Pulse, Tempo and Meter
Three words that get used as if they mean the same thing. The pulse is the steady beat you tap along to. The tempo is how fast that beat goes. The meter is how those beats get grouped. Move the tempo on one groove here and you will hear which of the three actually changed.
- steady beat
- beats per minute
- groups of 2, 3 or 4
which styles use it
Every style on this site
In short
The pulse is the beat your body finds without being asked. Tempo measures that pulse in beats per minute, so 120 bpm means two beats every second. Meter is the grouping your ear imposes on top: a repeating pattern of strong and weak beats, usually in twos, threes or fours. All three are present in any piece of music at once.
Tempo changes how a piece feels long before it changes anything you could write down. The same groove at 70 and at 130 is not the same music with a different number on it.
How to count it
- Find the pulse first
Tap along before you try to count. Your foot usually finds the beat faster than your head does.
- Then find beat one
Listen for where the pattern seems to restart. That is usually where the bass drum or the bass note lands.
- Then count the group
Count up from one until the restart comes round again. If you get to four and it restarts, you are in four.
Where you run into this
- When you join a band and someone counts in, they are giving you the tempo and the meter in one gesture.
- When a track feels rushed or dragging, it is usually a tempo choice rather than a playing mistake.
- When you cannot find beat one in a piece of music, that is almost always deliberate on the part of the writer.
Our own examples
The same groove at 70, 100 and 130 bpm, with nothing else altered. Then the same tempo counted in three and in four, so you hear the meter change while the clicks stay identical.
Keep going
Everything in rhythm
- Pulse, Tempo and Meter
- Time Signatures
- Note Values and Rests
- Hypermeter