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For other uses, see Pulse (disambiguation)

A repeating pulse represented graphically as on an oscilloscope.

The pulse is another name for the basic beat or tactus (Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983) of any piece of music, which listeners typically entrain to as they tap their feet.(Handel, 1989) ^[1] The pulse may be implied or audible, but has a regular periodicity, ideally consisting of a series of identical yet distinct short-duration stimuli ^[2]. The pulse therefore depends upon repetition.

The tempo of the piece is the speed of the pulse. A pulse which became too fast 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.^[3] "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 down.

When pulses are variously accented, this produces two- or three-pulse pulse groups such as strong-weak and strong-weak-weak ^[2]. In fact there is a natural tendency to perceptually group or differentiate beats in this way, as when we hear a stream of identical clock-ticks as "tick-tock-tick-tock". Any longer group may be broken into such groups of two and three. A repetitive, regularly-accented pulse-group is called a meter. Pulse groups may be distinguished as synchronous, if all pulses on slower levels coincide with those on faster levels, and nonsynchronous, if not.

[edit] Sources

^ Fitch, W. Tecumseh and Rosenfeld, Andrew J. (2007). "Perception and Production of Syncopated Rhythms", p.44, Music Perception, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 43–58, ISSN 0730-7829.
^ ^a ^b DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, chap. 3. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
^ P. Fraisse, Les Structures Rhythmiques, Erasme Paris 1956, H Woodrow Time Perception in "A Handbook of Experimental Psychology", ed. S.S. Stevens, Wiley, NY 1951, both quoted at http://www.zeuxilogy.home.ro/media/manifesto.pdf

[edit] External links

1200 exercises for practicing pulses (notes and MIDI)

[0] Fitch, W. Tecumseh and Rosenfeld, Andrew J. (2007). "Perception and Production of Syncopated Rhythms", p.44, Music Perception, Vol. 25, Issue 1, pp. 43–58, ISSN 0730-7829.

[DeLone-1] DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, chap. 3. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.

[2] P. Fraisse, Les Structures Rhythmiques, Erasme Paris 1956, H Woodrow Time Perception in "A Handbook of Experimental Psychology", ed. S.S. Stevens, Wiley, NY 1951, both quoted at http://www.zeuxilogy.home.ro/media/manifesto.pdf

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