Talk:Pulse (music)

Too technical

 * Technical

What is difficult to understand? I assume the definition, so here goes: "In other words a pulse is the steady and regularly repetition of a short sound without pause or interruption." How's that? Hyacinth 11:18, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

A few examples would help a lot.68.214.176.57 01:16, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

The following is beyond my understanding:


 * An isochronal or equally spaced rhythm is one that uses varied pulse groups (rather than just one pulse group the whole piece) to create a pulse on the (slower) multiple level that is non-isochronal (a stream of 2+3... at the eighth note level would create a pulse of a quarter note+dotted quarter note as its multiple level).

Redheylin (talk) 21:33, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

synch and nonsynch
Article says "Pulse groups may be distinguished as synchronous, if all pulses on slower levels coincide with those on faster levels, and nonsynchronous, if not."

what are levels? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.240.5.138 (talk) 07:10, 23 April 2010 (UTC)


 * The author is referring to the figure which shows multiple levels. I've just edited it to say that, and made it so that it starts a new paragraph, for clarity. Robert Walker (talk)

Sense and nonsense
The opening, I'm afraid, contains nonsense: "identical yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time[1] occurring at the mensural level. 'This pulse is typically what listeners entrain to ...'"

Why does the beat necessarily need stimuli if it's entrained to? Tony (talk)  08:35, 26 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for quoting the article, giving some indication of what needs clarification. If there is no stimuli then there is nothing to entrain to (synchrony requires at least two parts in coordination). Entrainment may continue or linger after stimuli stops or changes, but if one entrains without stimuli one is making subjective/arbitrary groupings (or responding to hallucination). I wouldn't say that a single error or unclear point makes nonsense. Hyacinth (talk) 02:05, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
 * But it's a basic issue, right at the top. See Marie R. Jones 1981, 1986, and especially 1990. London 2012 (2004) explains it more broadly as a two-phase discovery–generation process right at the start of a movement, where the listener "discovers" the various layers of relatively short, regular metric cycles (beat divisions, beats, downbeats) within seconds of the opening, then generates privileged time-points in the near future on that basis. Temperley (2000) famously wrote that even if the content goes against this temporarily, the beat, at least, stays fixed in entrainment. So if "stimuli" are to be even mentioned at the top, this process needs to be explained. It's well-accepted in the lit. Yes, sorry about "nonsense". Tony (talk)  23:55, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

This is a very important area that needs much more work
The opening is very confusing: "In music and music theory, the pulse consists of beats".

But linked article for "beats" says: "Meter is the measurement of the number of pulses between more or less regularly recurring accents."

The first states has pulse as a singular noun that "consists of beats", which the second article uses pulses as individual singular nouns, like beats themselves. I'm hoping for a list of terms (beat, tempo, tactus, pulse, etc.) and their definitions but the terms should at least be used consistently across entries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevintimba (talk • contribs) 05:04, 22 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Sure is a mess. Tony (talk)  10:46, 24 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks to Occurring for an attempt to improve the opening. I believe it's partially successful, but is not yet ideal.
 * I don't know what you mean by "conceptual", in this context.
 * Is "regular" different from "uniform"?
 * What's the difference between "foundation", "reference", and "anchor". Why doesn't the bar rank do this too?
 * "And nearly always, the pulse remains uniform"—consider mentioning that pulse can be artistically distorted, but not so much as to confuse the listener?
 * "several beats straight"—unsure what that means.
 * Does the pulse or the listener predict?

Tony (talk)  12:41, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Tony, I had failed to mention here that I promptly revised the lead in effort to address your critique. Today, I've further revised the lead simply to make a sentence more readable. — Occurring (talk) 20:20, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I had a go at the first two sentences. Is it ok? Tony (talk)  07:27, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Closing Ref tag
There was an error about a tag missing, so I just added it. But I think that by doing so, I also changed the layout of the page. Vincent-vst — Preceding undated comment added 05:28, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

Why does this article exist?
Specifically, how does pulse differ from beat? Tony (talk)  04:17, 13 December 2023 (UTC)