This is particularly helpful with techniques for the left hand such as hammer-0ns, pull-offs, or slides. It's really impossible to acurately indicate the rhythm of all the ways of playing these licks. The best way to make things fit as accurately as possible is to use your foot to determine where the beat is falling. Many banjo students learning from tablature add small amounts of space in measures since they can't accurately count out notes played at the same time that don't always start or end at the same time. When I'm is this situation I start by just playing the picked notes with my right hand leaving out any slides or other embellisments with the left hand. The picked note usuallywill fall on the up or down beat as you tap your foot (do this very SLOWLY!). When I get the right hand in time I slowly add the left hand stuff continuing to tap my foot until I can hear and feel how the beat relates to the tab. Try this out sometime!