成人快手

What is pulse?

An illustrated heart with Anna Meredith and two children pointing at it.

In music, the pulse is a special type of beat that is regular.

It's the heartbeat of a piece of music and similar to a ticking clock.

Have you ever wondered why people tap their foot or finger while listening to music?

We don't always hear the pulse in songs but we do feel it.

The pulse helps musicians all play a piece of music together. We call this playing in time.

An illustrated heart with Anna Meredith and two children pointing at it.
Kids from lightning jelly and thunder jam all walking and playing together as a marching band.

A marching band moves in time with the pulse of the music.

Listen to your favourite piece of music.

Can you tap your foot or finger in time with the pulse?

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Watch: Pulse and rhythm

Discover how pulse and rhythm work with Anna Meredith and Lightning Jelly.

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What is rhythm?

Rhythm is a pattern of sounds of different lengths.

The length of a sound is called the duration. A pattern of sounds of different durations makes a rhythm.

In a pulse, all the sounds are the same length. In a rhythm, the sounds are different lengths.

Musicians and composers can combine short and long durations to create rhythms like this.

Here's the same rhythm played on a bass drum.

Why not find two pencils to use as drum sticks and see if you can play your own rhythm!

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Activities

Is it pulse or rhythm?

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Pulse and rhythm quiz

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Bitesize Primary games. game

Play fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art, computing and modern languages.

Bitesize Primary games
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More on Playing and Performing

Find out more by working through a topic