Time
Find the pulse before you count
A rhythm can leave holes. Your count must keep going through them.
Take the guided lessonThe notes move. The pulse stays.
Listen twice. On the second pass, tap along with the quiet high clicks, even when the lower sound disappears.
● attack · — hold · · silence. The quiet high click is the pulse.
A beat is a meeting place
The pulse is the regular reference you can tap. The rhythm is the pattern of sounds and silences placed around it. They can agree, but they do not have to attack together.
A bar groups those beats into a repeating cycle. In this 4/4 example, count 1, 2, 3, 4, then return to 1. That return tells the band where the next cycle starts.
The guitar is silent on beat 3. What does your count do?
Read 4/4 as two instructions
| Number | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Top: 4 | Four quarter-note units in the bar |
| Bottom: 4 | The unit is a quarter note |
For now those four units are four beats. In compound meter, later in this section, the main pulse groups smaller units together.
Put one attack on each beat
The numbers are beats; the & positions are halfway between them. Select only 1, 2, 3, and 4, then hear your answer.
Takeaways
- Pulse is the reference; rhythm is what happens around it.
- A bar repeats even when some of its beats are silent.