Musical Time: Pulse and Meter

An illuminating, learn-by-doing demonstration of the musical dimensions of Pulse & Meter.

Table of Contents

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Lesson Goal

To deeply understand the concept of a regularly repeating pulse and then combining these pulses into more complex repeating groups.

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Prerequisites

LOVE of music… and the discipline to study and practice accordingly.

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Pulse

Pulse, the first and most basic dimension of musical time, is the concept and experience of a steady, repeating pulse… akin to your heartbeat.

Here’s an example of a pulse… a steady drumbeat where each thump sounds and feels more or less identical…

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Meter

Meter, the second dimension of musical time, is the concept and experience of organizing pulses into larger repeating groups where each pulse sounds and feels different from the others in each group.

Let’s illustrate the concept by playing pulse in groups of two, three, four, five, six, and more where we emphasize the first note in each group…

Two-ness

Listen to a typical example of 2-ness in action…

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Three-ness

Listen to a typical example of 3-ness in action…

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Four-ness

Listen to a typical example of 4-ness in action…

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Five-ness

Listen to a typical example of 5-ness in action…

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Six-ness

Listen to a typical example of 6-ness in action…

In each case, notice how the difference in emphasis organizes our sense place in the music and establishes certain expectations of what happens next.

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X-ness

There’s no rule that say we must stop organizing pulses into even large groups: 7-ness, 8-ness, 9-ness, and so on.

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More Complex Groupings of Pulses

We can also combine groups of pulses by nesting them inside each other.

For example, we could play a 3-ness inside a 2-ness to make a more complex SIX-ness, characteristic of a Tarantella…

We can also combine groupings by linking them together. For example, we could link a three-ness with a two-ness to make an interesting five-ness, as in this famous example…

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Meter is the concept and experience of sequences of pulses that are organized in a way that creates a more complex framework upon which sounds can be placed in time.

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