Appendix 3: Musical vocabulary - Tempo, metre and rhythm — Edexcel GCSE Music

These three terms describe different layers of timing, and questions often test whether you can keep them apart. Tempo is simply how fast the music goes: a slow chorale, a quick dance or a lively march all differ in tempo, and you may meet it as a word (adagio, allegro) or a metronome mark. Metre is the recurring pattern of strong and weak beats, usually shown by a time signature. In 2/4 there are two crotchet beats per bar: beat one is strong, beat two weak. Rhythm is the broadest idea: how sounds are arranged in time, including the actual note values and familiar groupings such as dotted rhythms. So a piece can keep one metre and one tempo while its rhythm changes constantly.

Underlying most music is a regular beat, much like a steady pulse. These beats are gathered into small groups called bars. Within a bar the beats are not equal in weight: the first beat is typically strong or accented, and the last beat is typically weak or unaccented. This pattern of stress is what listeners feel as the metre. Not every sound has to fall on a beat, however. Some rhythms deliberately place notes between or away from the main beats, and this off-the-beat placing is linked to syncopation. So when you answer, separate three ideas: the steady pulse, the grouping of beats into bars with strong and weak positions, and rhythms that avoid the beat.

A dotted rhythm pairs a dotted note with a shorter note, and the two together fill a complete beat or a whole number of beats. The dot adds half the value of the note it follows, so a dotted crotchet lasts a crotchet plus a quaver (1½ beats in 4/4), and the following quaver completes the two-beat group. The same pattern can repeat across several successive pairs, giving a running dotted feel, as in a march or a gigue. To identify it, check that the long note carries a dot, that the short note follows immediately, and that long plus short equals a whole beat or whole beats. A dotted note standing alone, or a pair that does not add up to complete beats, is not the usual dotted rhythm.

This vocabulary entry defines duration: in rhythmic terms, the length of a note — how long it sounds or is held. Duration is measured in note values such as the semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver and semiquaver, and their dotted or tied combinations. It is distinct from pitch (how high or low) and from tempo (how fast the beat moves): a crotchet keeps its relative value whatever the speed. To work with duration, read the note head and stem, apply any dot or tie, and count the resulting beats within the metre. For example, in 4/4 a minim lasts two beats and a dotted minim three. Recognising duration underpins accurate rhythm reading, performing and describing music.

The shuffle rhythm imitates a dance step in which the foot lands long, then lifts short, so the music pairs a longer note with a shorter one. The defining method is to divide each beat into a triplet (three equal subdivisions) and then join the first two thirds into one sound and leave the final third as the short note. The result is a long–short pairing inside each triplet grouping, often written as a crotchet–quaver pair marked with a triplet bracket or as a dotted rhythm. It gives a lilting, walking feel rather than the even tread of straight quavers. Recognise it by ear: the first note of each group is held noticeably longer than the second, and the pattern repeats steadily. Contrast it with a plain triplet, where all three notes are equal, and with straight quavers, which divide the beat into two equal halves.

This term names a jazz style whose defining rhythmic feature is swing: pairs of notes written as equal quavers are performed with the first held longer and the second shorter, echoing a triplet feel. The style is identified by that swung pulse, a steady walking bass and a relaxed, lilting momentum rather than rigid even quavers. To recognise it, listen for the unequal 'long–short' lilt across the beat and a sense of forward drive. Distinguish it from styles that keep straight, even quavers, and from the shuffle, which is a specific long–short rhythm within triplet groupings. In a multiple-choice question, match the description of swung rhythms to the jazz style rather than to a non-jazz genre or a straight-quaver style.

This describes swing or 'swung' rhythm, common in jazz. Two notes written with equal value, usually a pair of quavers, are performed so the first is held longer and the second is shortened, giving a lilting, unequal feel rather than a strict 1:1 division. The total duration stays roughly the same; only the balance between the two notes changes. A useful method is to say the pair as 'long–short' rather than 'short–short'. Recognise it by ear: the pulse feels triplet-based and relaxed, not square. In a multiple-choice question, match the description to 'swung' or 'swing' rhythm and reject options about tempo change, dotted rhythm written literally, or syncopation, which shifts accents rather than lengthening the first of a pair.

Metre sets up an expected pattern of strong and weak positions: in simple quadruple the first and third beats are normally strong, in triple the first beat is strong, and within a beat the first subdivision is stronger than the second. Syncopation happens when a composer or performer places a stressed note where the metre would normally be weak — for example accenting the second quaver of a beat, tying a note across the barline so the strong beat is silent, or accenting beat 2 in 4/4. The stress can come from an accent mark, a longer note value, a change of pitch or articulation, or the natural emphasis of a melody. The effect is to disturb or play with the expected pulse, common in jazz, pop, reggae and much twentieth-century music.

A triplet is a group of three notes of equal value fitted into the time normally taken by two notes of that same written value. For example, three quavers in a triplet occupy the space of two ordinary quavers, so the triplet quavers are played faster than normal quavers. The same definition can be expressed another way: the three notes fill the time of one undotted note of the next highest value. So three triplet quavers fill one undotted crotchet, and three triplet crotchets fill one undotted minim. A triplet is shown by a bracket or slur with the figure 3. To perform one, divide the prevailing beat into three equal parts and keep each part exactly equal, so the group still fits the underlying pulse. Recognise triplets by ear and in notation, and distinguish them from ordinary groups of two or four notes.