Polly Put The Kettle On

2. Let's try something a little more complicated,Polly Put The Kettle On

The first step

(a) At the smallest level (beating all the shortest notes), the feet will beat quite fast.
     Start on either foot and see if you end on the right foot.

Once you have found on which foot to start, check by looking at theAnimation
- as you see, this level starts on the right foot.

Notice that
on 4 notes the feet struck twice (Right-Left) and that
on the last note the feet struck four times (Right-Left-Right-Left).
These note values are proportionally longer than the shortest ones,
and their subdivision is normal (Beat-Off-beat).

Since this level started on the right foot, it will not produce a pick-up.

The second step

(b) At the next larger level, the feet will beat twice as slowly.

Once you have found on which foot to start, check by looking at theAnimation
- as you see, this level also starts on the right foot. We are not yet atLevel 0.

Notice that,
     on the last note, the feet were Right-Left, a normal subdivision.

Since this level started on the right foot, it will not produce a pick-up.

The third step

(c) At the next larger level, the feet will beat twice as slowly again.

Once you have found on which foot to start, check by looking at theAnimation
- as you see, this level starts on the left foot.
We have foundLevel 0, which starts on an Off-Beat and ends on a Beat.
     The longest note of the melody is not longer than the Beats of this level.

We now know that the smallest levels wereLevel -2andLevel -1

SinceLevel 0starts on the left foot,
     the 4 notes in the first Off-Beat will produce a pick-up at the next larger level (Level +1).

The fourth step

(d) At the next larger level (Level +1), the feet will beat twice as slowly again,
     with 4 notes, the Off-beat ofLevel 0,
          acting as pick-up before the left foot (do not start moving too soon).

You may check by looking at theAnimation
- we now know that all large levels start on the left foot.

SinceLevel +1starts on the left foot,
     the 7 notes in the first Off-Beat will produce an additional pick-up at the next larger level (Level +2).

The fifth step

(e) At the next larger level (Level +2), the feet will beat twice as slowly again,
     with 11 notes, the Off-beat ofLevel 0, 4 notes,
               and the Off-beat ofLevel +1, 7 notes,
          acting as pick-up before the left foot (do not start moving too soon).

You may check by looking at theAnimation
- we know that all large levels start on the left foot.

We have reached the largest level (+2) of the section we sang,
     where the Off-Beat is 16 times the length of the shortest note
     and the pick-up almost half of the whole piece.

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