Taking Percussion Method, need help learning notes?

Question

I'm in my freshman year if high school, and I just had my first Percussion Method class today. The teacher was writing different types of notes, like quarter notes and half-notes up on the board and calling on students to tell him what kind of notes they were. He was also grilling us on Time Signatures. It seems like everyone in the class but me already knows how to read music, but I've only ever taken a band class once in 5th grade, and it wasn't percussion, it was the baritone. How can I learn my time signatures and notes as well as everyone else? Is there some kind of online guide that I can study?

Answer 1

Music is a language which is meant to be spoken.  Hire a tutor (one who is taking a music theory class in college would work) for about $10 per 1/2 hour to go over rhythm theory with you.  

Other wise think of notes as fractions

Whole is divided into to half which is divided into quarters which is divided into eights which is divided into sixteenths which is divide into thirtyseconds which is divided into sixtyfourths.

like this:

1/1

1/2 +1/2

1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4

1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 +1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8

1/16+1/16+1/16+1/16+1/16+1/16+1/16+1/1...