Musical Meter Definition
A musical meter can be defined by two related concepts in music theory: the breaking up of a given piece into bars or measures, and the arrangement within the bars or measures that determines the song's rhythm. The meter assigns the quantity of beats and each note's time value that gives a piece its rhythmic pattern.
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Strong and Weak Beats
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Meter plots out the strong and weak beats in a musical composition that cause listeners to tap their feet or clap their hands. Meter also guides dancers and gives distinction to a musical selection. Most Western music is based on these beats.
Types
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A duple meter follows a strong-weak-strong-week scheme. Triple meter sounds like a strong-weak-weak-strong-weak-weak pattern. The third most common type of meter is quadruple, which can be identified by its strong-weak-weak-weak beats.
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Musical Education
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Learning to identify these beat rhythms is an early step in musical education. Meter is a useful way of organizing rhythm.
Conductors
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Conductors of orchestras and symphonies guide musicians based on the meter.
Etymology
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The term meter comes from the concept of rhythmic element in poetry that describes such things as syllable arrangement and the number of lines in a verse.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit musical notes a treble image by Alexandr Shebanov from Fotolia.com
