Learning Music: Beat and tempo

An interactive introduction to beats and tempo, with related lessons on bars, patterns and song structure.

How to study this source

• How do repetition and variation shape attention?

  coreBeat and tempo; then Bars and Play with beats from the lesson menu. Use the interactive examples with sound, or follow the written beat patterns.

  Separate the steady beat from the pattern played over it. Change one element at a time and compare what you hear.

Ideas and questions

Read background definitions when a term blocks the argument. Then return to the source and reconstruct its claim in your own words.

Read alongside, read against