Rhythm (from Greek rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the

regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. A rhythm has a steady beat, but it may also have different kinds of beats. Some beats may be stronger, longer, shorter or softer than others. In a single piece of music, a composer can use many different rhythms. Rhythm is made up of sounds and silences. These sound and silences are put together to form a patterns of sounds which are repeated to create a rhythm. In the performance arts rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space." Unlike a painting or a piece of sculpture, which are compositions in space, a musical work is a composition dependent upon time. Rhythm is musics pattern in time. Whatever other elements a given piece of music may have (e.g., patterns in pitch or timbre), rhythm is the one indispensable element of all music. Rhythm can exist without melody, as in the drumbeats of primitive music, but melody cannot exist without rhythm. In music that has both harmony and melody, the rhythmic structure cannot be separated from them. Platos observation that rhythm is an order of movement provides a convenient analytical starting point. Beat Beat: is a regular, recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time. When you clap your hands or tap your foot to music, you are responding to its beat. The unit division of musical time is called a beat. Just as one is aware of the bodys steady pulse, or heartbeat, so in composing, performing, or listening to music one is aware of a periodic succession of beats. Tempo Tempo: is the speed of the beat, the basic pace of the music. The pace of the fundamental beat is called tempo (Italian time). The expressions slow tempo and quick tempo suggest the existence of a tempo that is neither slow nor fast. A fast tempo is associated with a feeling of energy, drive, and excitement. A slow tempo often contributes to a solemn, lyrical, or calm mood. A tempo indication is usually given at the beginning of a piece. As with dynamics, the terms that show tempo (at the left) are in Italian. largo very slow, broad grave very slow, solemn adagio slow andante moderately slow, a walking pace moderato moderate allegretto moderately fast allegro fast vivace lively presto very fast

prestissimo as fast as possible Qualifying words are sometimes added to tempo indications to make them more specific. The two most commonly used are molto (much) and non troppo (not too much). We thus get phrases like allegro molto (very fast) and allegro non troppo (not too fast). A gradual quickening of tempo may be indicated by writing accelerando (becoming faster), and a gradual slowing down of tempo by ritardando (becoming slower). An accelerando, especially when combined with a rise in pitch and volume, increases excitement, and a ritardando is associated with less tension and a feeling of conclusion. Metronome, an apparatus which produces ticking sounds or flashes of light at any desired musical speed. The metronome setting indicates the exact number of beats per minute. Metre Meter: In music we find a repeated pattern of a strong beat plus one or more weaker beats. The organization of beats into regular groups is called meter. A group containing a fixed number of beats is called a measure. There are several types of meter, which are based on the number of beats in a measure. When a measure has 2 beats, it is in duple meter; we count 12, 12, The first, or stressed, beat of the measure is known as the downbeat. A pattern of 3 beats to the measure is known as triple meter. All waltzes are in triple meter, we count 123, 123, etc. Another basic metrical pattern is quadruple meter, which has 4 beats to the measure. As usual, the downbeat is strongest; but there is another stress on the third beat, which is stronger than the second and fourth beats and weaker than the first: 1234, 1234. Upbeat: It is an unaccented pulse preceding the downbeat. Sextuple meter contains six rather quick beats to the measure. The downbeat is strongest, and the fourth beat also receives a stress: 123456. Quintuple meter, with 5 beats to the measure, and septuple meter, with 7 beats to the measure, occur frequently in twentieth-century music and are found occasionally in earlier music. Each of these meters combines duple and triple meter. In quintuple meter, for example, the measure is subdivided into groups of 2 and 3 beats: 123/45 or 12/345. Rhythm, melody, and harmony Thus far, musics structure in time has been examined separately from its structure in tone, but no such separation is really possible. Melody and rhythm are intimately connected. Moreover, various styles of music tend to standardize their melodic cadences and, with them, their time divisions (e.g., Mozarts melodic rhythm is much more regular than Prokofievs). In music employing harmony, the rhythmic structure is inseparable from harmonic considerations. The time pattern controlling the change of harmonies is called harmonic rhythm. In 17th- and 18th-century music, harmony tends to limit rhythmic subtleties and flexibility of the melodic

elements (as well as determining the basic type of melody) in regard to stress accents. It is, therefore, no accident that the polyphonic music of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, like much European music, exhibits certain four-square melodic tendencies. By contrast, the music of India and the Perso-Arab world employs a melody instrument or voice performing in a given metre offset by a drum playing cross<script src="http://adserver.adtechus.com/addyn/3.0/5308.1/1388654/0/170/ADTEC H;target=_blank;grp=582;key=arts entertainment+music;kvqsegs=D;kvtopicid=501914;misc=1009873601305"> </script> rhythms or (in the Arab world) a quite different metre; with no harmony (except a drone) to impede its flow, the rhythm can reach a structure of great subtlety and complexity. Accent and Syncopation: An important aspect of rhythm is the way individual notes are stressedhow they get special emphasis. A note is emphasized most obviously by being played louder than the notes around it, that is, by receiving a dynamic accent. When an accented note comes where we normally would not expect one, the effect is known as syncopation. A syncopation also occurs when a weak beat is accented, as in 1234 or 1234. We go into greater detail about the staff and symbols in the workbook Mastering the Master Staff which will be available soon as well as in that section of our website. Measure (bar): A measure is the amount of time allocated to the rhythm before we start the counting pattern over again. Here we show a staff with bar lines. Up above under the beat definition our bar lines are the vertical lines.

Beat and Tempo: Beat is the duration we assign to our rhythm definitions. It is the measurement of our musical time unit and the amount of time our pulse will take. This can be a fraction of a second, a second, a few seconds, or several seconds. Putting several beats together gives us a steady series of units which make up rhythm. See this example of a 4 beat rhythm.

One Measure from bar line to bar line So one measure is the time allotted to apply a time frame in music and for the rhythm; however, the pattern may change from measure to measure. Thus we can have a major pattern or rhythm form over several measures of the counting measure. We will explore this concept in the more advanced rhythm workshop.

The beat is also assigned a speed such as a quarter note = 60, known as tempo, which will mean 60 beats per minute or 1 beat per second. Tempo can also be expressed as very slow, slow, fast, and very fast which leaves the speed of play up to the artist. Staff/Track A track is a series of lines which show musical notes. It is made up of 5 lines and four spaces. Two or more tracks make a staff. Here is a track. (The little boxes are whole rests which we talk about later.)

Check out this definition we found for "measure" used in music. Measure is an American term, equivalent to the English bar, for the metrical units marked off along the staff by vertical lines (bars or bar-lines). A vertical line (often called bar-line) drawn through the staff to mark off metrical units. In American usage, the term measure is usually preferred to bar. Notes and rests: The note is the symbol used to tell us how long we hold our played pitch or how long our tap of a beat in the rhythmic pattern will be held. It also will tell us what sound is to be played when we put it in a specific location on a staff. The note names will be familiar to us just as money has become. We can think that a whole note is like a one dollar bill and a quarter note is like a quarter. Rests are the opposite of notes they show us where we have silence or do not play, but occupy a similar time frame. Here are two examples.

Here is what the master staff looks like.

We have many others that we will explore in the symbols section.

Time signature: Another important aspect of rhythm definitions involves a time unit. Rhythm is expressed, stated, and describe with a time signature. It is stated in beats per measure and how the beat is counted. Example: The time signature 4/4 is 4 beats per measure counted by quarter notes.

We need to add one more component to complete our basic rhythm symbols. That will be the dot ., Heres how its applied. Add it directly behind the note and it becomes a dotted note. It means add half the value to the note. We will look at that in music math.

We can add the dot to the other notes as well, this means to add half as much to the value again. The top number represents the beat to count. the bottom is the beat value. Dont worry, we will show you exactly how this all works in more detail in music math. Next we move to the symbols of music. And explore in detail what all these rhythm definitions mean and how they relate to each other. Symbols: The music note symbols are similar in shape and easy to recognize. We need to start with some basic symbols to be able to work with rhythm. We start with only showing symbols for music notes here. We will further define relationships in Music Math Theory. The Note: In music we choose the note as one of the ways to show how our music will be played. So lets look at defining notes for the music theory. The note will represent when an instrument will be played. Be it a drum, keyboard, brass, guitar, our legs, a table top, or whatever. Our basic set consists of the Whole note, the Half note, the Quarter note, the Eighth note, and the Sixteenth note. What does all this mean? Simply take a whole dollar and divide it by two, (half dollar) and then again by two, (quarter) and by two again (bit=eighth) and two again (half bit= sixteenth). Look below and you can see the how we express the notes. Notes: These are the five basic rest symbols we use. So each note has an equal rest Rests: Our next symbol concept is the rest. The rest will represent when an instrument or beat is not played. So we will not strike a beat or beats when a rest appears. You get to relax and allow silence to be part of your rhythm. Silence is just as important as sound. It allows you add space and accents to your music. Keep this in mind when you listen to your music choices and see if you can find the rest points. The rests:

These are the five basic note symbols we use in most of the music and rhythms we will play. Dotted Notes: