The heartbeat of music.

If you already know your way around time signatures, note durations, rests, ties, dots, and syncopation, you might not need this unit. Try this quick check:

If that felt easy, go ahead and skip to Keys and Scales. If any of it was fuzzy, work through the lessons here. They're quick, and having rhythm concepts solid will matter more than you'd expect when we get into things like rhythmic notation and meter in later units.

It's obvious that all music is sound that occurs in a sequence, over time... but not every song organizes those sounds the same way! Some are faster, some are slower. Some feel punchy and steady, while others feel more wobbly and abstract.

Rhythm is how music is organized in time. There are several concepts that go into this... so some definitions are in order. The learning resources at the end will go into all of this in much more detail, so we'll keep it brief for now.

Put on a favorite song and tap your foot, nod your head or clap your hands. That steady thing you're tapping along to? That's the pulse or the beat. It's the underlying steady tick that everything else in the music hangs on.

The pulse doesn't have to be played out loud. A lot of music implies it without ever stating it directly. But it's always there. You feel it, even when you can't point to a specific instrument playing it.

How fast or slow the pulse moves is called the tempo. It's measured in BPM (beats per minute). A ballad might be 70 BPM. A dance track might be 120. A punk song might be 180. Tempo can change throughout a song, though in most styles of popular music it's uncommon for the tempo to change drastically throughout the song. (Sometimes a song will slow down for a dramatic ending, though!)

Not all beats feel the same. Tap along to a song and you'll notice that some beats feel heavier or more important than others. The first beat of each group almost always feels the strongest. This is called the downbeat.

Try counting along to any song: ONE two three four, ONE two three four. That "one" hits harder. It's not louder necessarily — it just feels like home. If this is proving to be difficult.. pick a different song. Not every song uses groups of four....

Meter is how we refer to those groupings of strong and weak beats. When beats group into a repeating pattern of strong and weak, that pattern is called the meter. Most music groups beats in twos, threes, or fours:

  • Duple meter — groups of 2. Think of a march: LEFT right LEFT right.
  • Triple meter — groups of 3. Think of a waltz: ONE two three, ONE two three.
  • Quadruple meter — groups of 4. This is the most common in pop, rock, hip-hop, and just about everything else: ONE two three four.

Each group is called a measure (or bar). In written music, measures are separated by vertical lines called bar lines.

That's the whole concept. Pulse is the steady tick. Meter is how those ticks group together. Everything else in rhythm — note durations, rests, syncopation — happens on top of this framework.

Put on a few different songs, in different genres and try to tap the pulse. Count along: is it grouping in 2s, 3s, or 4s? Most pop/rock will be 4. Waltzes and some folk tunes are 3. Marches are 2.

Here are some examples to get you started, there's one in 2, one in 3 and one in 4. Can you identify which is which?

  • Que Sera, Sera is in 3!
  • Ciliegi in fiore is in 4!
  • The Beer Barrel Polka is in 2!

Did you get them? Don't sweat it if you didn't, go back and listen now that you know them and see if you can hear it!

If you want to get precise, use a metronome (we have one here!) and try to match the BPM of a song by adjusting the tempo until your metronome locks in with the music.

Feeling adventurous? Here are a couple of songs that break away from groupings of 2, 3 and 4. Can you figure them out?

  • Mission Impossible Theme is in 5!
  • Money is in 7!