Question

What is meant by the following terms: a) beat; b) subdivision; c) meter; d) accents; e) syncopation; and f) tempo

Answer 1

Answer:

(a) Beat: A beat defines the movement and speed of a rhythm. It describes the flow of the rhythm of a piece of music. There are various concepts related to beat such as tempo, groove and meter.

(b) Subdivision: Subdivision typically means dividing a large entity into smaller entities. In music, rhythms can be broken down into sub-sequences. For example, starting with a whole note, the note can be divided into quarter notes which can further be subdivided into eight notes and so on.

(c) Meter: A meter describes the structure of a beat. It is sometimes represented as the time signature of a song. It defines how many individual beats there would if one were clapping their hands to the beat of a song.

(d) Accents: Accents refer to the stress or emphasis laid on a chord or musical note. They are a large measuring factor in the articulation of a musical piece.

(e) Syncopation: In music, syncopation describes an element of surprise. It occurs when rhythmic patterns fall on weak beats (or weak parts of the beat) rather than on strong beats. These kind of rhythms are usually easy to sing but difficult to transcribe.

(f) Tempo: The tempo of a beat in music is typically the speed of the beat - how fast the beats are being played or sung. It is often measured in beats per minute (BPM). This means that tempo is the number of beats played per minute.