Definition of Rhythm, Vibration
Rhythm in Music
Music consists of a combination of three core components: melody, harmony, and rhythm. A song’s rhythmic structure dictates when notes are played, for how long, and with what degree of emphasis.
What Is Rhythm in Music?
Rhythm is the pattern of sound, silence, and emphasis in a song. In music theory, rhythm refers to the recurrence of notes and rests (silences) in time. When a series of notes and rests repeats, it forms a rhythmic pattern. In addition to indicating when notes are played, musical rhythm also stipulates how long they are played and with what intensity. This creates different note durations and different types of accents.
Why Is Rhythm Important in Music?
Rhythm functions as the propulsive engine of a piece of music, and it gives a composition structure. Most musical ensembles contain a rhythm section responsible for providing the rhythmic backbone for the entire group. Drums, percussion, bass, guitar, piano, and synthesizer may all be considered rhythm instruments, depending on the context. However, all members of a music group bear responsibility for their own rhythmic performances and play the musical beats and rhythmic patterns indicated by the piece's composer.
7 Elements of Rhythm in Music
Several core elements comprise the fundamentals of musical rhythm.
- Time signature: A musical time signature indicates the number of beats per measure. It also indicates how long these beats last. In a time signature with a 4 on the bottom (such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, etc.), a beat corresponds with a quarter note. So in a 4/4 time (also known as "common time"), each beat is the length of a quarter note, and every four beats form a full measure. In 5/4 time, every five beats form a full measure. In a time signature with an 8 on the bottom (such as 3/8, 6/8, or 9/8), a beat corresponds with an eighth note.
- Meter: Standard Western music theory divides time signatures into three types of musical meter: duple meter (where beats appear in groups of two), triple meter (where beats appear in groups of three), and quadruple meter (where beats appear in groups of four). Meter is not tied to note values; for instance, a triple meter could involve three half notes, three quarter notes, three eighth notes, three sixteenth notes, or three notes of any duration. Musicians and composers regularly mix duple and triple meter in their work; Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" is a textbook example of such a technique.
- Tempo: Tempo is the speed at which a piece of music is played. There are three primary ways that tempo is communicated to players: beats per minute, Italian terminology, and modern language. Beats per minute (or BPM) indicates the number of beats in one minute. Certain Italian words like largo, andante, allegro, and presto convey tempo change by describing the speed of the music. Finally, some composers indicate tempo with casual English words such as “fast,” “slow,” “lazy,” “relaxed,” and “moderate.”
- Strong beats and weak beats: Rhythm combines strong beats and weak beats. Strong beats include the first beat of each measure (the downbeat), as well as other heavily accented beats. Both popular music and classical music combine strong beats and weak beats to create memorable rhythmic patterns.
- Syncopation: Syncopated rhythms are those that do not align with the downbeats of individual measures. A syncopated beat will put its emphasis on traditional weak beats, such as the second eighth note in a measure of 4/4. Complex rhythms tend to include syncopation. While these rhythms may be more difficult for a beginning musician to pick up, they tend to sound more striking than non-syncopated rhythmic patterns.
- Accents: Accents refer to special emphases on certain beats. To understand accents, think of a piece of poetry. A poetic meter, such as iambic pentameter, may dictate a specific mixture of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables. Musical accents are no different. Different rhythms may share a time signature and tempo, but they stand out from one another by accenting different notes and beats.
- Polyrhythms: To achieve a particularly ambitious sense of rhythm, an ensemble may employ polyrhythm, which layers one type of rhythm on top of another. For instance, a salsa percussion ensemble may feature congas and bongos playing 4/4 time, while the timbales concurrently play a pattern in 3/8. This creates a dense rhythmic stew and, when properly executed, it can yield incredibly danceable rhythm patterns. Polyrhythms originated in African drumming, and they’ve spread to all sorts of genres worldwide, from Afro-Caribbean to Indian to progressive rock, jazz, and contemporary classical.
Rhythm and Harmony
According to William Russo harmonic rhythm is, "the duration of each different chord...in a succession of chords."[3] According to Joseph Swain (2002 p. 4) harmonic rhythm, "is simply that perception of rhythm that depends on changes in aspects of harmony." According to Walter Piston (1944), "the rhythmic life contributed to music by means of the underlying changes of harmony. The pattern of the harmonic rhythm of a given piece of music, derived by noting the root changes as they occur, reveals important and distinctive features affecting the style and texture."[4]
Strong harmonic rhythm is characterized by strong root progressions and emphasis of root positions, weak contrapuntal bass motion, strong rhythmic placement in the measure (especially downbeat), and relatively longer duration.[5]
"The 'fastness' or 'slowness' of harmonic rhythm is not absolute, but relative,"[6][self-published source] and thus analysts compare the overall pace of harmonic rhythm from one piece to another, or the amount of variation of harmonic rhythm within a piece. For example, a key stylistic difference between Baroque music and Classical-period music is that the latter exhibits much more variety of harmonic rhythm, even though the harmony itself is less complex.
Rhythm in Arts
A pattern has rhythm, but not all rhythm is patterned. For example, the colors of a piece can convey rhythm, by making your eyes travel from one component to another. Lines can produce a rhythm by implying movement. Forms, too, can cause rhythm by the ways in which they're placed one next to the other.
Really, it's easier to "see" rhythm in just about anything other than the visual arts. This is particularly true for those of us who tend to take things literally. Yet, if we study art we can find a rhythm in the style, technique, brush strokes, colors, and patterns that artists use.
Rhythm of the Heart
The heart rhythm is the pattern in which the heart beats. It may be described as regular or irregular, or fast or slow.
The heart's normal rhythm is called sinus rhythm. Its rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm) while you are resting. If the sinus rhythm is slower than 60 bpm, it is called sinus bradycardia. If the sinus rhythm is faster than 100 bpm, it is called sinus tachycardia.
The heart is a pump that is driven by a series of electrical impulses produced by a bunch of special cells in the right atrium, called the sinus node. The sinus node is sometimes called the heart’s ‘natural pacemaker’.
The sinus node produces pulses of electrical activity that spread through the heart’s cells, causing the heart muscle to contract. When the electrical signals travel through your heart, it’s like electricity going down a circuit of wires.
The electrical impulses from the sinus node travel down through the atria to special cells in the AV node. These impulses make the atria contract. This squeezes blood into the ventricles (the two lower chambers of the heart).
The impulses then travel from the AV node through the ventricles via an electrical pathway. These electrical impulses cause the ventricles to contract and squeeze the blood out of your heart to your body and your lungs.
Rhythm of Breathing
The most efficient way to breathe is by bringing the air down toward the belly. As the diaphragm contracts, the belly expands to fill the lungs with air. “Belly breathing” is efficient because it pulls the lungs downward, creating negative pressure inside the chest. This brings air into the lungs.
Rhythm in the Universe
Every motion in the universe depends on certain laws, which we try to explain with mathematical formulas. Rhythm is an expression of motion with numbers - it is the language of numbers.
It is possible to study natural sciences thanks to this orderly flow in existence and the prevalent laws. Rhythms that appear through existential motions in the universe are like the harmonious sounds made by hitting musical instruments at certain intervals. Electrons revolve around the nucleus, the moon around the world, and the world around the sun.
As planets have been moving like whirling dervishes around the sun for millions of years, the Milky Way and billions of galaxies in the universe constantly keep turning in space, whose boundaries we are unable to define, in a realm of ether. As the world completes rotating around its own axis in 24 hours, it orbits around the sun with a speed of 30 km/hr and it does not even make a second's delay in completing its yearly tour. A crowded family formed by the other nearby worlds and their satellites are travelling toward the Vega system with a speed of 220 km/second. Thanks to this rhythmic order, the orbits of planets and their positions at a given date, the times for lunar and solar eclipses, and changes with the length of days and nights, can be predicted years in advance, or calculated for historical times. The repetitive nature of these movements and continuity of the present order, for millions of years, show that everything depends on a certain plan and law, and that nothing acts on its own. There is no place for coincidence when things happen within a frame of laws, where order and rhythm exist.
The continuity of existence depends on the repetition of existing motions within a certain period - namely, on rhythmical motion. The cessation of motion in the cosmos would mean the non-existence of rhythm. It is not possible to talk about rhythm without motion and activity. This movement in existence must have a meaning and purpose. It is exceedingly difficult to explain, with physical laws, why existence came to be and the purpose in this motion. In addition, why this motion began and how long it will last, cannot solely be explained with physical laws. However, there is great meaning in this harmonious turning; an unbroken bond in existence, and a unity. Everything uses a silent language to give a meaningful message to insightful hearts. Then, how is this message supposed to be read and understood?
As we understand from holy scriptures, existence is made subservient to humanity. Existence stands as a means for human comprehension of the meaning within. A person who can view existence with eyes of wisdom and manages to hear creation's silent melody becomes enraptured with this rhythm and feels like a whirling dervish awed by the Divine.
Life Cycle of a Star
Nuclear reactions at the centre (or core) of a star provides energy which makes it shine brightly. This stage is called the 'main sequence'. The exact lifetime of a star depends very much on its size. Very massive stars use up their fuel quickly. This means they may only last a few hundred thousand years. Smaller stars use up fuel more slowly so will shine for several billion years.
Eventually, the hydrogen which powers the nuclear reactions inside a star begins to run out. The star then enters the final phases of its lifetime. All stars will expand, cool and change colour to become a red giant. What happens next depends on how massive the star is.
A smaller star, like the Sun, will gradually cool down and stop glowing. During these changes it will go through the planetary nebula phase, and white dwarf phase. After many thousands of millions of years it will stop glowing and become a black dwarf.
A massive star experiences a much more energetic and violent end. It explodes as a supernova. This scatters materials from inside the star across space. This material can collect in nebulae and form the next generation of stars. After the dust clears, a very dense neutron star is left behind. These spin rapidly and can give off streams of radiation, known as pulsars.
If the star is especially massive, when it explodes it forms a black hole.
Rhythm in Nature
Natural rhythms guide all that we do – our very existence. Our breath and heartbeat are constant reminders of life’s pulsing rhythm that moves within and around us.
Our lives are orchestrated or guided by the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, the changes in temperature from day to night and from season to season, the tidal ebb and flow, and by our own internal rhythm. These rhythms guide our daily activity.
Not only are there external rhythms and cycles, there are also rhythms and cycles in our own lives. Women, more than men are affected by the daily and monthly cycles that guide our energy, moods and sleep. When our rhythms are in sync, life flows easily – we have more energy and tend to view things more positively, and we are more socially connected and find life more satisfying.
The body rhythms are called circadian rhythms. These signal and affect every aspect of our life, for example, they govern when to wake up, to sleep, to be active and they determine how much energy we have. They play a role in our socializing – they influence how we socialize and how we feel.
These circadian rhythms are as predictable as clockwork – that is why we are said to have a bodyclock.
Our life has a rhythm of its own and the stages of our life from
Aging - Natural stage of life
babyhood, through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood, and aging, show us that we have a life cycle of which birth and death are a part. The slow movement is about being aware of and connecting to these rhythms and cycles, and working with them instead of against them or in ignorance of them.
Many people live their lives cut off from the natural rhythms and cycles of nature and of their own bodies. They no longer get up with the sun, and they may stay up till the wee hours of the morning. Their pace of life is such that it is inconsequential whether it is night or day or winter or summer. The phases of the moon go unnoticed. Even the stages of their own life go unnoticed. This plays havoc with their bodyclocks. Their erratic stressful lives are in a state of arrhythmia. Arrhythmia is a term used to refer to the disorders of the regular beating of the heart, for example wild erratic beating, slow uneven beating.
Traditionally all cultures have lived in harmony with the natural rhythms and cycles and have included celebrations, festivals and outdoor events to reinforce their occurrence. Most of these are now lost to our current consumeristic, success oriented lives.
We can bring these traditions back by marking them with some activity. For example, we could hold an organic dinner party for friends to mark the solstices and equinoxes. A way to notice and be in tune with the seasons and diurnal rhythms is to start a vegie garden. Not only will you connect to your food source, you will connect more easily with these life rhythms.
More than ever before our children and ourselves, need to be part of the slow movement and live in tune with the natural rhythms and cycles that have guided our evolution for the past 2 billion years. We need to connect to life.
Rhythm of Brain and Neurons
Brain Rhythms refer to distinct patterns of massed neuronal activity associated with specific behaviors, arousal level and sleep states. They are typically measured by the electroencephalogram (EEG) and/or neuronal population field recordings.
EEG rhythms can be broadly divided into those associated with an awake or activated brain and those associated with different stages of sleep
Wakefulness is accompanied by fast, low-amplitude brain rhythms that are further segregated into “alpha” (alpha rhythm) (8–13 Hz), “beta” (13–35 Hz) and “gamma” waves (35 Hz and higher)
Beta (beta rhythm) and gamma (gamma rhythm) waves are typically observed in alert wakefulness and during REM sleep while alpha waves are associated with quiet arousal – commonly with the eyes closed.
Rhythm in Quatum Physics
Quantum states are wave-like in nature and so have an inherent phase. The key to synchronization is to establish a fixed relationship among these phases. In 2018, researchers mathematically showed that the simplest system in which this could be achieved is one with three energy levels (see Viewpoint: No Synchronization for Qubits).
To test this idea, Arif Laskar of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and colleagues set up about a million rubidium atoms in the middle state of three hyperfine states with no particular phase relationship. They then fired a light pulse at the atoms, which stored the pulse in a superposition of these states. Upon retrieving the stored pulse, the researchers observed interference fringes that indicated that the phases of the atoms’ hyperfine states had synchronized.
It’s unclear if the atoms influenced each other or responded individually, but the researchers say they were not simply forced by a periodic external impetus. Rather, the effect is similar to fireflies keeping time with a flashing LED or a pendulum matching a gentle tap on a wall. They also note that, contrary to intuition, engineered quantum decoherence somehow helped the synchronization. From here, they would like to look for collective effects, much like a swarm of synchronized fireflies generates new emergent patterns.