Show notes
Episode 03 Summary
0:00 - Intro
0:51 - Introducing Rhythm and Meter
- Every musical sound has a pitch and a duration
- Melody and harmony deal with the pitch
- Rhythm and meter deal with the duration
1:29 - First: What Is a Pulse?
- Your heartbeat is an example of a pulse
- Humans find a regular, recurring beat comforting in music (probably because it's a sign of life)
- A pulse is a series of regular, recurring sounds.
- When you tap your foot, you are tapping your foot to the pulse
03:16 - Defining Meter
- Meter is what occurs when a pulse is organized into strong and weak beats
- In 4/4, each measure has 4 beats: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4; Strong, weak, slightly strong, weak
- When you air drum along to music, you are reflecting the meter
- If you are familiar with time signatures found in sheet music, those tell you what meter you're in
- Time signatures also tell you what the meter will look like on the page
- If you're listening for meter in music, definitely cue into the drummer
4:58 - Garrett Asks: Would the snare drum accenting 2 and 4 be an example of meter? Because it emphasizes certain beats?
- If you're trying to hear the meter in music, you should definitely cue into the drums since drummers usually make the meter very clear
- However, the snare on 2 and 4 is actually an example of emphasizing weak beats
- something we'll address in a future episode
- In any meter, the strongest beat is beat one
- It's called a downbeat because it's the only beat where the conductor's hands come down
- for the other beats, they'll move side to side or up
- For music in 4, the beats go: strong, weak, slightly strong, weak
7:33 - Meter Is a Structural Idea
- It's sort of like beams in a wall/the framing of a building
- It's a structural idea, it's crucial to the integrity of the music, but you can't see it unless someone wants you to see it
- There was a trend of industrial, deconstructed looks for rooms and buildings that made parts of the structures visible
- Other architectural styles hide their structures
- In music, most of the time, meter is very clear and obvious
8:34 - Rhythm Is More Abstract
- Garrett thinks of pulse as a big thing, meter as something that divides that, and rhythm as something that divides it further
- Amanda says this is practical, but it's important to remember that rhythm can exist outside of meter
- Simple definition: Rhythm is the alternation of sound and silence
- There's somewhat of a meter with human speech, but we don't speak in a specific time signature
10:05 - Rhythms and Human Speech/Activities
- Certain people have distinct ways of speaking/pausing in speech, in walking, etc
- Amanda points out that musical phrases may be parallel to human breathing
- You aren't going to say more in one phrase than you can say in one breath.
- Garrett does a robot impression
- Amanda says that you can write longer phrases for trained singers than you can for amateur singers
- Garrett points out that if you try to sing along with a guitar solo, you will often run out of breath because unlike the human voice, a guitar doesn't need to breathe.
- Breath is a limitation for some instruments more than others
12:21 - Defining Rhythm
- Rhythm is the alternation of sound and silence
- The sounds can be long or they can be short
- The same applies to the silences
- There can be many or few sounds
- The sounds can help make the meter very obvious, or they can conceal the meter
- Most of the time, the rhythm sits nicely within a meter
- You can choose to put a certain number of sounds on beat one
- You can choose not to put a sound on beat one
- You can choose to put a long note on beat two
- We get the rhythms we get in music because of how we choose to decorate or chop up each beat
- Garrett points out that rhythm is the most obvious mathematic aspect of music, and this is where fractions and decimals come in
- Amanda compares each beat to a pie or a pizza and says that you can choose how many slices you'll divide each pie into
- Depending on the instrument they play, some musicians are more aware of the fractions and ratios they're using than others
- Can be very micro (beat to beat) or macro (a rhythmically active or inactive part in a piece)
15:26 Obvious Meter vs Concealed Meter
- Pop tunes/music to dance to requires an obvious meter so that the dancers can coordinate their footwork with the beat
- Horror films might conceal the meter to make jump scares more effective because this makes the music less predictable
- Garrett brings up the example of Jaws
16:51 Importance of Rhythm for Memorable Music
- Rhythm is just as important as melody for making music memorable (sometimes even more important)
- Jaws is a good example because the two note motive doesn't have a lot going on melodically, but its rhythm is iconic, and the amount of space in between repetitions keeps it unpredictable
17:44 More Ways to Think About Rhythm
- Pitch is somewhat related to space; rhythm and meter are more related to time
- On a grid, pitch would be the Y axis (vertical) and rhythm/meter would be the X axis (horizontal)
- Musical notation is basically a very simple graph
19:45 Rhythm Can Exist Without Melody, But Melody Cannot Exist Without Rhythm
- Because every musical note has a duration, that means every musical sound has a rhythm
- The rhythm could be irregular, it could not spell out a meter, but it is present
- Garrett brings up the importance of playing the right notes at the right time
- If you don't, even the right pitch sounds wrong!
21:25 - A Quick Review
- Pulse is like a heartbeat, a series of regular recurring beats, what you tap your toe to
- Meter is the organization of a pulse into strong and weak beats, and it's a structural idea like framing of a building
- Rhythm is the alternation of sound and silence and usually fits easily into a meter
- Rhythm and meter exist on a horizontal plane where pitch exists on a vertical plane
22:20 Listening Recommendations
- 22:23 Garrett's 1st Rhythm Pick: John Adams's "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" (1986)
- 25:48 Amanda's 1st Rhythm Pick: Giachino Rossini's "Wiliam Tell Overture" (1829)
- This selection is just the end of the overture. There's more to it!
- 28:04 Garrett's 2nd Rhythm Pick: Mars, The Bring of War from the Planets Suite by Gustav Holst (1918)
- 31:00 Garrett's 3rd Rhythm Pick: "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel (1970)
- 32:25 Amanda's 1st Meter Pick: Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (1913)
- 36:08 Garrett's 1st Meter Pick: "Only" by Nine Inch Nails (2005)
- 38:00 Amanda's 2nd Meter Pick: "Take Five" by Paul Desmond/The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959)
- 40:44 Amanda's 3rd Meter Pick: "Bubble Dream" by CHON (2013)
42:27 Answering Listener Questions!
- 42:52 Steven S. wants to know: What are some things that beginning musicians overlook when it comes to rhythm?
43:07 Amanda: They Don't Always Count the Rhythms
- Percussionists are taught to count rhythms very early on, but many wind players don't focus much on that
- Garrett points out that wind instruments aren't as tactile as percussion, so they don't learn to internalize rhythm as easily
- Wind players also have to focus on slide position/correct fingerings, intonation, articulation, style, and technical challenges specific to their instruments
- Amanda points out that it's not as if percussionists don't have to think about these things; they do, but they can conceive of them a little differently, and some of them are basically handled automatically depending on the percussion instrument
- Example 1: duration of single notes on snare drum, unless rolling;
- Example 2: intonation, unless playing timpani
42:24 Garrett: They Need to Consider Duration
- Lots of people don't truly understand durations of rhythms they're playing until late high school/college
- The ending of the note is just as important as the beginning
46:02 Amanda: The Silences Are Just As Important As the Notes
- The rests should be the easy part!
- Make sure you "don't play" just as accurately as you "do play"
46:24 Amanda's Soap Box: Counting triplets correctly!!! (For Musicians)
- Amanda does not care for tri-puh-let as a counting for three note groupings because you can easily forget which beat you're on
- Try 1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, 3-trip-let, etc.
- This reminds you which beat you're on so that you don't get lost when you have many triplets to play in a row!
- Garrett confesses blasphemy in this regard and Amanda chastises him lightly
- Amanda denounces using food names to teach and count rhythms
- students may morph the word into a new rhythm without realizing it
49:30 - Sign Off
- Please feel free to submit more questions if you'd like!
- Thanks so much for listening!
Spotify Playlist of this week's listening recommendations. Special thanks to OpenMusicRevolution.com for our intro and outro music and to the guys at Better Podcasting for being such great guides to us. Special thanks to you, our listeners, too!
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