Exploring rhythms

A rhythm is a pattern of sounds of different lengths.

A pulse is the steady beat that runs through a piece of music.

Pulse and rhythm are different. In a pulse all the sounds are the same length. However, if you combine long and short sounds, you create a rhythm.

Let's warm up and get in time, by playing a game of forbidden rhythms. Join in and clap along.

Rhythms become more advanced when they move away from the strong, regular beat of the pulse.

To demonstrate, listen to this short piece of music. The pulse is shown by the numbers at the top.

As you can hear, all of the notes are either on the beat or occasionally on the offbeat in between. This is a simple rhythm.

Now listen carefully to this more advanced rhythm. The numbers at the top are the pulse. You can hear it being played on the claves.

This time, you can hear that not all of the notes fall on the beat or even the offbeats in between.

You can create advanced rhythms by combining notes and rests of different durations.

Syncopation is the word we use to describe music that emphasises the offbeats, instead of on the beat.

Listen to this example. You can hear the pulse played by the claves and the syncopation of the drum beat around it.

Syncopation can add excitement and surprise to a piece of music. By unexpectedly stressing the offbeats, it adds variation and groove to the music.