Metre
Metre orders the steady pulse into groups with recurring accents, for example in groups of two or three. It is the grid in which bar and rhythm take place. Pulse, metre and rhythm are often thrown together in everyday talk, but they mean three different things.
- Orders
- pulse beats into groups
- Examples
- groups of two (2/4), groups of three (3/4)
- Shows itself in
- the bar, the time signature
- Not the same as
- pulse and rhythm
Three terms that get confused
The building block Rhythm separates them explicitly: the pulse is the steady basic beat, the ticking of a clock. Metre orders these beats into regular groups with recurring accents. Rhythm is the concrete pattern of long and short notes played over this grid.
| Term | What it is | Picture of the ruler |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse | steady basic beat, what you clap along to | the evenly spaced marks |
| Metre | orders the beats into groups with recurring accents | the groups of marks making a centimetre |
| Rhythm | the concrete pattern of long and short notes over the grid | the freely drawn line |
The building block explains it with a picture: the pulse is the ruler with evenly spaced marks, the metre groups these marks into centimetres, the rhythm is the line you draw freely over the ruler, sometimes on the marks, sometimes between them. Exactly from this, it says, tension arises: the rhythm plays against and with the steady pulse.
Metre in the notation
The time signature is the way metre is written. The page Rhythm explains: the upper number says how many beats fit into a bar, the lower which note value forms a beat. In 4/4 time beat one is the strongest, in 3/4 time the pulse groups itself in threes. With 6/8 you count six eighth notes but usually hear two groups of three: the metre here lies not in the eighth notes but in the two leading beats.
Why there is no metre without a pulse
The article Why children learn rhythm through language names as a typical mistake not letting the pulse run along: rhythm words without a continuous basic beat would give a string of syllables, not metre. The pulse must always be there, as a step, as the group's clapping or as a drum.
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Related terms
Bar / measureTime signatureBeatThree-four timeSyncopationBarline
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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