Purchase a basic instruction book that will teach you how to read music notation. You can also find a book at the library or find the information online at no charge. Focus on information regarding the duration of notes, the time signature and measures (also called bars) in sheet music. These elements make up the basic ingredients of timing in music.
Read through a piece of beginner's sheet music. Start with a piece of music in 4/4 time. You will find this information at the beginning of the song. This is the time signature. The 4/4 symbol means that there are four beats of music per measure. Ensure that the piece of music you start with uses all whole and half notes. A whole note looks like a small open oval; a half note is like a whole note except that it has a stem (line) coming from the note head (the circle).
Turn on a metronome and set it at about 60 beats per minute. This is a relaxing pace for beginners. You will hear the metronome click for each beat. Look at your sheet music. The whole notes should last for four beats and the half notes for two. This means that in 4/4 time, a whole note lasts the duration of a bar of music and a half note lasts for half a measure. You can fit two half notes in the same measure as one whole note. A whole note lasts four clicks of the metronome. Snap your fingers on the first click and hold it to a count of four. The finger snapping represents playing a note on a musical instrument. For a half note, snap your fingers on the first click, and hold it for the second; snap your fingers again on the third click, and hold it for the fourth. Continue to practice whole and half notes until you can snap your fingers on the appropriate beats for several bars of music and in a combination of whole and half notes.
Read quarter note values next. A quarter note is worth one beat of the measure, or a quarter of a measure of music in 4/4 time. This means that you will play four of them per measure of music in 4/4 time. Set a metronome to 60 beats per minute, and snap your fingers on each click, or quarter note. You will snap your fingers four times per measure. A quarter note has a little dark, or solid, circle for a note head and a stem attached.
Snap your fingers to eighth notes next. You can fit two eighth notes in the space of one quarter note, or eight eighth notes per measure of music. An eighth note has a little dark circle for a note head, a stem and a little tail at the top of the stem. Two or more eighth notes can be attached together with a horizontal line. Count 1, 2, 3, 4 on the metronome clicks, but snap your fingers two times on each count. This is the timing for eighth notes.
Increase the tempo of your metronome gradually as you continue to practice counting note rhythms. Regardless of how fast you set your metronome, the count of each note doesn't change. Combine note values until you can comfortably count at any metronome tempo. With practice, counting time eventually becomes second nature.