1

1 Rudiments of Music

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO RUDIMENTS OF MUSIC

1.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

a. Demonstrate understanding on the rudimental functions of rhythm in music.
b. Define rhythm and related components with their interdependence.
c. Formulate assessment tasks in rhythm.

1.1 Introduction
Many musicians struggle with understanding rhythm, especially if their
primary musical skills are melodic like singing or playing an instrument like the
flute, or they play a low brass instrument or bass guitar that usually do not have
complex rhythms. In fact, percussionists and pianists often seem to have the
monopoly on great rhythm! Well, now you can learn their secrets.
In this Unit, students will explore the rudimental functions of rhythm and
its components and they will be provided series of activities that will surely help
to improve their teaching competence in music.

1.2 Topic/ Discussion (Assessment/ Activities)

1.2.1 Terminologies and Rudimental Functions of Rhythm in Music

How to Talk Rhythm?
If you have ever watched two percussionists chat about rhythm, you
might wonder if they are speaking an entirely different secret language as
they start spouting out a string of nonsensical syllables like “three ee and ah”
or “ta ti ti ta”. Believe it or not, you don’t need a translator, and all drummer
jokes aside, these people are actually quite sober… What they are doing is
using simple short words like “ta” or “e” or “tika” to represent rhythm
notation.
Here’s a simple and useful example: you can use a word like
“superman” to represent rhythms like triplets:

In this example, each

syllable of the word “su-per-man” lines up with a triplet. So you can repeat saying
“superman” over and over again to “talk” the triplet rhythm

Rhythm is from the Greek word rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion,

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 1 Rudiments of Music

symmetry" (Liddell and Scott 1996), generally means a "movement marked by the
regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different
conditions" (Anon, 2001). This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in
time can apply to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity
or frequency of anything from microseconds to several seconds (as with the riff in a
rock music song); to several minutes or hours, or, at the most extreme, even over
many years.

Rhythm is related to and distinguished from pulse, meter, and beats.

Rhythm may be defined as the way in which one or more unaccented beats
are grouped in relation to an accented one. A rhythmic group can be apprehended
only when its elements are distinguished from one another and its always involves
an interrelationship between a single, accented (strong) beat and either one or two
unaccented (weak) beats (Cooper and Meyer 1960).

In the performance arts, rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of

musical sounds and silences that occur over time, of the steps of a dance, or the
meter of spoken language and poetry. In some performing arts, such as hip-hop
music, the rhythmic delivery of the lyrics is one of the most important elements of
the style. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement
through space" (Jirousek 1995) and a common language of pattern unites rhythm
with geometry.

For example:
Architects often speak of the rhythm of a building, referring to patterns in
the spacing of windows, columns, and other elements of the facade. In recent years,
rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music
scholars.

1.2.1.1 Pulse, Beat and Meter

Pulse
In music and music theory, the pulse consists of beats in a (repeating) of
identical yet distinct periodic short duration stimuli perceived as points in time
occurring at the mensural level. "This pulse is typically what listeners entrain to as
they tap their foot or dance along with a piece of music (Handel, 1989), and is also
colloquially termed the 'beat,' or more technically the 'tactus' (Lerdahl & Jackendoff,
1983). Even a person untrained in music, can generally sense the pulse and may
respond by tapping a foot or clapping.

Pulse is related to and distinguished from rhythm (grouping), beats, and meter.

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 1 Rudiments of Music

A pulse is one of a series of regularly recurring, precisely equivalent

("undifferentiated”) stimuli. Like the tick of a metronome or a watch, pulses mark
off equal units in the temporal continuum. A sense of regular pulses, once
established, tends to be continued in the mind and musculature of the listener, even
though the sound has stopped. The human mind tends to impose some sort of
organization upon such equal pulses.
Pulse is an important part of musical experience. Not only is pulse
necessary for the existence of meter because there can be no meter without an
underlying pulse to establish the units of measurement.
Meter is the measurement of the number of pulses between more or less
regularly recurring accents. Therefore, in order for meter to exist, some of the pulses
in a series must be accented marked for consciousness relative to others. When
pulses are thus counted within a metric context, they are referred to as beats
(Leonard B. Meyer and Cooper,1960).
The pulse is may be audible or implied. The tempo of the piece is the speed
of the pulse. If a pulse becomes too fast it would become a drone; one that is too
slow would be perceived as unconnected sounds. When the period of any
continuous beat is faster than 8–10 per second or slower than 1 per 1.5 2 seconds, it
cannot be perceived as such. "Musical" pulses are generally specified in the range 40
to 240 beats per minute. The pulse is not necessarily the fastest or the slowest
component of the rhythm but the one that is perceived as basic. This is currently
most often designated as a crotchet or quarter note when written (see time
signature).

Pulse Groups

While ideal pulses are identical, when pulses are variously accented, this
produces two or three pulse groups such as strong-weak and strong-weak-weak
and any longer group may be broken into such groups of two and three. In fact,
there is a natural tendency to perceptually group or differentiate an ideal pulse in
this way. A repetitive, regularly
accented pulse-group is called a
metre.
Pulses can occur at
multiple metric levels - see figure.
Pulse groups may be distinguished
as synchronous, if all pulses on slower levels coincide with those on faster levels,
and nonsynchronous, if not. An isochronal or equally spaced pulse on one level that
uses varied pulse groups (rather than just one pulse group the whole piece) create a
pulse on the (slower) multiple level that is non-isochronal (a stream of 2+3 at the
eighth note level would create a pulse of a quarter note+ dotted quarter note as its
multiple level).

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 1 Rudiments of Music

Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison.

For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or in
time. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchronous or
in sync and those that are not are asynchronous.
Meanwhile, the Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a
system in unison. For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra
synchronized or in time. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said
to be synchronous or in sync and those that are not are asynchronous.
Clear quarter note pulse in 4/
4 at a tempo of quarter note=120
and at quarter note=600 the pulse
becomes a drone, while at quarter
note=30 the pulse becomes
disconnected sounds.

Beat
In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse
(regularly repeating event), of the mensural level or beat level. The beat is
often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to
a piece of music, or the numbers a musician counts while performing, though
in practice this may be technically incorrect (often the first multiple level). In
popular use, beat can refer to a variety of related concepts, including pulse,
tempo, meter, specific rhythms, and groove. Rhythm in music is characterized by
a repeating sequence of stressed and unstressed beats (often called "strong"
and "weak") and divided into bars organized by time signature and tempo
indications.

Metric levels faster than the beat

level are division levels, and slower
levels are multiple levels. Beat has
always been an important part of
music. Some music genres such as
funk will in general de-emphasize
the beat, while other such as disco emphasize the beat to accompany dance.

Division
As beats are combined to form measures, each beat is divided into parts.
The nature of this combination and division is what determines meter. Music where
two beats are combined is in duple meter, music where three beats are combined is
in triple meter. Music where the beat is split in two are in simple meter, music where

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 1 Rudiments of Music

the beat is split in three are called compound meter. Thus, simple duple (2/4, 4/4,
2/2, etc.), simple triple (3/4), compound duple (6/8), and compound triple (9/8).
Divisions which require numbers, tuplets (for example, dividing a quarter note into
five equal parts), are irregular divisions and subdivisions. Subdivision begins two
levels below the beat level: starting with a quarter note or a dotted quarter note,
subdivision begins when the note is divided into sixteenth notes.

Duple metre (also known as duple time) is a

musical metre characterized by a primary division of 2
beats to the bar, usually indicated by 2 and multiples
(simple) or 6 and multiples (compound) in the upper
figure of the time signature, with 2/2 (cut time), 2/4,
and 6/8 (at a fast tempo) being the most common
examples.

Triple metre (also known as triple time or

ternary rhythm) is a musical metre characterized by a
primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually
indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 (compound) in the upper
figure of the time signature, with 3/4, 3/2, 3/8 and 9/
8 being the most common examples. The upper figure being divisible by three does
not of itself indicate triple metre; for example, a time signature of 6/8 usually
indicates compound duple metre, and similarly 12/8 usually indicates compound
quadruple metre. Shown in the figure are a simple and a compound triple drum
pattern.

Tuplet a tuplet (also irrational rhythm or groupings, artificial division or

groupings, abnormal divisions, irregular rhythm, gruppetto, extra-metric
groupings, or, rarely, contra metric rhythm) is "any rhythm that involves dividing
the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted
by the time-signature (e.g., triplets, duplets, etc.)" (Humphries 2002, 266). This is
indicated by a number (or sometimes two), indicating the fraction involved. The
notes involved are also often grouped with a bracket or (in older notation) a slur.

Tuplets are typically notated either with a bracket or with a number above
or below the beam if the notes are beamed together. Sometimes, the tuplet is notated

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 1 Rudiments of Music

with a ratio (instead of just a number) with the first number in the ratio indicating
the number of notes in the tuplet and the second number indicating the number of
normal notes they have the same duration as or with a ratio and a note value.
The most common tuplet (Schonbrun 2007, 8) is the triplet (Ger. Triole, Fr.
triolet, It. terzina or tripletta, Sp. tresillo). Whereas normally two quarter notes
(crotchets) are the same duration as a half note (minim), three triplet quarter notes
have that same duration, so the duration of a
triplet quarter note is 2⁄3 the duration of a
standard quarter note.
Similarly, three triplet eighth notes (quavers) are equal in duration to one
quarter note. If several note values appear
under the triplet bracket, they are all affected
the same way, reduced to 2⁄3 their original
duration.
The triplet indication may also apply to notes
of different values, for example a quarter note
followed by one eighth note, in which case the
quarter note may be regarded as two triplet eighths
tied together (Gehrkens 1921). In some older scores, rhythms like this would be
notated as a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note as a kind of shorthand
(Troeger 2003, 172) presumably so that the beaming more clearly shows the beats.

Simple Rhythm: For other tuplets, the number indicates a ratio to the next
lower normal value in the prevailing meter (a power of 2 in simple meter). So, a
quintuplet (quintolet or pentuplet (Cunningham 2007, 11) indicated with the
numeral 5 means that five of the indicated note values total the duration normally
occupied by four (or, as a division of a dotted note in compound time, three),
equivalent to the second higher note value. For example, five quintuplet eighth
notes total the same duration as a
half note (or, in 8 or compound
meters such as 6/8, 9/8, etc. time, a
dotted quarter note).
Some numbers are used inconsistently: for example, septuplets (septoplets
or septimoles) usually indicate 7 notes in the duration of 4 or in compound meter 7
for 6 but may sometimes be used to mean 7 notes in the duration of 8 (Read 1964,
183–84). Thus, a septuplet lasting a whole note can be written with either quarter
notes (7:4) or eighth
notes (7:8).
Down Beat and Up-Beat
The downbeat is the first beat of the bar, i.e. number 1. The upbeat is the
last beat in the previous bar which immediately precedes, and hence anticipates,

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the downbeat. Both terms correspond to the direction taken by the hand of a
conductor. This idea of directionality of beats is significant when you translate its
effect on music. The crusis of a measure or a phrase is a beginning; it propels
sound and energy forward, so the sound needs to lift and have forward motion to
create a sense of direction. The anacrusis leads to the crusis, but doesn't have the
same 'explosion' of sound; it serves as a preparation for the crusis.
An anticipatory note or succession of notes occurring before the first barline
of a piece is sometimes referred to as an upbeat figure, section or phrase.
Alternative expressions include "pickup" and "anacrusis" (the latter ultimately
from Greek ana ["up
towards"] and krousis
["strike"/"impact"]
through French
anacrouse). In English,
anákrousis translates
literally as "pushing up". The term anacrusis was borrowed from the field of
poetry, in which it refers to one or more unstressed extrametrical syllables at the
beginning of a line.

On-beat and Off-beat

In typical Western music 4/4 time, counted as "1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4...", the first
beat of the bar (downbeat) is usually the strongest accent in the melody and the
likeliest place for a chord change, the third is the next strongest: these are "on"
beats.
The second and fourth are weaker—the "off-beats". Subdivisions (like
eighth notes) that fall between the pulse beats are even weaker and these, if used
frequently in a rhythm, can also make it "off-beat".
The effect can be easily simulated by evenly and repeatedly counting to
four. As a background against which to compare these various rhythms a bass
drum strike on the downbeat and a constant eighth note subdivision on ride
cymbal have been added, which would be counted as follows (bold denotes a
stressed beat).
Off-beat is a musical term,
commonly applied to syncopation
that emphasizes the weak even
beats of a bar, as opposed to the usual on-beat. This is a fundamental technique of
African polyrhythm that transferred to popular western music. According to
Grove Music, the "Offbeat is often where the downbeat is replaced by a rest or is
tied over from the preceding bar".The downbeat can never be the off-beat because
it is the strongest beat in 4/4 time. Certain genres tend to emphasize the off-beat,
where this is a defining characteristic of rock'n'roll and ska music.

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1.2.1.2 Unit and Gesture

Durational pattern
Its synchronises with a pulse or pulses on the underlying metric level may
be called a rhythmic unit. These may be classified as:
Metric – even patterns, such as steady eighth notes or pulses;
Intrametric – confirming patterns, such as dotted eighth-sixteenth note and
swing patterns;
Contrametric – non-confirming, or syncopated patterns; and
Extrametric – irregular patterns, such as tuplets.

Rhythmic gesture
Is any durational pattern that, in contrast to the rhythmic unit, does not
occupy a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric
level. It may be described according to its beginning and ending or by the
rhythmic units it contains. Rhythms that begin on a strong pulse are thetic, those
beginning on a weak pulse are anacrustic and those beginning after a rest or tied-
over note are called initial rest. Endings on a strong pulse are strong, on a weak
pulse, weak and those that end on a strong or weak upbeat are upbeat (Winold
1975, 239).
In music, duration is an amount of time or how long or short a note, phrase,
section, or composition lasts. "Duration is the length of time a pitch, or tone, is
sounded." A note may last less than a second, while a symphony may last more
than an hour. One of the fundamental features of rhythm, or encompassing
rhythm, duration is also central to meter and musical form. Release plays an
important part in determining the timbre of a musical instrument and is affected
by articulation.

Simple [quadr]duple drum pattern, against which duration is measured in much popular
music: divides two beats into two.

The concept of duration can be further broken down into those of beat and
meter, where beat is seen as (usually, but certainly not always) a 'constant', and
rhythm being longer, shorter or the same length as the beat. Pitch may even be
considered a part of duration. In serial music the beginning of a note may be
considered, or its duration may be (for example, is a 6 the note which begins at the
sixth beat, or which lasts six beats?).
Durations, and their beginnings and endings, may be described as long,

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 1 Rudiments of Music

short, or taking a specific amount of time. Often duration is described according to

terms borrowed from descriptions of pitch. As such, the duration complement is
the amount of different durations used, the duration scale is an ordering (scale) of
those durations from shortest to longest, the duration range is the difference in
length between the shortest and longest, and the duration hierarchy is an ordering
of those durations based on frequency of use.
Durational patterns are the foreground details projected against a
background metric structure, which includes meter, tempo, and all rhythmic
aspects which produce temporal regularity or structure. Duration patterns may be
divided into rhythmic units and rhythmic gestures (Winold, 1975). But they may
also be described using terms borrowed from the metrical feet of poetry: iamb
(weak–strong), anapest (weak–weak–strong), trochee (strong–weak), dactyl
(strong–weak–weak), and amphibrach (weak–strong–weak), which may overlap to
explain ambiguity.

1.2.1.3 Alternation and Repetition

Rhythm is marked by the regulated succession of opposite elements: the
dynamics of the strong and weak beat, the played beat and the inaudible but
implied rest beat, or the long and short note. As well as perceiving rhythm
humans must be able to anticipate it. This depends on repetition of a pattern that is
short enough to memorize.
The alternation of the strong and weak beat is fundamental to the ancient
language of poetry, dance and music. The common poetic term "foot" refers, as in
dance, to the lifting and tapping of the foot in time. In a similar way musician
speak of an upbeat and a downbeat and of the "on" and "off" beat. These contrasts
naturally facilitate a dual hierarchy of rhythm and depend on repeating patterns of
duration, accent and rest forming a "pulse-group" that corresponds to the poetic
foot. Normally such pulse-groups are defined by taking the most accented beat as
the first and counting the pulses until the next accent (MacPherson 1999, 5). A
rhythm that accents another beat and de-emphasises’ the downbeat as established
or assumed from the melody or from a preceding rhythm is called syncopated
rhythm.
Normally, even the most complex of meters may be broken down into a
chain of duple and triple pulses (MacPherson 1930) either by addition or division.
According to Pierre Boulez, beat structures beyond four, in western music, are
"simply not natural".

1.2.1.4 Tempo and Duration

The tempo of the piece is the speed or frequency of the tactus, a measure of
how quickly the beat flows. This is often measured in 'beats per minute' (bpm): 60
bpm means a speed of one beat per second, a frequency of 1 Hz. A rhythmic unit is

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 1 Rudiments of Music

a durational pattern that has a period equivalent to a pulse or several pulses

(Winold 1997. The duration of any such unit is inversely related to its tempo.

Musical sound may be analyzed on five different time scales, which

Moravscik has arranged in order of increasing duration (Moravcsik 2002).

 Supershort: a single cycle of an audible wave, approximately 1⁄30–1⁄10,000

second (30–10,000 Hz or more than 1,800 bpm). These, though rhythmic in
nature, are not perceived as separate events but as continuous musical
pitch.

 Short: of the order of one second (1 Hz, 60 bpm, 10–100,000 audio cycles).
Musical tempo is generally specified in the range 40 to 240 beats per
minute. A continuous pulse cannot be perceived as a musical beat if it is
faster than 8–10 per second (8–10 Hz, 480–600 bpm) or slower than 1 per
1.5–2 seconds (0.6–0.5 Hz, 40–30 bpm). Too fast a beat becomes a drone, too
slow a succession of sounds seems unconnected. This time frame roughly
corresponds to the human heart rate and to the duration of a single step,
syllable or rhythmic gesture.
 Medium: Few seconds, this median durational level "defines rhythm in
music" (Moravcsik 2002) as it allows the definition of a rhythmic unit, the
arrangement of an entire sequence of accented, unaccented and silent or
"rest" pulses into the cells of a measure that may give rise to the "briefest
intelligible and self-existent musical unit, a motif or figure. This may be
further organized, by repetition and variation, into a definite phrase that
may characterize an entire genre of music, dance or poetry and that may be
regarded as the fundamental formal unit of music.
 Long: many seconds or a minute, corresponding to a durational unit that
"consists of musical phrases" (Moravcsik, 2002) which may make up a
melody, a formal section, a poetic stanza or a characteristic sequence of
dance moves and steps. Thus, the temporal regularity of musical
organization includes the most elementary levels of musical form
(MacPherson 1930, 3).
 Very long: minutes or many hours, musical compositions or subdivisions of
compositions.

Curtis Roads (Roads, 2001) takes a wider view by distinguishing nine-

time scales, this time in order of decreasing duration. The first two, the infinite
and the supra musical, encompass natural periodicities of months, years,
decades, centuries, and greater, while the last three, the sample and subsample,
which take account of digital and electronic rates "too brief to be properly

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 1 Rudiments of Music

recorded or perceived", measured in millionths of seconds (microseconds), and

finally the infinitesimal or infinitely brief, are again in the extra-musical
domain. Roads' Macro level, encompassing "overall musical architecture or
form" roughly corresponds to Moravcsik's "very long" division while his Meso
level, the level of "divisions of form" including movements, sections, phrases
taking seconds or minutes, is likewise similar to Moravcsik's "long" category.
Moravcsik's "short" and "supershort" levels of duration.

SOMETHING TO DO
A. Formulate assessment tasks of the following:
1. Pulse rate, Beat, Meter
2. Unit and gesture
3. Alternation and repetition
4. Tempo and duration
B. Discuss the following by giving examples:
1. Pulse is related to and distinguished from rhythm, beat, meter
2. Rhythm may be defined as the way in which one or more unaccented beats
are grouped in relation to an accented one.
3. A rhythmic group can be apprehended only when its elements are
distinguished from one another and its always involves an interrelationship
between a single, accented (strong) beat and either one or two unaccented
(weak) beats.
C. Identify the following terms by illustrating or putting marks on the musical
score.

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 1 Rudiments of Music

1. Division
2. Downbeat
3. Upbeat
4. Measure signature
5. On-beat
6. Off-beat
7. Durational patterns
8. Alternation
9. Repetition
10. Duration
FOCUS QUESTION
1. What is rhythm in a simple word?
2. How do you identify rhythm in music?
3. How does rhythm help a song meaningfully?

1.4 References

Agawu, Kofi. 2003. Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions.
New York: Routledge.
The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary II. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, 1971.
Anon. 2009. "Parrots Have Got Rhythm, Studies Find", World-Science.net (April 30).
Berry, Wallace (1987). Structural Functions in Music, second edition. New York: Dover
Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-25384-8.
Chernoff, John Miller (1979). African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetic and
Social Action in African Musical Idioms. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cooper, Grosvenor, and Leonard B. Meyer (1960). The Rhythmic Structure of Music.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-11521-6/ISBN 0-226-11522-4.
Cooper, Paul (1973). Perspectives in Music Theory: An Historical-Analytical Approach.
New York: Dodd, Mead. ISBN 0-396-06752-2.
Covaciu-Pogorilowski, Andrei. n.d. "Musical Time Theory and a Manifesto". Self-
published online (archive from 18 January 2018, accessed 26 September 2019).
Fitch, W. Tecumseh, and Andrew J. Rosenfeld (2007). "Perception and Production of
Syncopated Rhythms". Music Perception, Vol. 25, Issue 1:43–58. ISSN 0730-7829.
Fraisse, Paul (1956). Les Structures Rhythmiques, with a preface by A. Michotte. Studia
Psychologica. Louvain: Publications Universitaires; Paris and Brussels: Édition
Erasme; Antwerp and Amsterdam: Standaard Boekhandel.

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Forney, Kristine, and Joseph Machlis. 2007. The Enjoyment of Music, tenth edition. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-17423-6.
Goodall, Howard (presenter). 2006. How Music Works with Howard Goodall,[dead link]
produced by David Jeffcock. Television series, 4 episodes. Episode 2: "Rhythm"
(Saturday 25 November, 6:20–7:20pm). Tiger Aspect Productions for Channel 4
Television Corporation.
Sandow, Greg (2004). "A Fine Madness". In The Pleasure of Modernist Music: Listening,
Meaning, Intention, Ideology, edited by Arved Mark Ashby, 253–58. ISBN 1-58046-
143-3. Reprinted from The Village Voice (16 March 1982).
Scholes, Percy (1977b). "Metre", in The Oxford Companion to Music, 6th corrected reprint
of the 10th ed. (1970), revised and reset, edited by John Owen Ward. London and
New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-311306-6.
Tanguiane, Andranick (1994). "A principle of correlativity of perception and its
application to music recognition". Music Perception. 11 (4): 465–502.
doi:10.2307/40285634. JSTOR 40285634.
Toussaint, Godfried T. 2005. "The Geometry of Musical Rhythm". In Proceedings of the
1.5 Acknowledgment
The images, tables, figures and information contained in this module were
taken from the references cited above.
 

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C. M. D. Hamo-ay