What is Rhythm? The Definition and Meaning of Rhythm

Violin with bow and music sheet

Rhythm is Movement

When people talk about rhythm, they’re usually referencing Newton’s first law of motion: every body perseveres in its state of  rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon. In other words, things keep on repeating what they’re doing over and over and thus form a groove or rhythmic cycle. This is explained in Level 1 of the Sound Formation Method™. When sports commentators discuss competitors being “in their rhythm,” they mean consistency of performance.

Sometimes people think they have “no rhythm,” which essentially means difficulty in perceiving and performing strong forceful movements in time. You can see how these aspects correspond to the Principles of Rhythm as taught in the Sound Formation Method™:

Essential Principles of Rhythm

#1 Rhythm is about Repetition (Cycles, time signatures, rhythmic figures, steadiness)

#2 Rhythm is Percussive (short/precise and forceful)

#3 Rhythm is about Space

#4 Rhythm is about Placement

Understanding these principles is essential for effective rhythmic practice and the underutilization of any of these leads to weak and ineffective training that yields poor or limited results.

The word rhythm comes from the Greek rhuthmos related to rhein which means “to flow.” Rhythm has two main aspects: a continuous flow and discrete or individual pinpoints. The Rhythm Compass™ is incredibly helpful as it depicts both of these aspects.

Rhythm as Movement

If you have difficulty perceiving or performing rhythmic movements in time due to lack of coordination or poor proprioception, this can be alleviate through studying biomechanics and Liangong along with a music teacher that understands the correlations of technique, proper mechanics, and rhythmic feel.

Rhythm as Repetition

Repeating the same thing over and over creates habit, groove, and if practicing correctly mastery. When studying one rhythmic shape at a time and repeating it over and over, you build a rhythmic vocabulary which becomes a tremendous asset in ear training, writing music, and reading music. Often in sports when a player is playing very consistently at a high level and making no mistakes commentators will say they’ve “found their rhythm.” They are speaking directly to the aspect of rhythm which is about repetition, hence consistency.

Rhythm as Percussiveness

A number of musical instruments can be performed in a non-percussive way, i.e. long tones and slurred notes. Contrast this with a snare drum which contains short, sharp, and precise sounds and it becomes clear why drummers have a huge advantage in developing rhythmic abilities. For this reason it’s absolutely necessary to train on hand-percussion to develop your rhythmic feel.

Rhythm as Space

Not understanding how to perceive space in rhythm can be a huge issue for many music students. There is a huge amount of material on this one topic alone in every book of the Sound Formation Method™. There are entire categories of rhythms that are created solely from space.

Rhythm as Placement

Rhythm is about placement of notes. Placement creates alignments, cohesion with other musicians, displacements, and rhythmic shapes. Learn more about Madigan’s comprehensive theory of rhythm.