rhythms

Rhythms are patterns of sounds and silences arranged in time. They provide the temporal organization that underpins music, speech, dance, and many natural processes. A rhythm is described by the timing and duration of events relative to a regular pulse, or beat, and by how those timings interact with underlying meters and tempo. Rhythm differs from tempo, which indicates speed, and from meter, which groups beats into regular units.

In music, rhythm structures how pitches unfold. A beat serves as a steady pulse; tempo designates speed; meter arranges beats into measures. Note durations, rests and ties create rhythmic values such as whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes. Common time signatures, like 4/4 or 3/4, indicate how many beats per measure and which note gets the beat. Rhythmic devices include repetition (ostinato), accent shifts (syncopation), and simultaneous competing rhythms (polyrhythm).

Beyond music, rhythm appears in poetry and speech through stress, syllable length, and timing. It also guides movement in dance and affects motor coordination in sports and fitness. In biology, rhythmic cycles govern living organisms, including circadian rhythms (approximately 24 hours), ultradian rhythms (shorter cycles), and infradian rhythms (longer cycles).

Rhythms can be regular, with predictable patterns, or irregular and complex, as in many folk, jazz, or contemporary styles. They can be notated in musical scores or improvised in performance. The study of rhythm spans fields such as music theory, ethnomusicology, linguistics, and chronobiology, and it intersects with cognitive questions about beat perception, entrainment, and timing accuracy.